(no subject)

[katallison]

People who are tired of hearing about Katrina, or who are actively trying to avoid the news, should probably unfriend or filter this LJ for the next few days.

Latest from the AP:
Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city's houses will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless. "We're talking about in essence having — in the continental United States — having a refugee camp of a million people,'' van Heerden said.

And that's just New Orleans. Unless things change radically from current forecasts, inland damage will be vicious as well. Jesus. Fucking. God.

Comments

[wickdzoot.livejournal.com]

Good Christ. I had no idea.

[visionshadows.livejournal.com]

I've been checking cnn.com all day long. It just keeps getting worse and worse.

[copracat]

People who are tired of hearing about Katrina, or who are actively trying to avoid the news, should probably unfriend or filter this LJ for the next few days.

Are you joking? You made me turn on CNN and BBC World. Bloody hell.

[meri-oddities.livejournal.com]

The news just keeps getting worse. I am clicking between LJ and the on-line papers with CNN in the background. I can't turn it off.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

misia put up links to Red Cross (including donating spare change) and suggested donating blood.
Like many of us, she has friends on lj in that area...

[eliade.livejournal.com]

I had no idea it was so bad; thank you for posting this. I went and googled to find out more about Class 5 storms & found that Katrina is already listed in the wikipedia with relatively current info. Jesus.

[chickwriter.livejournal.com]

OMG

I can't even begin to fathom this.

Thank you for keeping us posted.

[gattagrigia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links and info! I've been freaking out since JL told me about 9am that they were expecting sustained winds of 175mph. Sustained.Wind. I've been obsessively clicking on blogs/webnews/noaa pages since.

[firesprite1105.livejournal.com]

I know. It's unreal. Someone on my friends list was freaking out last night about having to leave her books in NO and not being sure if she'd be able to go back, but the utter severity of the situation didn't click for me until I read Metafilter this morning, and I've been completely, utterly, wholeheartedly freaking out since then. It's unreal. It's straight out of The Day After Tomorrow.

And goddammit, one of the reasons I moved to Austin was that New Orleans was within roadtrip distance, and it'll be one of the great regrets of my life if there's nothing left to visit after tomorrow.

I can't wrap my mind around it.

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

Keep posting, please. I feel possessed by raging anxiety and it helps knowing I'm not the only one.

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

I haven't been able to figure it out from your last couple posts, so I'm going to ask an obvious and stupid question: are you in N.O. proper or southern Louisiana?

And why again can't you leave?

People love to exaggerate and predict doomsday. Part of it is because forecasters have to be as pessimistic about these things as they can realistically be, for government officials to make decisions about peoples' lives. Part of it is also panic, which CNN and channels of their ilk love to spread because it makes for fascinating news. Folks in Western Washington are constantly mocking our news reporters (not the meteorologists, but the desk jockies who write the stories and headlines) for pulling out such shite as "Windstorm 2001." So Katrina could be as bad as they're saying, but it could also be the bad end on a very long spectrum of possibilities. If there's one thing for certain in meteorology, it is that weather is nearly impossible to predict.

That said, the government could not pay me to live in the southeast United States. The risks are too high. It's depressing that people know this and continue to live in blissful denial until the real threat is on their doorstep, even after Hugo, and Andrew, and what happened to Galveston, and all the other times hurricanes have decimated millions of lives.

I pray for the lives of everyone in Katrina's path, and wish it hadn't come to this. Stay safe as much as you can, hon.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Me? Nonono, I'm up in Minneapolis, many hundreds of miles away from all this, where the worst we have is blizzards, killer mosquitoes, and the occasional random tornado.

I've seen enough doomsday predictions fizzle out to be a bit skeptical myself, but this really looks like a Truly Bad Bad Event. And needless to say, I would be *ecstatic* to be proven an alarmist Chicken Little about this.

I join you in the fervent good wishes for everyone down there. Will be sleeping badly tonight, I think.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes -- now I remember you talking about Minneapolis. Phew.

[heuradys.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping you get to be as ecstatic as... as a very ecstatic thing indeed. The most ecstatic chicken little thing in the whole world.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Here's one thing I'm curious about: are the flood damage reports taking into account the fact that NO is more than built to withstand flooding? (Not avoid flooding, but deal with it via the walkout basements and the like.) Wind damage'll be a bitch and a half no doubt, esp since every home in New Orleans is basically rotted kindling, but that town gets flooded at least once a year. How's Katrina different? Are they expecting over 20 feet?

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

Yes, actually, they're predicting a 25-30 foot surge.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Well, that'd do it.