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wallinbl · Aug 28, 2005, 06:43 PM

In worst-case scenarios, most of New Orleans would end up under 15
feet of water, without electricity, clean water and sewage for months.
Even pumping the water out could take as long as four months to get
started because the massive pumps that would do the job would be
underwater.

If you live in a hurricane afflicted area, you've known about the potential for New Orleans to get flooded. If you don't know, the city is 6 feet below sea level and is surrounded by dykes. The problem is that if the water surges up over the dykes, it has no way to get back out.

Is it me, or is it just a really bad place to build a large city?

Kerrigan · Aug 28, 2005, 06:45 PM

No more New Orleans threads!!

Scandalous Ion Cannon · Aug 28, 2005, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by wallinbl

surrounded by dykes

Sounds like my old job.

zerostar · Aug 28, 2005, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by wallinbl

Is it me, or is it just a really bad place to build a large city?

It's not just you, there have been cities built in TERRIBLE locations ever since cities have begun to be built.

hope that makes sense lol

I recently saw a show on Discovery that had a cool hypothesis about [what really happened to] Sodom and Gahmorrah that explained how it was built near the dead sea and on shoddy ground and that a earthquake could have pretty much sank the whole city into the sea, i only watched it briefly but it was good, maybe someone else can explain it better.

Anyway, this will suck for N.O. for sure, hope the death tool isn't too high because the monetary loss with be unbelievable.

greenamp · Aug 28, 2005, 07:07 PM

For starters they are levees not dykes

NO was obviously not originally bellow sea level when it was first established. If so it would have been part of Lake Pontchatrain.

Because of soft underlying sediment the city simply sank under it's own weight once it began to grow.

wallinbl · Aug 28, 2005, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by greenamp

Because of soft underlying sediment the city simply sank under it's own weight once it began to grow.

Not a very good sign!

von Wrangell · Aug 28, 2005, 07:14 PM

To be a modern day Pompei you need a volcano. Something like this:

That resulted in this:

http://islandia.ru/images/_img/1286.jpg

http://www.florianboehler.de/images/...d-lava1974.jpg

(after restoration the place above looks like this

greenamp · Aug 28, 2005, 07:15 PM

Originally Posted by wallinbl

Not a very good sign!

You have to realize though that N.O is a very old city, and was settled even before the USA was a nation. By the time they realized it had sank and was still sinking, it was already too late.

Colonel Panic · Aug 28, 2005, 07:16 PM

perhaps more a modern day Atlantis as opposed to Pompeii...

I truly hope this storm moves east. I have a horrible feeling about this one, and hope everyone gets out or gets to higher ground or at least gets to the Superdome, where some relief is planned.

wallinbl · Aug 28, 2005, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by von Wrangell

To be a modern day Pompei you need a volcano.

I realize that Pompeii involved a volcano. I was really referring to the idea of building a city in a place that was tempting fate of a natural disaster. The people in Pompeii had notice for about two weeks that there was an eruption pending. The people in New Orleans have had only a few days. Let's hope that the NO people are smarter and do evacuate (for some reason, many people stayed in Pompeii).

Kerrigan · Aug 28, 2005, 07:22 PM

Originally Posted by Colonel Panic

perhaps more a modern day Atlantis as opposed to Pompeii...

To have a modern day Atlantis you need lasers and aliens and a inter-dimensional time warp.

At least, according to those documentaries on late at night.

greenamp · Aug 28, 2005, 07:23 PM

Originally Posted by Colonel Panic

perhaps more a modern day Atlantis as opposed to Pompeii...

I truly hope this storm moves east. I have a horrible feeling about this one, and hope everyone gets out or gets to higher ground or at least gets to the Superdome, where some relief is planned.

I have a bad feeling as well

If Katrina hits N.O with full cat5 force, it has the potential to be one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States.

If the city floods it will become one giant toxic lake.

von Wrangell · Aug 28, 2005, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by wallinbl

I realize that Pompeii involved a volcano. I was really referring to the idea of building a city in a place that was tempting fate of a natural disaster. The people in Pompeii had notice for about two weeks that there was an eruption pending. The people in New Orleans have had only a few days. Let's hope that the NO people are smarter and do evacuate (for some reason, many people stayed in Pompeii).

Where did you get that from? What destroyed Pompei was a pyroclastic flow. You don't have several weeks advance of those things. If you see it and is in its path you are dead. There's no use running from it. And it's only about 350-850°C. Another thing you forget is that back in those days people didn't have cars to move all their stuff out and the science wasn't exactly as exact as now (we are able to predict possible volcanic eruptions just a few days in advance at most, but most of the time the warning is a few hours).

So I really don't know what you are talking about. Got any links so I can read up on it?

wallinbl · Aug 28, 2005, 07:39 PM

Originally Posted by von Wrangell

So I really don't know what you are talking about. Got any links so I can read up on it?

There was a thing on Discovery Channel about it. They uncovered some writings and drawings that indicated that there were rumblings and smoke for two weeks prior to the event. The indications were that they (the writers, at least) knew that something was about to happen.

I checked Wikipedia, but the only mention on there was that all the wells in the town dried up before it went off.

KeriVit · Aug 28, 2005, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

No more New Orleans threads!!

Yeah, two or three threads from different angles is SO redundant considering a city with massive history and population could soon be destroyed.

von Wrangell · Aug 28, 2005, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by wallinbl

There was a thing on Discovery Channel about it. They uncovered some writings and drawings that indicated that there were rumblings and smoke for two weeks prior to the event. The indications were that they (the writers, at least) knew that something was about to happen.

I checked Wikipedia, but the only mention on there was that all the wells in the town dried up before it went off.

If you live near an active volcano that's nothing special. You might take some extra precaution but you are seldom able to (especially in those days) to predict a pyroclastic flow. So I highly doubt they had any idea what was coming to them. They might have expected an volcanic eruption but most of the time those are rather harmless and people are able to evacuate after it starts.

wallinbl · Aug 28, 2005, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by greenamp

I have a bad feeling as well

If Katrina hits N.O with full cat5 force, it has the potential to be one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States.

If the city floods it will become one giant toxic lake.

I think that they will be fortunate in that it looks like it will land slightly east of NO. If it were to go to the west of NO, they would get the eastern side of the hurricane (northward winds), which would give them the brunt of the storm surge.

Kerrigan · Aug 28, 2005, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by KeriVit

Yeah, two or three threads from different angles is SO redundant considering a city with massive history and population could soon be destroyed.

It's not like the Apple Store has gone down, it doesn't deserve this many threads.

production_coordinator · Aug 28, 2005, 08:14 PM

I think it's important to remember that most cities aren't planned.

SVass · Aug 28, 2005, 08:21 PM

Idiots live in many dangerous places. How about Port Royal? or New York?

kiwibabe · Aug 28, 2005, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by wallinbl

I realize that Pompeii involved a volcano. I was really referring to the idea of building a city in a place that was tempting fate of a natural disaster. The people in Pompeii had notice for about two weeks that there was an eruption pending. The people in New Orleans have had only a few days. Let's hope that the NO people are smarter and do evacuate (for some reason, many people stayed in Pompeii).

I understand what you were trying to get at.

The thing with Pompeii was that the people who lived there did not know that Pompeii was a volcano (as there was no eruption in living memory and they didn't tend to travel far) so when it started erupting they did not know what was about to happen. Many did escape before the pyroclastic flow which destroyed the city. Unfortunately some of them went to Herculaneum and got caught in the pyroclastic flow there. They were used to the earthquakes happening there but did not think it related to the large mountain behind them.

Sorry about the rambling but I visited Pompeii last year, definitely one of the things everyone should do in their lifetime.

Atomic Rooster · Aug 28, 2005, 11:11 PM

Originally Posted by greenamp

For starters they are levees not dykes

Same thing.

greenamp · Aug 28, 2005, 11:51 PM

Originally Posted by Atomic Rooster

Same thing.

You don't say

Warung · 10:06 AM

[removed oversize image --tooki]

*SCNR*

Be well everybody in NO and other places which might be effected! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

JoshuaZ · Aug 29, 2005, 03:25 AM

Modern day Atlantis. Though really, from what I know, the city was slowly being eaten by Asian termites brought over after WWII. So it was only a matter of time before the city either sank, or was eaten.