I hope the pumps at NOLA are in excellent working order.
I hope the pumps at NOLA are in excellent working order.
seeya
dan
I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.
Supposed to go Northwest into Ark which badly needs rain. We are on the east side of the storm so we will get maybe 10-12 inches of rain and winds, like doc got on the east side in Florida.
Originally Posted by Lfbj00
Doc, is your house OK? Sounds like it's between your development and the main road but the house is OK?
Yes, we are good. They opened the development front gate of our development, as the waters have receded so now we can get to our house. My daughters boyfriend's car is toast though as he sucked water thru the engine and poss bent the rods. 21 year old kids never listen (I told him not to try to drive thru the floodwater). Saved any flooding in my house by about a half inch as the flood waters had made it to the tracks of the sliding glass doors but not above the lip bottom of the tile. Kids had no school and my wife had the day off as well. Good thing about storms is they suck the weather out once they get thru.
They are a lot better prepared today than they were seven years ago. Not there seven years ago was a massive structure with 11 flood gates and eight massive pipes connected to pumps at the 17th Street Canal district--the ones where the levees breached.
Each pipe has the capacity to pump out more than 8,000 gallons of water.
Each second.
Can you imagine something like that? Of course, the idiots in New Orleans will think this makes them bullet-proof now, when in fact, it's just a better preparation.
My family members are there; I'm sure we'll be touching base with them late tonight and tomorrow. My in-laws live on Lake Pontchartrain. I have walked from their house with the kids to the lake, literally less than 1/2 block to the levee, many times, and walked around the Lake. Fortunately, they have never flooded. But it scares me to death.
My father-in-law is in Houston right now on business, and mother-in-law at least has gone to stay with my sister-in-law in Metairie--who, coincidentally, *did* have flooding from Katrina on her street. Go figure.
Anyway, they are hunkering down and ready to roll with the hurricane. I don't know, the rain in a slow-moving "1" would bother me more than the winds in a fast moving "3," but they typically stay for "1" and "2" hurricanes; leave on "3."
Katrina was a man-made disaster. A levee failure of sorts, either by failure of the earthen levee, or by the barge that helped to break the earthen levee.
I've heard conjecture on news broadcasts today that 20 inches of rain in 24 hrs will innundate the West bank levee which hasn't been upgraded at this point, by as much as 3 feet.
Torrential rain is always the issue for New Orleans, not the wind. It wasn't in Katrina, and it will not be with this one either. Moving the water there is a shell game, fresh water rises on Ponchartrain and Borgne, sea water surges from outside the system.
I love New Orleans, but I could never live there due to this issue...
Lived there for five years, and hunkered down one hurricane--stayed with my (future) in-laws while I was dating my now-wife.
They've been there for 70+ years. Sorta build in a budget-line item for evacuation expenses annually. We enjoy it when they evacuate to Birmingham, which is 5-1/2 hours away or so, and we get to visit. Of course, remember the budget--they make sure they evacuate to a Birmingham HOTEL, and not to the Cartwright Residence Inn.
Love to visit The Big Easy. You just won't find much that tops the local seafood or local flair.. Did you buy any lottery tickets while you were there Darrell? You sure had good luck there
I did have great luck there, but no lottery winnings, unfortunately. It's why I drive a 20-year old Volvo. Well, that and five kids.
looks like its just about to make landfall.
Jazy, went with me on a tour of my aunt's old neighborhood on the Lakefront in NOLA when we were there for the Final Four this spring. It was the first time I had returned there since Katrina. I wasn't adequately prepared for what I witnessed. (I thought I was). I had been in her home dozens of times and as a kid would stay there for a couple of weeks each summer and sometimes a week at spring break. I knew the neighborhood like the back of my hand as we were always riding bicycles all over town. As we drove down Robert E Lee Blvd. I had to read every sign to find out where I was. Seven years later there was nothing recognizable. The street was a bit rough, not the smooth concrete I used to love riding on.
Her house ran a block south of the Boulevard. When we came to the connector street I ran right by it as there was no sign. I finally figured out I went too far and turned at another street. We came to Aviator St and I didn't recognize anything. Only at Jazy's urging did I go down the street. The street was really rough. Slabs of concrete had heaved and I had to drive around many of them. Even at that it was extremely bumpy. There were very few houses on the street. What was once a beautiful upper middle class neighborhood with beautiful houses and neatly groomed lawns was a battle zone. When I came to about where I thought her house used to be, there was only one house on the south side of the street. After a few minutes I determined it was her house but it was unrecognizable. The brick was covered with a heavy dark gray masonry type of bonding or paint. What used to be a lovely old brick was a masonry mess. The once well kept front lawn was dark gray bare earth. The Pacquette's house next door was no more. Mr. Pacquette was an artist and designed all of the posters for Mardi Gras. He had all of the orignials for over 20 years stored in his attic. Not only were they gone, but so was the house. It was a sickening site.
The New Orleans I knew as a kid was completely gone. It was almost as though it never existed. I wish all of the folks there the very best. No one needs to go through such devastation twice in a lifetime.
Fortunately it did not develop as quickly as predicted and looks like it won't get above a Cat 1. Those are definitely not a huge concern wind wise however the slow movement (10 mph) isn't a good thing especially for a city like New Orleans which is basically a bowl that sits below sea level. Hopefully the pumps can keep up. I hope they have been running full bore for the last couple days.
Last edited by Doc; 08-28-2012 at 03:37 PM.
Right now the sun is out and a beautiful afternoon, but it is coming and soon, lots of rain. And we are on the NE side of things so we have to be on the watch for tornados, lots of rain, but the winds shouldn't be really bad this time. NO was getting lots of rain and wind early this morning according to a UK friend that lives there.
Storm has slightly moved west, will pass between NO and BR but closer to BR, has slowed down. Over 50,000 w/o power in La right now and it hasn't even come ashore yet. NO and BR are expected to get between 22 and 25" of rain. Miss coast about 10" of rain plus the surge of water.
Family has been without power for an hour already in New Orleans.
It's 1:10 a.m. CT, and Isaac is stationary, dumping a lot of rain in the area. Sister-in-law texted at 8 p.m. CT and said they were without power. Texted around 11 and said the wind had picked up some, but wasn't bad. Don't think the wind will be an issue for them, but worried about the rain.
Water is over a levee in Belle Chase area, which is on the west bank across from the city. so far pumps are working, Miss coast is getting pounded by wind and rain. Thing is just sitting there. We still don't have any rain in Jackson because of the slow movement.
This thing is moving so slow, and raining like crazy. Winds are still going out over the gulf and then bringing in more moisture, could rain for days
Heard one man report he saw water coming thru the bricks of his house and water coming thru the electric outlets in Belle Chase, on the west bank in New Olreans.
Some really terrible flooding in LaPlace tonight ....tornadoes in SE Mississippi too. Rough day.
Funny video my sister-in-law sent me; the one that lives in Houma, La.
Isaac's eye went right through Houma. She said it wasn't bad; Houma is something like 30 miles inland and they never leave. Anyway, Isaac--which was not known for its winds--somehow picked up her daughter's trampoline, carried it over a 6-foot fence in the back yard, and placed it--apparently pretty gently--right side up in her front yard. Crazy. Even crazier, as she has trees all around, and if it had gotten much higher than just barely over the fence, it would have gone up into the trees.
She still had power earlier today; not sure if she does now or not. My sister-in-law that lives in New Orleans and that extended family of eight all lost power about 8 pm last night and are still without power--although neighbros two blocks away have power. They carried all of their electronics over to their friends house today to charge them up.
I'm going to get one of those radios that has a crank, batteries etc. on it that charges USB devices. I've got oil lamps for light, natural gas fireplaces for heat, but without a charge you've got no phone and that may be the biggest thing of all in this age.
Attachment 269
I-10 at LaPlace.
Lots of flooding all over, Slidell getting it bad, Miss coast got hammered and now it is bad on the east side of the state of Miss near the Ala border.
Audobon Park in New Orleans area got 19" of rain, Gretna on the west bank where my parents lived for a long time, 18.5" of rain.
All schools in the Jackson, Ms metro area are closed today as a caution. Everything on the coast is closed. Hwy 90 along the beach was close and had up to 5' of water on it in places.
This won't surprise you.
We have one of those "crank" emergency radios. I don't know where it is.
I don't know if it charges USB or not--I suspect it does not. That's a great idea, though, and I will put that on my "to get" list for sure. I have a nice portable battery that is like a car battery, has jumper cables on it, etc. that can charge things, but of course, it's a limited supply since it will need to be recharged, too.
Spoke to brother-in-law this morning; New Orleans (Metairie) still getting a lot of rain. Said the wind has died down, which makes it very stuffy in their house, since they still lack power. Before that, with the wind and windows open, and the rain cooling the temperature, it wasn't too bad. More uncomfortable now. They are going to go over to my mother-in-law's house in Kenner, about 5 miles away, and see if she has power. No water on the streets; pumps working great in the area. Only issue is traffic lights are out, so they will have to make sure no idiots are on the road. Well, they'll have to avoid them--they'll be out.
My sister-in-law in Houma has power. Eye of Isaac passes through, she lost power for about an hour. My niece who lives there has power also. My ex-brother-in-law who lives there does not have power, but has big generators (he has a oil servicing supply company, and they have that kinda stuff for commercial needs).
still some heavy bands of rain moving thru Miss and La, will it ever stop
Seeing as how I'm scared to death of anything resembling a bridge with water under or around it, if I would have seen this in person, I probably would have pooped myself!! That is scary!!!
"It's a mere moment in a man's life between an All-Star Game and an Old-Timers Game." - Vin Scully
While the speed limit is 70mph, I think I'd slow down.
This is for Doc
A404103_395906647131258_154012917_n.jpg
seeya
dan
I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.
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