Will they rebuild New Orleans if it hits as a Cat 5?

[Lindaloo]

The Lake Pontchartarin bridge is low too. Hopefully it will be able to hold up unlike the bridge that collapsed in Pensacola.

There is also Six Flags. In Gulfport, they just built a new waterpark. And most have forgotten about the casino industry.

[kevin]

Yeah it was wonderful especially when I had to dig to see what it meant. I'm still not sure. I assume that it is an airforce base after Andrew. Anyone with less technical knowledge (aka right click see what the source is) would have been completely mystified.

Sorry I don't like it when I say something reasonable and don't get a reasonable response.

[lester]

I don't know about the bridge holding up if a CAT4/5 hits N.O

[LSU2001]

I notice most of the posts in this thread are from people who are not familiar with NOLA or Louisiana in general. Please read up on some of the threads about what would happen with the setup now occuring. Not from some doom and gloom posters but from scientists from LSU and other schools that have studied and modeled the storm surge potential for years. this set up is truly frightening. Would it be completly destroyed no would it be uninhabitable for a long period yes. It is not the storm that is so scary it is the aftermath.
AS far as loss of life is 70 to 80 thousand dead doom and gloom, maybe, but in this case it is a real possiblity.
Tim

[Stormtrack]

It is the flooding that would devastate New Orleans not the winds.

Kristi

Not really. The worst part of a major hurricane is the storm surge that obliterates everything in it's path. Go back and look at the pictures from Camile to see what it can do.

[johngaltfla]

Yeah it was wonderful especially when I had to dig to see what it meant. I'm still not sure. I assume that it is an airforce base after Andrew. Anyone with less technical knowledge (aka right click see what the source is) would have been completely mystified.

Sorry I don't like it when I say something reasonable and don't get a reasonable response.

That was the F-16 fighter hangers at Homestead AFB. The buildings were designed by "engineers" to withstand 200 mph winds.

Theoretically.

The idea that engineers can build something that can withstand nature's greatest forces is part of mankind's folly throughout history. Just when we think we've reached the pinnacle of technological development, an earthquake, volcano or hurricane humbles mankind and the engineers again.

You have much more faith than I do. Nor would I gamble my life or my future on the unknown. There is not one iota of evidence either way other than a computer's and a man or woman's best guess as to the maximum intensity this storm could reach.

The one thing I've learned from my decades down here in hurricane country is never, ever to wager your life against one of these storms.

[bp00010002]

I live in Old Metairie. I work in New Orleans. On the northshore as of this afternoon. Will go north tomorrow if it keeps this track.

Dont know what will happen, this is very scary stuff. I was born in New Orleans. If it had to be "rebuilt", I would be happy to put the first brick anywhere they asked me too.

It could be devastating and I cannot, nor do not, want to imagine what may occur Monday.

But, I will return. Everyone will, even in the worst case scenario. It is our home. Always will be.

[kevin]

Yeah it was wonderful especially when I had to dig to see what it meant. I'm still not sure. I assume that it is an airforce base after Andrew. Anyone with less technical knowledge (aka right click see what the source is) would have been completely mystified.

Sorry I don't like it when I say something reasonable and don't get a reasonable response.

That was the F-16 fighter hangers at Homestead AFB. The buildings were designed by "engineers" to withstand 200 mph winds.

Theoretically.

The idea that engineers can build something that can withstand nature's greatest forces is part of mankind's folly throughout history. Just when we think we've reached the pinnacle of technological development, an earthquake, volcano or hurricane humbles mankind and the engineers again.

You have much more faith than I do. Nor would I gamble my life or my future on the unknown. There is not one iota of evidence either way other than a computer's and a man or woman's best guess as to the maximum intensity this storm could reach.

The one thing I've learned from my decades down here in hurricane country is never, ever to wager your life against one of these storms.

The walls are standing up. Are you sure the roof and the doors were supposed to withstand 200 mph winds? I agree we should never stand in harms way. I was referring to the fact that destruction won't be absolute (the walls will be standing). Regardless if you can get out you definetely should. I would never put myself in harms way needlessly.

Unless that building was underwater, I bet someone could survive in there. That's all I'm talking about, human survival. Not comfort. High rises will probably stand up. Their windows will be blown out. But you could survive. Human survival. Stairways, behind interior walls.. anything.

[Steve Cosby]

The walls are standing up. Are you sure the roof and the doors were supposed to withstand 200 mph winds?

The structures were supposed to shelter the F-16's. They didn't. Even if the doors weren't designed for that, it is reasonable to expect the roof should have been.

[johngaltfla]

Yeah it was wonderful especially when I had to dig to see what it meant. I'm still not sure. I assume that it is an airforce base after Andrew. Anyone with less technical knowledge (aka right click see what the source is) would have been completely mystified.

Sorry I don't like it when I say something reasonable and don't get a reasonable response.

That was the F-16 fighter hangers at Homestead AFB. The buildings were designed by "engineers" to withstand 200 mph winds.

Theoretically.

The idea that engineers can build something that can withstand nature's greatest forces is part of mankind's folly throughout history. Just when we think we've reached the pinnacle of technological development, an earthquake, volcano or hurricane humbles mankind and the engineers again.

You have much more faith than I do. Nor would I gamble my life or my future on the unknown. There is not one iota of evidence either way other than a computer's and a man or woman's best guess as to the maximum intensity this storm could reach.

The one thing I've learned from my decades down here in hurricane country is never, ever to wager your life against one of these storms.

The walls are standing up. Are you sure the roof and the doors were supposed to withstand 200 mph winds?

Yes. The hangers, towers, everything was designed to take everything mother nature threw at them.

Mother nature won. I could link you to zillions of pictures on the web, but just do your own search under Google images. Ask USAF folks who went through the storm. About the only thing that could survive a Cat 5, IMHO is a bunker. And the NHC was in theirs when it was devestated by the storm.

FYI, the airman on duty in the tower was there when the first feeder bands close to the center came near the base. I'll quote what was posted elsewhere on this subject:

Said he counted 75 tornadoes in the first part of the first feeder band on their Doppler radar. THe tower was then evacuated, and about half an hour later was destroyed.

A Cat 5 is nothing to be sneezed about nor to tempt Mother Nature about. If it does in fact continue to intensify as some models forecast, it's not just the 155 to 200 plus mph winds to worry about. It's the wall of water which will pile into New Orleans destroying buildings and flooding mile after mile of the city. The engineers in New Orleans were on television earlier clearly stating the levees would not hold up to a Cat 4.

[arcticfire]

The scary part is not the inital dmg done to NO. Would people die if the city gets flooded ? of course , in the big picture thow thats not where the real damage would be felt. The true doomsday type effects won't be loss of life , they would be economic aftermath and loss of homes.

So in the grand scheme the real dmg is not how many houses get flooded out or windows blow etc , the real question is how much dmg will the oil infastructer in the path recive and the port. I'm sure the city would be pumped , reinforced and rebuilt where nessisary , we americans pretty much refuse to be told where we can and can't live even by mother nature or common sence.

If it's a doomsday scenario at all it's one for the economy not loss of life.