Sunday, August 28, 2005
Hurricane Katrina
I'm like most people who have watched hurricanes for years, I'm used to a lot of big fizzles. But this one looks way scary. The fact that it's directly headed for a city that sits below sea level sounds like the worst case scenario possible. One of the bloggers I read is similarly worried for those in New Orleans. He's got an analysis that was done on the potential devastation in the New Orleans Times-Picayune a couple of years ago.

Georges, a Category 2 storm that only grazed New Orleans, had pushed waves to within a foot of the top of the levees. A stronger storm on a slightly different course -- such as the path Georges was on just 16 hours before landfall -- could have realized emergency officials' worst-case scenario: hundreds of billions of gallons of lake water pouring over the levees into an area averaging 5 feet below sea level with no natural means of drainage.


He's got more analysis there, go have a look.
Written at 11:21 AM by Highlandgal.
|