(no subject)

[dr_tectonic]

I have my car back! They fixed it just as good as before the accident -- better, even. And it feels right to drive, which the rental car just didn't.

I feel like I ought to say something about Hurricane Katrina, but I don't know what. Others have already said what I was thinking, and it all seems like it shouldn't need saying. Probably it's a sign I have been working with hurricane hazard for too long, and need to finish my project already.

Comments

[ng-nighthawk.livejournal.com]

When you have time and/or inclination, I would enjoy hearing an assessment on what went right and what went wrong with the disaster preparation and reaction.

But if you think it would be inappropriate or just exhausting to tackle more work-related stuff, I totally understand. I'm just sayin'. . . you're a smart guy whose current expertise is in this very area, so I'm interested in listening.

[redbeardedblond.livejournal.com]

i'm so disgusted at the state of the world caused by our current administrators that i can't begin to formulate words that convey the depth of it.

Cars, on the other hand, have been my passion since infancy.

[0nce-and-future.livejournal.com]

My gut instinct - is that this is the worst-case scenario...

Water level equalized with the lake.
Lots of people still alive in the mess.
Outside of the few refuges it's anarchy (the bad kind).
No way of getting people out.
No place to put them if they do get out.
Virtually no way of getting help in.
No way of getting the levees fixed without draining the city, and vice-versa.


BTW - has nobody ever heard of fail-gracefully? Levees should not fail BECAUSE water flows over them. Seriously. That's like designing a building to collapse in an earthquake so that people won't be annoyed by the swaying.

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

Don't forget that the people that could go/are going in were/are getting shot at to boot!

[0nce-and-future.livejournal.com]

And the water is now rife with diseases, toxic chemicals, lots of gas floating on the top, and filled with other floating munge.

And - if some dimwit decides to bust one of the levees on the Missisippi (intentionally or by dumbassery) - we'll have another couple of feet of water over the top of the existing swamp.

I predict that will happen in the next 24 hours.

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

Worst-case would have been if Katrina had made landfall while still a strong Cat 5 and the eye had passed to the east of New Orleans, hitting it with the strongest winds.

This is merely the really-really-awful-case scenario...

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

True. As Howard Tayler put it (comic below in journal text; gallows humor and possibly offensive)— there are worse things that could happen.

Many of which are fictional.

[psyclonic.livejournal.com]

I was stunned to see that one of the compromised "levees" was a wall. A goddam wall only a couple feet thick! When I was down there I saw big berm levees and simply assumed (because I didn't see that part of New Orleans) that that was employed on the Ponchartrain shoreline as well. Just stunned that such a fragile structure was the primary line of defense.

Also, there's plenty of time for the situation to degrade (tho hopefully the city will be completely evacuated this week). There's another two months of hurricane season left; we're at the statistical peak period for about another 1.5 weeks. Fortunately Hurricane Maria will remain far out at sea, but there are several tropical waves that could become Nate.