Cat 4 Hurricane Ike Poised To Strike New Orleans

More than likely this will not Hit NOLA and won't be a CAT 4....it will probably hit on the TX coast of the border of TX/LA.

and will most likely hit as a Cat 3

and as everyone is saying its way too soon to knoe for sure!

Everyone who's making the statement that the government should just abandon New Orleans and everyone should move apparently knows very little about our national economy.

The Port of New Orleans is the 5th largest cargo port in the United States and the Port of South Louisiana (which also lies mostly below sea level along the river coast line from New Orleans to Baton Rouge) is the largest seaport in the Western Hemisphere in terms of cargo volume. Over half of our nation's domestic grain exports leave the Midwest down the Mississippi river and are transfered to oceanic cargo vessels in the Port of New Orleans.

For as much exposure as New Orleans gets as a city of partying, revelry, voodoo, and general tomfoolery, people seem to be completely oblivious to her true economic value & importance to this country. All of those Gulf offshore drilling rigs use the port to get the crude into this country and a fair share of our national refineries are located in the region. Those ports also hold two of our 4 national strategic petroleum reserve stores.

Every single barge that comes down (or up) the Mississippi or Missouri rivers with imported or exported cargo passes through that port. Also, anyone who loves gulf shrimp or gulf oysters/clams can thank the port of New Orleans for getting them from the gulf to the land.

Yeah, it cost us some money to rebuild the city after Katrina and it very well could happen again... but if you place the trade value (actually an almost uncalcuable value) against the cost of rebuilding the city however many times it gets flooded, the vitalness of the city & her ports, refineries, and storage capacity will tip the scales everytime.

[edit on 7-9-2008 by burdman30ott6]

As someone else said, far too early to forecast with any real certainty of track and strength till it passes by/thru Cuba. It will weaken over Cuba then regroup over the Gulf. Heck it might even hit the tip of Southern Florida. Too many variables still, to say anything for certain 4 or 5 days out.

www.rsoe.hu...

Bugger me that wind speed is huge

Whoever decided to build a city of that scale in hurricane ally is seriously an idiot.

Who cares if they do this and that with their ports, its just an obvious move to build around things like geography and weather... its like putting up houses with no roof cuz you think it won't rain...

New Orleans has been around since the mid-late 1700's, its not a matter of people being idiots for building on the coast; however I will not argue that there are a lot of idiots in this world

As Burdman stated NO is a large vital port city. This 'situation' started in the 60's-70's when they started pumping water and expanding into areas that they should have just left alone IMO.

Source


Unfortunately it seems that the majority of people living in those areas are of limited means, and it looks like developers have taken advantage of Katrina (and I'm sure of any future storms) in order to turn low rent areas into more profitable lake front properties.

In any case, fighting against mother nature just isn't a winning proposition. While I agree that rebuilding is fine, I think they could find a safer way to do it.

"Don't worry, of course that concrete wall will hold all the water back!"




Leaky New Orleans levee alarms experts

reply to post by burdman30ott6


While I understand what you are saying, would it not at the very least make sense to keep the areas that are under sea level off limits to residential housing? I am not sure that anyone is complaining that it shouldn't or couldn't be used for the reasons that you cite.

Models shifted farther west:

Looking pretty bad for Cuba

What happens when Ike gets into the Gulf remains to be seen.

To early to say where its heading, Gustav looked like 'the storm of the century' then fizzled, yes its good to be prepared and expect the worst, but you cant do it every time something enters the gulf.
just be prepared.
in saying that,

After Katrina hit i believe there's no choice, but to never return to the city again.

Its enevitable for it to happen again, and again, and again.
those waters are getting warmer, and hurricanes seem to have a very common habbit of heading in that direction.

People should of learned from Katrina, that city just isnt where people should live any longer.

good luck to florida and the gulf water states, theres many more hurricanes heading your way in the years to come.

I live in Houston and was here when Alisha hit. That was the last hurricane we had. I think it was in 1983. We're WAY overdue for one. I know it's too early to tell where it's headed, but I wouldn't be surprised if it comes here. Oh and BTW.... I'm not evacuating. I'd rather be in my house than stuck with millions of people on a freeway going nowhere.

who really wants to live there now? it's been torn aport in the past 4 years and it's gong to get worse if mankind doesn't reliase to leave the area alone.

I feel that it's going to weaken just like what Gustav did. Oil prices are going to take a big swing. More people will decide to stay, because of the not so big threat that comes from the media.

New Orleans is like the American economy: We all know it's going to be crushed but those that are inside of it will ignore it until it's too late for them to escape.

reply to post by yellowcard


[People expect too much from the Federal Government these days. ]

Which is exactly what the Government wants.Reminds me of the times of the Pharohs .

It seems Ike may be slightly changing its trajectory and staying more to the northern of Cuba than the center of the Island, if this happens it will be a dangerous hurricane for the Florida keys and southern Florida.

This is still developing so is very interesting.

If it does head for NO then it will be a big disaster. Many people will not leave because of the last one that failed to hurt the city. Many people will have no money to cut and run, Short of being escorted to a camp set up by the government half way across the country.

I for one think that homes should not be allowed to be under sea level anymore. Businesses yes but homes no. The port has to run but there is no excuse for having homes in a place like that.

[I for one think that homes should not be allowed to be under sea level anymore. Businesses yes but homes no]

I agree ...I mean if you build your house on sand (beaches) thats just plain stupid anyway knowing that the Ocean has access to that sand too lol..and of course Hurricaines coming in all the time .....
Also building a house on a huge ACTIVE fault line like (California)
Then you have tornado alley ...
And building a city under a volcano ..
Cities built right on the ring of fire ...

I mean sheeshh ...what was man thinking ...talk about living on the edge ..

We cannot get away from all disasters ..but why would anyone want to live right on top of one .


If my house kept getting swept away,flooded or whatever..I would get the hint that my house doesnt belong there ......

I live in south Louisiana. 50 miles inland. We were pretty hard hit by Gustav. I was without electricty for 4 days but some will be without for weeks.
As for N.O. we, here in Louisiana have always known that a direct hit by a storm would swamp the city. Levees and pumps where built not as a saftey measure but only as a means to line the pockets of political cronies who were in construction. Some of the pumping stations could not be used because the control rooms were under water. Idiocy.
What is not known by many is that the old part of town French Quarter, Uptown area did not flood. the original founders built on a ridge along the river. Most of the flooding happen on the lake side of town or along man made canals connecting the river and the intercoastal canal to the Lake
The large portion of the city that did flood was built due to urban sprawl.
What is forgotten in the Katrina discussion is that there was another hurrican that year. Rita hit the western Louisiana eastern texas coasts. You dont hear much about government ineptitude with regaurds to Rita because the people affected were mostly rural people that generally are more self reliant. They didnt wait for government to rebuild thier lives. They got to work and did it them selves.
These Katrina "Victims" are a result of our policies of pandering to societies laziest members.
Today I drove around my home town. Six days after it was destroyed and I see houses that were severly damaged but people are out there sweating in 90 degree heat putting thier lives back together. Drive a few more blocks and see other people sitting in thier front yard. havent done anything to clean up thier place. Waiting on a hand out.
When will the people who do for themselve going to get tired of feeding the people who wont do anything.

Its very irresponsible to post things like this which claim a hurricane is going anywhere within 5 days. The range of error for computer models 5 days out is huge (something like 300 miles), and you CANNOT extrapolate 5 day positions because the hurricane can switch motion entirely and go off in a different direction.

Your actually better off in my opinion to be in the "hit zone" 5 days out, given the range of error it means your most likely never going to get hit by the storm. But posts like this could easily cause hysteria, and are completely unfounded.

Even now, it looks like Ike will go west and completely miss New Orleans - not a definite bet, but a good example of how much things change in just a few hours.