Hurricane Ida Threatens Louisiana

[Yazata]

Heading for coast, expected to arrive Sunday at category 3-4 level. Mandatory evacuations for New Orleans low lying areas outside levees, and voluntary evacuation warning for whole city. Highways are packed with people getting out of Dodge.

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They are forcasting 10 to 15 foot surge in the swampy lowlands of the Mississippi delta south of the city. If that happens, it will put the whole area under water. This is where Port Fourchon is, a major port serving the offshore oil industry (and where SpaceX's rocket landing barges were built). There are some 600 offshore oil platforms within a 40 mile radius of Port Fourchon. It's a very big deal.

Looks like they are predicting 4-7 feet around New Orleans, so hopefully the levees hold. 2-4 feet as far away as Mobile.

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[Yazata]

I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this

https://twitter.com/nolaready

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[Yazata]

Storm should be hitting Sunday morning. They are saying that it's too late to evacuate now (midnight central) so it's time to find the safest place possible to ride out the storm. People are being advised to make sure they have the supplies they need.

The Vew Orleans airport was packed all day with people trying to leave, but it has already shut down operations. Public transit in the city has halted. I don't think that there was ever a Katrina style mass evacuation and many people have remained this time. The levees are improved and the danger to the city may be less. There's more concern about the many small communities to the south and west like Houma. These could be completely flooded and potentially wiped out if the surge is bad enough.

The Lousiana national guard has staged vehicles and relief supplies.

[Magical Realist]

Millions without power for what may take months. Those poor people. I'd go crazy without TV and the Internet. Sitting in my candle lit apt at night.

[Syne]

At least they managed to do the maintenance on the levees after Katrina. We all know what worse looked like.

[Yazata]

Millions without power for what may take months. Those poor people. I'd go crazy without TV and the Internet. Sitting in my candle lit apt at night.

If there's no power, there's probably no cell service either. So they are basically cut off from the world. Kind of like life in the 1800's I guess. That's why the survivalists among us tell us to buy one of those radios that you can charge up with a crank.

I'm worried about those weird Lousiana swamp n' gator towns out in the bayous. It will take days to weeks to check the more remote places. I suspect that some of them may no longer exist. Loss of life may creep upwards.