New Orleans Braces for Powerful Katrina - Yahoo! News
I am very sorry that I never saw New Orleans. Sending big prayers out to all living things that reside there...
NEW ORLEANS - A monstrous Hurricane Katrina barreled toward New Orleans on Sunday with 165-mph wind and a threat of a 28-foot storm surge, forcing a mandatory evacuation of the below-sea-level city and prayers for those who remained to face a doomsday scenario.
Katrina intensified into a Category 5 giant over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday as cars jammed highways leading out of the region.
A direct hit on New Orleans, as expected around sunrise Monday, would be the city's first direct hit in 40 years and the most powerful storm to ever slam the city of 458,000. By early evening, the first squalls and driving rains were lashing its buildings.
A grim Mayor C. Ray Nagin conceded Katrina's storm surge pushing up the Mississippi River would swamp New Orleans' system of levees, flooding the bowl-shaped city and causing potentially months of misery.
"We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared," he said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event."
Forecasters warned that Mississippi and Alabama were also in danger. Because of Katrina's size — its hurricane-force winds extended 105 miles from the center — even areas far from the landfall could be devastated. Beyond the winds, the storm packed the potential for a surge of 18 to 28 feet, 30-foot waves and as much as 15 inches of rain.
"The conditions have to be absolutely perfect to have a hurricane become this strong," said National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield, noting that Katrina may yet be more powerful than 1992's Hurricane Andrew. Andrew, with 165 mph winds, leveled parts of South Florida, killed 43 people and caused $31 billion in damage.
"It's capable of causing catastrophic damage," Mayfield said. "Even well-built structures will have tremendous damage. Of course, what we're really worried about is the loss of lives."
As many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave, and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport. The city arranged buses to take people to 10 last-resort shelters, including the Superdome.
On a greedier note- if you are reading this on Sunday night/Monday morning- go fill up your gas tank RIGHT NOW. Oil just opened over $70 dollars a barrell on the NYMEX- which begins electronic trading at 7PM Sundays. They are predicting insanity when tomorrow comes.
I got up off my lazy ass, got dressed, and tanked the car at $2.74 mid-grade. Should last me a while.