Superstorm

[MultimediaMan]

I've seen some satellite photos of New Orleans as of this morning...It's Lake New Orleans.

Figure 1-2 weeks to get the levee patched, then a few months to pump out all the water... whomever said 90 days to clear the city of water was assuming there was electricity to use the New Orleans Lift stations: there is none to be had. Also, many of the lift water entries will be clogged with debris.

It's going to get worse, far worse, before it gets better. They may well end up condemning the city.

Generators are still in short supply worldwide because of the Tsunamis in Asia, and last year's Hurricane season. This situation will continue probably well into 2007.

At work, we've sent down all the of portable RX's and Emergency supply stores (they literally are run from a semi-trailer), and are building more. We built several of these for the Florida Hurricanes, and they are being put to good use again. My understanding is that bottled water and ice at most of these locations is to be freely given, though it may be rationed to discourage hoarding. These locations are already accepting Red Cross Vouchers. Our infrastructure was hit fairly hard in the region: we have all of the DCs running as of today at varying degrees of capacity: Fortunately for Louisiana we have several DCs that were not hit and are adjusting routes to make up for lost capacity and to increase total capacity to the disaster areas. I've said it before: the real secret of the company I work for is it's unmatched logistics. We were moving needed goods to within 8 hours driving time for the areas projected to be impacted by Katrina 5 days ahead of time, and that move is going to end up saving lives.

[Dr Mordrid]

Comparative satellite photos of New Orleans before & after;

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/new-orleans-imagery.htm

Also: reports today of some people shooting at rescue helicopters from the vecinity of the Superdome with one crew member. That and shootings/rapes etc. occurring IN the Superdome.

Result: ~12,000 - 18,000 National Guard troops on the way.

Complication: the Governor of Louisiana has NO constituional authority to impose Martial Law, which the vast majority of other Governors have

My bet is that if this continues after the NG troops arrive Bush will Federalize them and declare Martial Law himself under his authority as Commander In Chief.

Dr. Mordrid

[rylan]

Has anyone noticed the lack of support from the leaders of other countries? The US is almost always the first to help anyone else out in the world with a big natural disaster like this, yet we haven't heard a peep from those same countries who called the US 'stingy' in the past.

[Dr Mordrid]

I see that the EU has offered to send us some refined gasoline, which is very helpful given that 8% of our refineries are out of comission for a few weeks.

Beyond that I'm totally disgusted at the comments by some Euros and our own Robert Kennedy Jr. that somehow the hurricanes are somehow our fault because we didn't sign up for Kyoto. This dispite the fact that Kyoto is heavily flawed and was not signed for good reason.

Don't go political on that statement: 99 of 100 Senators voted against Kyoto, and they are the ones who approve or disapprove treatiesi in the US...not the White House. This of course means that virtually all members of both parties voted against it.

Dr. Mordrid

[schmosef]

Has anyone noticed the lack of support from the leaders of other countries? The US is almost always the first to help anyone else out in the world with a big natural disaster like this, yet we haven't heard a peep from those same countries who called the US 'stingy' in the past.

I was thinking that exact same thing today while watching CNN.

[Jon P. Inghram]

It's true, Category 4 and 5 hurricanes never existed until we refused to sign Kyoto.

[schmosef]

I think the point is that no one has even shown any solidarity or moral support.

[MultimediaMan]

Adding to what Schmosef said: There is something very wrong with that.

EDITED: Many, many countries have offered aid and support (including some who cannot afford to offer it very easily), but what bothers me is how some Media outlets are choosing to report these offers for help.

[Liquid Snake]

There is one NO ISP, DirectNIC, that has remained online throughout the whole ordeal. They have a page with updated photos and blog posts of the situation: http://www.directnic.com/katrina.php

[KvHagedorn]

Whoever authorized the levees to be built only to withstand a Category3 storm has all this on their heads. There is no excuse for not being prepared for such a thing, and no excuse for the stupidity and lack of foresight involved in not forcing people to evacuate. It's not like we don't know what a huge category 4 or 5 hurricane will do to exposed low-lying areas. Watch a fricken documentary on Camille for crying out loud. This one hit no more than 5 miles away from Camille's landfall in 1969. I am thinking now that those documentaries should have been shown for 2 days straight on TV in that area before this storm came ashore.

[Jessterw]

Part of the problem is that the natural protections against flooding have been eradicated over time. The many wetlands in the NO area that have been replaced with highways and concrete would have alleviated much of the flooding.

But yes, there was definitely some reckless and shortsighted planning in the development of the levees; however, it wasn't the levees that failed initially.

[DukeP]

I see that the EU has offered to send us some refined gasoline, which is very helpful given that 8% of our refineries are out of comission for a few weeks.

Beyond that I'm totally disgusted at the comments by some Euros and our own Robert Kennedy Jr. that somehow the hurricanes are somehow our fault because we didn't sign up for Kyoto. This dispite the fact that Kyoto is heavily flawed and was not signed for good reason.

Don't go political on that statement: 99 of 100 Senators voted against Kyoto, and they are the ones who approve or disapprove treatiesi in the US...not the White House. This of course means that virtually all members of both parties voted against it.

Dr. Mordrid

I can understand your distress.

But think of it like this: Most Europeans think of the US as being selfish in their choice of economy before the enviroment. The thought that you now face the consequences of that attitude is pretty straightforward, although not strictly true.
Further, the effect of the hurricane on the US also affects the rest of the world (the price of gasolin in Denmark increased 20% and its still rising).
So now the choice that the US have made affects the rest of the world even though "they" might have done their best to protect the enviroment. This seems unfair.

Its hard to feel sorry for the enviroment-bully of the neighbourhood...

I still think that most Europeans feel sorry for the afflicted. Theres pictures from New Orleans on every tv news broadcast. But besides moving our massiv tradefleet (which we have done), there isnt really that much that can be done, at this moment.

I DO think that there will be common grounds at the endpoint of the disaster. When buildings need to be built, roads constructed etc.

~~DukeP~~

[Umfriend]

I have to disagree with DukeP until I see some confirmation that that is really what is going on. It seems to me that it is just not easy to comprehend the US needing help for a domestic issue IMO. There is a LOT of coverage on NO etc, and I've never seen anything like "he it's there own fault as they emit most CO2" or anything. In fact, this gets a lot more attention then just another flooding in Bangladesh for instance.

[DukeP]

Ah, I was reflecting on the post that Dr. made.
No, I have never seen people publicly discuss wheter the US had this comming - based on their general enviromental stands.

I have seen some notes on the removal of wetlands. This is btw. a common problem in every temperate clima country I know of.

Too much cash in that "riverside/oceanside" view.
~~DukeP~~

[Fluff]

I don't want to get flamed on this.

Was just thinking this is going to be a MASSIVE logistical nightmare.

http://neworleans.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm

With all the water damage, how are people going to determine who is who, what is theirs, when i assume alot of the paperwork etc has been destroyed. I'm not sure how the people in that area get their income, whether it is mostly cash based under the bed or bank accounts.

If it is handled badly it could create racial tension across the whole US.

Whitehouse is going to have to make a tough call in deciding what to do that is best in the long run after the damage assessments.