No Second Guessing but Food for Thought

[Downdraft]

If Katrina had stayed a CAT 5 at 175 when she hit New Orleans all those people in the SuperDome would probably be dead now. The City, the State, the region need to rethink a lot of stuff when things get back to normal. 40 years of hurricane complacency started coming to an end in 1995. It crashed to a halt in 2004/2005. Runaway development, laws without teeth or enforcement and a population who are grossly under-educated concerning these wonders of nature all need to be addressed. People have to live somewhere but if we are going to continue to thumb our noses through arrogance or ignorance at the environments we choose to live in more and more people are going to find out the party is over and it's time to pay the bill. People on the coast need not live in fear of these storms but they certainly need to learn how to survive them better than they are doing now. An old Russian adage paraprashed goes "if you plan for the worst you can then always hope for the best."

[Scorpion]

Yes, there would be 50000-100000 dead now if she hit full force at 175. Right now the devastation is enough even though she hit at 145. I think 500-1,000 people were killed in this storm.

[djtil]

i doubt those in the superdome would be dead...would more panels have been stripped away? yes...but the structure would be sound even if the roof covering blew away.

[wlfpack81]

The roof probably wouldn't have just blown away. The steel and what not underneath the roof would've collapsed onto the people below after becoming weakened by the wind. That's the problem. Falling debri would've killed, injuried a lot of people.

[Mello1]

The roof probably wouldn't have just blown away. The steel and what not underneath the roof would've collapsed onto the people below after becoming weakened by the wind. That's the problem. Falling debri would've killed, injuried a lot of people.

Correct. From steel fatigue at those swirling wind speeds.

Yes, I agree. I think that a lot of those Gulf coast communities have a lot to think about for some time to come after this storm.

[Aslkahuna]

They may think but nothing will be done. Look at the fire and mudslide prone Canyons of SoCA have the frequent disasters there changed anything? No.

Steve

[Mello1]

They may think but nothing will be done. Look at the fire and mudslide prone Canyons of SoCA have the frequent disasters there changed anything? No.

Steve

I hate to say it, but unfortunately, it will depend on the death toll. Nothing gets a politican's attention to change things and appropriate funding faster than that.

[Jake8898]

From what I understand, the portion of the Dome roof that came off was mearly a waterproof tarp-like film. There is something solid under it.

[wayoutfront]

I think a better idea is make an area that is below sea level a National Park.

If you know water is all around you and over your head, you can't expect a whole lot when the wall breaks.

[Mello1]

From what I understand, the portion of the Dome roof that came off was mearly a waterproof tarp-like film. There is something solid under it.

That's correct. It was the waterproofing. The dome roof looks to be concete and steel.

[aumoore]

There was an engineer on TV today and he stated the Dome was built to withstand a 150mph Cane with max gusts to 200mph. If a Katrina had stayed at 175mph(I heard reports of 233mph gusts) my guess would be much more damage to the Dome. Remember it is about 40 years old. It might not have collapsed but parts might have fallen to the stands below. The other high rises would have had much more damage as well.

[Downdraft]

There was some structural failure to the roof and water did get in meaning wind got in. It's academic since a discussion on the physical force on a horizontal surface exerted by 175 mph wind compared to 145 mph is way beyond what we want to talk about it here. The point of the post is we can't stop nature but we can certainly do a lot more to live with it. Yes, people are going to live on the San Andreas fault, they are going to live at the base of Mt. Rainer they are going to live on the Atlantic coast. I just think we need to do more to mitigate our own damages in these disasters. For instance if the highest storm surge ever recorded in an area is 20 feet than pass a zoning law that says a structure most be built at least 21 feet above sea level. I don't have the answers just provoking food for thought.