If Cat 5 WERE to hit Palm Beach County

[Guest]

thats a scary scenario with new orleans... but it is bound to happen eventually.

[zoeyann]

I hear what you are saying big ez. I live in southern Terrebonne Parish and the levees in all of south east Louisiana could actually cause more problems than they solve. Lets be honest some are in about as good as the roads around here (namely the ones like in Montegut built for a CAT 2 but crumbled during tropical storm Bill), and those that would hold up would probebly help trap water into the area. Evacuation in these areas are also impossible given the conditions of the roadways and the constant constuction that ironically does not seem to get much repaired. And after the storm lets not forget those lovely swamp creatures that Louisiana is so famous for. The truth is we have been lucky for a long time now, and I can only hope it holds out because that scare with Georges and then Lili made alot of people realize how unprepared this entire area would be .

[Dirteng]

Big EZ, New Orleans will not drain 20' of water from the "bowl" because of the clay makeup of the soils. I engineered soil there for years and helped design some of the newer canals for the Army Corps. The pumps will be turned off on a Cat 3 or higher, but the gates will be opened after the storm.

The codes, building materials, and construction methods used between southern Florida and New Orlean are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Post Andrew south Florida homes are build with hurricane straps and most are made of masonry. That is because this area is blessed with limestone and sand used in that type of construction. New Orleans is wood framed structures on piles, some flood zones you can't even live on the first floor and they must have break away walls. For New Orleans a strong Cat 3 would be almost equilivalent to Cat 5 in south Florida.

Geaux LSU Tigers

[rainydaze]

Well, I live in Palm Beach County and here is what I have to say about a Cat 5 hurricane coming here....what about ALL the construction going on? Holy cow! There are major road and bridge buildings going on, more than a few new schools being built, condos on the water, new housing construction is incredible just west of town. I don't even know how it would be done. All the loose materials would have to be picked up and all the barricades on the road constructions are supposed to be picked up. There are campaign signs everywhere for our August 31st elections so I guess all those would have to be picked up immediately. What about all the for sale signs we have tons of houses for sale here in our county too! And that's just the flying debris concerns. What about mass evacuations? And let's not even think about the trees, people's homes and most precious of all, our lives

[Anonymous]

Dirteng....all new construction here is masonry. I don't know how long ago you were here, but as far as overall construction goes, manufactured homes over here are no where near the problem as they are in Florida. This comes from a insurance adjuster I talked to a few years ago, that said Florida's biggest problem is with the modular type, pre-manufactured homes. Up here, those type of homes are just not popular.

As far as the hurricnae codes go. I know many, if not most new homes here are all being built with the hurricane clips etc..., that are becoming so common every where else. My house was built 10 years ago, and I have them. Really no new news there. I you are confused with the older parts of the New Orleans inner city areas and not the outlying metro areas.

The soil conditions will play a part in the water being drained out of the city. The real problem is the water table. The city sits pretty much on a swamp, which is basically a sponge. So if you have a wet sponge and you stack another wet sponge on top of it. How do you evacuate the water? That is the problem, you can't. Nature would have to take its course and by then, it would be too late to salvage much of anything. Thus a HUGE disaster, of unthinkable magnitude, even without a cat. 5 storm.