Abandon New Orleans

Posted by Michael on August 31st, 2005 filed in News

The Army Corp has been unable to plug the levees that are flooding New Orleans. Dropping 3000 lb sandbags and 15 foot concrete barriers are having no effect.

This morning, the Lousiana governer called for a complete evacuation of New Orleans. No idea where these people are supposed to go, though. The population of New Orleans is around half a million people.

Prayers for the survivors are needed.

City of New Orleans

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5 Responses to “Abandon New Orleans”

  1. Sean Murphy Says:
    August 31st, 2005 at 9:23 am

    Add the surrounding areas and bedroom communities and I have heard that the number is about 1.5 million. Without water. Without electricity, without income, businesses, etc. This scenario has been feared for decades. Why didn’t the city have a plan in place to seal levee breaches? It would seem only prudent to have a book entitled “In case of General Flooding, Read This”.

    Consider the refining and support services for petrochemicals in this area, we are all in for a long slog.

    I remember those levee walls I saw as a boy. They are only about 6″ thick concrete, buried in the tops of the levee berms. They didn’t look too strong then, thirty-five years ago. Why weren’t they all more prepared? But, history shows that it takes a disaster to wake everyone up. Allison caused a total re-design of the flood plain an prevention in the City of Houston and Harris county.

    I just heard that we are opening up the Astrodome in Houston to accomodate the Superdome evacuees. Once the immediate threat to life is over, we are going to have to accomodate a large portion of the diaspora from New Orleans so they can re-build their lives.

    On the other hand, the city is about 400 years old, and will survive, but may not be its former self in our lifetimes.

  2. Stephen Says:
    August 31st, 2005 at 9:49 am

    MSNBC just confirmed the evac to the Astrodome. 2 days to get 30,000 people moved to Houston.

  3. Vox Says:
    August 31st, 2005 at 11:55 am

    I was going to say it seems like a large number of them are headed your way, but Stephen beat me to it. I can’t begin to comprehend what they are going through right now - here’s hoping the cleanup and rebuilding gets organized and executed quickly.

  4. Courtney Says:
    August 31st, 2005 at 12:51 pm

    Now that the water is in ‘the bowl’, how do they get it out? The pumps are submerged. Heck, everything’s submerged.

  5. Michael Says:
    August 31st, 2005 at 9:07 pm

    I don’t think anybody has any good answers; why they weren’t better prepared, what are they going to do, where is everybody going to go, etc. The pictures are just overwhelming.

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