storm

[cellio]

Edit: The report I linked has since been edited and no longer contains the quoted text.

Holy cow. Since when does NOAA use the word "will" in forecasts of destruction? At first I thought the quotes I was seeing from this report were fake, until someone posted a link to the NOAA site.

"MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED."

There was a storm just a year or two ago that was predicted to flood New Orleans and it missed, but this sounds awfully certain. I hope the people who didn't get out in time find some way to be safe in all that.

insomnia has been posting information and is trying to hook up LJ users with crash space, though at this point I gather the problem is getting out of the city at all.

Comments

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

I showed that link to Mike earlier this evening, and he thought it was fake, too. He says the funny thing is that it's not linked to anywhere on the NOAA site. He even went so far as to ftp in and says you can't upload to it, so it doesn't look like it could have been hacked.

It's very scary sounding. I hadn't been paying much attention to news this week, and all of a sudden people have been posting to lj about this today. Opinions seem to be running from "moderately bad" to "armageddon". Yeesh.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Mrs. put it that it sounds like something out of Revelations!

[siderea]

That link doesn't say anything about "uninhabitable" or anything so dire now.

Not as vehement-

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

KATRINA IS FORECAST TO MOVE ASHORE AS CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE...
SIMILAR IN STRENGTH TO HURRICANE CAMILLE IN 1969. WINDS ASSOCIATED
CATEGORY 4 AND CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE CAN TOTALLY DESTROY MOBILE
HOMES AND POORLY CONSTRUCTED DWELLINGS...AND CAUSE MAJOR
DAMAGE TO EVEN WELL CONSTRUCTED BUILDINGS. HIGHER WIND SPEEDS WILL
BE SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER ON UPPER FLOORS OF TALL BUILDINGS CAUSING
DAMAGE.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/WTUS84-KLIX.shtml

[cellio]

Thanks for letting me know. Heh -- mischievous employee, Cassandra, or a hacker, I wonder?

(Now I wish I'd cached the entire report earlier.)

[cellio]

siderea just pointed out that it's no longer there, so I suspect our first instincts (fake) were right.

[siderea]

Though CNN is apparently quoting that very announcement, so they think it's for real.

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps they just noticed that their server was getting hammered, looked around the referrers and rethought the wording of it. I guess there's a fine line between erring on the side of caution and inciting a panic.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

I lived through Camille; if they are saying this will be the same or worse, it's going to be bad.

[siderea]

gager posted it

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

The following is from the forecast discussion (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lix/cgi-bin/previous2.php?pil=LIXAFDLIXW&version=0) (the meterologists' informal notes, usually discussing the tradeoffs they made between the several computerized models and second-guessing the consensus report they send the newsfeeds) at 9:22 Pacific time:

SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA SEEMS POISED FOR A DATE WITH DESTINY AS
CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO KEEP A BEAD ON BARATARIA
BAY AND THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA. THE GFS MODEL CONTINUES TO
BE SUPERIOR IN ITS HANDLING OF THE SYSTEM INASMUCH AS TO BASE THE
CONVENTIONAL FORECAST PARAMETERS WITH GOOD INTEGRITY AND IN
AGREEMENT WITH NHC ADVISORIES.

NEEDLESS TO SAY...THE WORST CAN BE ANTICIPATED AND URGENCY IS
BEING STRESSED IN ALL PRODUCTS AS A WORST CASE HURRICANE SCENARIO
FOR THIS VERY FRAGILE AND VULNERABLE STRETCH OF U.S. COASTLINE.
THE EYE IS EMERGING ON THE KLIX LONG RANGE LOOP AND BANDS ARE
EXTENDING TO LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN AT THIS TIME. THINGS WILL BE
DETIORATING STEADILY FROM THIS POINT FORWARD FOR THE NEXT 24
HOURS.

WILL MAINTAIN ALL WARNINGS AS ALREADY POSTED AS WELL AS THE FLASH
FLOOD WATCH. STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ADVISED THAT THE FIRST
TORNADO WATCH OF THE EVENT WILL LIKELY BE ISSUED FOR THE REGION
EARLY THIS EVENING...PROBABLY RIGHT AFTER SUNSET.
MOST ATTENTION WITH THIS PACKAGE WAS DAY 1-2 WITH LITTLE IF ANY
CHANGES MADE BEYOND DAY 3. GOOD LUCK AND GODSPEED TO ALL IN THE
PATH OF THIS STORM.