Re: Raleigh 1996 VS New Orleans 2006
I think I was 8 when camille came ashore. I lived on sunset blvd in pascagoula MS at the time. we moved to grandbay then to mobile some years later and now I live back home in Kitty hawk NC. seen my share of blows and near misses, seen my share of dead things in the water and brush piles. spent my share of time putting things back together and living under a tarp. I hope this disaster is a wake up call for the current and future administrations. as our population increases natural disaters will become more intense and costly. I think some of the problem is the media tends to focus on where the eye will hit, when hurricane force winds extend for 100 miles and the storm is 400 miles across in a pond the size of the gulf 25 miles east or west is a direct hit. this is one of the first times a major US city has been destroyed. a storm this size in our area would kill hundreds of thousands and cripple the country. could you imagine a storm this size taking a direct shot on norfolk VA? its happened before in the past. could happen again this year or next or never. DC is only just up the river from Norfolk and the cheasapeake bay. a storm moving 10MPH with hurricane force winds extending for 200 miles will push water over a vast area of maryland,newjersy,virginia and coastal carolinas, the flooding from the mountains to our west will be almost as devestating as the storm surge. the storm, like Katrina, will have some feeling hurricane force winds for up to 20 hours. most structures here wont take it that long. the new orleans debacle has been studied to death for 3 decades, maybe a tad longer. this is no suprise but a well documented scene, the resaon why the levees were not built to withstand a cat 4 or higher storm surge was simple economics. the cost/benifit ratio was studied and the feds decided that the cost of building the levee system to withstand a cat five surge was not worth it. they rolled the dice but this time it came up 3's and 8's. was a losing roll. the sandbagging going on now is a joke. they should be using dredges to pump sand off the lake bottom. we did it after isabelle to repair a much larger breach and with way worse currents and tide changes. a sikorsky skycrane is more than capeable of carrying a dredge barge and the crews rotate in 8 hour shifts yet the dredge pumps 24 hours a day. my opinion is to pump out the city, raze it. remove any hazardous stuff and not rebuild. would be cheaper for the feds, using our tax dollars, to buy out the folks and allow them to move elsewhere. or after the rebuild, or maybe before, the levee system needs to be made to handle a cat 5 surge. it will happen again, no doubts about it. hurricanes, like wildfires and earthquakes are a fact of life. who is president at the time will be irrelevant. while the events of 9/11 were and are tragic it affected about 10 blocks of real estate. this one affects a land mass about the size of kansas or so they say.the cost of rebuilding new orleans will far outweigh the bennies. the entire infastructue as well as the soils themselves will have to be decontaminated and rebuilt. all the pumping stations, water systems, electrical grids and sewage systems are gone now. not to mention the houses and buildings that will stand for the next 2 or 3 months in water. save the high spots that did not flood and forbid building on the rest. or fix the levvees so this cant happen again. this is a terrible disater that will affect the entire US, maybe more. however it will happen again. always does. maybe next year maybe long after I am gone but rest assured it will happen again some place some time.had this storm moved west and hit the galveston houston area the devestation would have been about as bad. had it hit the norflok area or the chesapeake bay area it possibly could have been worse. and the possibility is always there each season. could you imagine the DC area after an event this size? our govt would be crippled. but as long as uncontrolled federally subsidized building on flood and hurricane vunerable coasts this problem will grow worse each year.to reccomend 20,000 people to the dome was not foolish. to not prepare to move them as soon as the winds quit was. there was no other place to go. had those 20K stayed in their homes the death toll would have been absolutly horrendous, it already is. the army, marine corp, airforce and navy along with the guard should have been ready to move monday evening. everyone knew it was going to be big and most likly new orleans was going to flood as most knew the Levees were not designed for a surge that big. was a no brainer. no the problem will be how to assimilate about 1 million people into other parts of the US. this will include housing and employment. will be a tougher challenge than the middle east ever thought about being. I really dont have the confidence our govt is up to the task. having watched evacuations for years its amazes me how stupid the people and the govt actually are. in my area if you wait till the day before you wont make it off the coast. traffic comes to a stand still. and does it for miles and miles. its amazing how many people here evacuated for isabelle and went to elizabeth city. even those that went to richmond got whacked. I really think a total overhaul of emergency management needs to be done. from evacuations to post storm plans.we have seen enough in the past 20 years or so to fully realize that the area impacted has no public infastructue. no fire, no police, no public health, mostly nothing. why isnt there a contingency for other areas and the military/guard to immediatly move in with mobile coms centers and police? most of the new orleans fire,police and public safety was decimated. its hard to be a cop or fireman when all you knew and had just got turned upside down. happens with every storm every year. yet the same plans are done and the same complaints are made yet nothing changes.its not just this administration or the last. its been a problem and its a growing problem. each major storm is a "suprise" to the athorities. but mark my words and take them to the bank. as the population grows this will not be the worst, there will be others.whether its a tsunami/earthquake on the west coast or an eathquake or volcanic erption in the mid west or even a mega tsunami or eruption of mount rainer it will come. sooner or later it will come. not much can be done to stop it but the plans must be in place to react. has anyone read the damage estimates when mt rainer blows? or when yellow stone goes off again? or when the canaries split in half? its all a long slow process, I probably wont be alive when it happens but happen it will. the records of the past indicate it will do it in the future. can we stop it? nope. do I worry about it? nope. but I do think there was a failure of timely response to specific areas of the gulf coast. we know the vunerable spots, we know the storm surge. the gulf has been hit enough that predictions are in place. if you have never witnessed a storm surge its incredible. water levels will change 10ft or more in less than 30 min. but as the population grows so will the size and scope of natural disasters. both here and around the globe. it is very grateful to see how the american people respond to this and other storms and natural disasters. its amazing how many people walk off their jobs to go assist. its amazing how many donate and send things when they dont have much to send. but it does not detract from the fact that for years the affected area has been known that when the big one hits what will happen. they always holler about evacuation yet no place is availible to evacuate to. so ya bail out. where do you bail out to? seems its a flaw in the planning. the super dome was never designed as a shelter. however it was a life boat when needed. why it was not evacuated by the navy,airforce and army/marine corps monday afternoon or tuesday morning is beyond me. all knew that the sewage/water and electrical systems would fail almost instantly. yet they are still there. hundreds of mothballed ships all over the country and none that are temporary shelters. hundreds of military bases with no plans to be rapidly converted to shelters. I cant believe the race card is being played. the area of new orleans was a majority black area. so it stands to reason that many blacks would be affected. the ratio would have been a lot less had it hit our area. or the texas gulf coast. but I think the response time would have been the same. its shameful but at least its moving. and once moving, like the storm surge it will be unstoppable. take that to the bank as well.well I guess its the end of a rant that went on to long
