What DU doesn't get about how people evacuate from NOLA by XULTAR

[xultar]

OK. I know a lot of you are seeing cars on TeeV and don't see them piled to the hilt with people.

Welp usually in a family situation they send out one car with the family and the pets. They want them to get to safety first get a hotel etc.

Why because the hotels will fill up inland.

They leave 1 or 2 people behind to board up the house and they bring the second car to where the first group has set up camp.

Now I know a lot of you are seeing trucks with empty beds. Usually they've already piled grandma safety kits, important papers, kids, pets, friends, and family in cars in a caravan and left already.

When I lived in NOLA we had 2 kits. My EX had his and I had mine.
Womens kit with food, menses stuff, a little bottle of bleach, meds anti-diarrheal, advil clothes flash lites batteries all in ziploc bags in a huge rubbermaid tub the kind with the two front toolbox type huge clamp hinges. What did I pack hotel soaps shampoos, rags, disposable camera, peanut butter, Powerade - powder blue, peanut butter crackers, I can't remember what else.

Male kit,
Same stuff without the menses.

WE even had his and hers mag-lites.

If I ever needed it I would take the cats and my kit in my car and get on I-10 and head out of dodge.

He'd stay and board up and I prayed that he would join me. Deep down I'd know however that his dumb, ass would stay so he could take photos. Why cuz the ass had planned on hanging out with Harold and paddling around the city in a little boat.

Haven't you heard of Hurricane parties. Right now I'm sure there are people partying their asses of right now. Drinking and DRUNK off their asses. Harold even made up fliers and passed them out in the Bywater about his Hurricane parties.

Schwegmann...that's it. I couldn't remember the name of the makin groceries places down there.

[stellanoir]

1. Glad you're not there now hon

and thanks for the info.

[xultar]

2. Me too! I'm afraid to call my EX cuz I don't wanna know he's still too

dumb ass to leave. I hope he sent my kitties with someone out of town. :cry:

[salin]

8. xultar, while this was a helpful post to those of us who have never lived

in hurricane zones...

your description of your ex and the hurricane parties completely cracked me up!

Hey - we have folks here in tornado alley who go out to watch the touchdowns ... :shrug:

[xultar]

11. Go figure. What is so funny is they think they are sane telling you

how they are going to meet up with Harold cuz Harold has a boat(I forget the name or type) or he's got one tied out back.

Assuming their dumb ass will be alive to hook up or paddle around.

[salin]

14. LOL

Last tornado warning - some fool on the radio was describing the "tornadic activity" - and said... "If you go outside right now and look at the clouds you will notice..." Idiot undoubtedly just sent a hundred or more hoosiers out in their yards amidst the "tornadic activity."

[xultar]

16. Buhwawawa! Note to self. Don't telll viewers to go outside and look

4 yourself.
DUH!!!

OMG.

[salin]

17. actually - the only "eyewitness" event I had was to a funnel cloud

(small tornado) - we went back upstairs to try to coax our scaredy-cat dog down the stairs when the sky turned green - and everything in front of the BIG PLATE GLASS WINDOWS started flying horizontally - I was with my Mother and we froze - held hands - stood silently in awe (and fear), and then it was over and we grabbed the dog and forced him down the stairs. Next day as we surveyed the damage - found a four foot wide path where the grass in the field was flattened - in an odd zigzaggy pattern. Fortunately it hadn't uprooted to much - and it passed by the house rather than touching down on the house.

That said - to admit to almost as stupid behavior as following the announcer's suggestion to go outside and "look". Granted we hadn't intended to stand there, dumbfounded. But seriously we were across the room from two six foot by eight foot plate glass windows... :whew:

[SoCalDem]

28. Once, I stood next to a 20 ft wall of glass WATCHING

a tornado rip up 80 foot cottonwoods and toss them like toothpicks..

My friends and I were playing bridge on the lower level of her house, and we heard a "train".. She opened the curtains, and 8 women just stood there mesmerized..Her husband came downstairs and YELLED at us to get to the basement..

[xultar]

29. WOW that was close. I can't say I wouldn't be mesmerized either.

[Elidor]

3. There was an infamous hurricane party for Camille

24 people in an apartment building on the coast. One lady survived. She was swept 12 miles inland.

http://www.weathernotebook.org/transcripts/1998/08/20.html

[xultar]

13. I remember talking to an old dude who lived through Camille. He

owned a shaved ice shoppe uptown just off the river. He was funny how he talked about the whole Hurricane Party thing.

His little shaved ice shopp survived Camille. If you ever get to NOLA...after this storm. His shoppe and his shaved ice is worth the trouble locating.

I hope it survives this storm. :cry:

[Endangered Specie]

21. Im somewhat sure that is an urban myth

[xultar]

23. Nope, it is true. FACT. Not a Myth.

[Endangered Specie]

24. no...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Camille

The Hurricane Party

One persistent legend about Camille states that a hurricane party was held on the third floor of the Richelieu Manor Apartments in Pass Christian, Mississippi that wound up in the path of the eyewall as it made landfall. The high storm surge flooded and destroyed the building, and there was only one survivor to tell of the story of the 21 others. Who the survivor is, how many party guests there were, and just how far the sole survivor was swept by the storm varies with the retelling.

In reality, most of the people that stayed in the Richelieu Apartments survived, and there was no party. Residents, exhausted from helping to prepare the town to weather the storm, took refuge in the building not out of recklessness, but because it was believed to be one of the sturdiest buildings in the area. Survivor Ben Duckworth is quoted in Hurricane Camille: Monster Storm of the Gulf Coast as stating that the Richelieu was a designated civil defense air-raid shelter. However, their faith in the building's sturdiness was unfounded, as it was completely demolished by the storm. Twenty-three people are known to have stayed in the Richelieu Apartments during Hurricane Camille, but only eight died.

The tale of the lone survivor and the party appears to have originated with survivor Mary Ann Gerlach. Other survivors, including Duckworth and Richard Keller have expressed irritation at the story <1> <2>.

“The hurricane party never happened, nor were the number of deaths associated with the apartment inhabitants accurate,” says Pat Fitzpatrick, Mississippi State University professor and author of Hurricanes: A Reference Handbook <3>.

The mythical hurricane party has been referenced several times in pop culture, and formed the basis for an episode of Quantum Leap titled "Hurricane".

[xultar]

25. You are right. I am 100% wrong. Thanks for posting the correction.

[Endangered Specie]

26. no problem, though I heard that people are planning on partying

in New Orleans during the storm... Darwin must be really proud

[xultar]

27. My Exs friend Harold printed up flyers in 1999 when a close call

was about to happen.

I was already out of town and took a flight to Denver instead of trying to get into NOLA.

The storm didn't in fact hit.

[Elidor]

30. My mother remembers the story

I.E., she remembers it from a time long, long before the internet and stupid chain emails . Nothing about it on Snopes.

Here's a link:

http://www.weathernotebook.org/transcripts/1998/08/20.html

[ladjf]

4. It may seem primitive. But, if one was desperate to leave New

Orleans, they could start walking and get picked up by someone that has room in their vehicle. Hitchhike, in other words.

[xultar]

9. Heck yeah. That is why I got so angry @ the poster saying that they

didn't see people in the back of trucks and saw cars with one or 2 drivers.

Most folks have a plan and stick to that plan. If the neighborhood isn't totally abandoned if they head off to I 10 for damn sure they'd get a ride. If not head toward the dome.


IT is the idiots that are out walking around though there is a curfew and partying those are the ones who will end up dead. I know a few who would be in that group. :cry:

[Double T]

5. I think this situation might be a lot different........

An F5 Hurricane equals an F3 Tornado and I don't believe you'll find too many people partying about that, unless you have a death wish.

[xultar]

7. People in NOLA are crazy in a fun way. I'm afraid by the time they

really get the message it may be too late to leave and all they have left to do is party.

[Gold Metal Flake]

6. Folks elsewhere don't realize that those of use raised on the Gulf Coast..

...have plans for such things. Well, some of us do (or did, I'm not there anymore). So, it's easy to see something like vehicles with few people or few things and make a judgement.

I'm hoping like hell that the storm surge manages to dissipate. Good luck.

[xultar]

15. I'm not in NOLA anymore. I broke up with my EX and I couldn't take the

storm thing.

People always talked about the big one and what they were going to do and how they were goin to do it. What I found strange is they'd say things like. Well I'll stay for a Cat 1, 2, 3, I'd consider leaving for a Cat 4 or 5.

CONSIDER.

Funny thing is by the time they made the decision it would be tough to get out. I lived in the 9th ward of Orleans parrishh 3 blocks off the river aka the lowest part of town in the bywater. I hope my friends in that community left.

[justgamma]

10. I have a question.

CNN keeps showing pictures of the highway. Why is there only 1 lane that doesn't seem to be moving and the rest have very little traffic? I've been trying to figure this out. Thanks.

[xultar]

12. OMFG I DON'T KNOW. I had always heard that they opend all lanes out

I don't know why they didn't do it this time.

It may depend on where they are shooting from and how they are flowing traffic to head out in one direction.

I was as shocked as you were to see that. I didn't get worried until I saw 1/2 the freeway being used and people in gridlock.

THEY BETTER OPEN UP I 10 BOTH SIDES IN ONE DIRECTION OR PEOPLE ARE GONNA BE ON THE ROAD WHEN THAT SHIT HITS. :cry: :cry:

[tjdee]

18. I assumed the other lane is only for emergency personnel??

That was my thinking anyway.

I can imagine cars are overheating, there are fender benders, etc. and ambulances/police/etc. can't get there if they're stuck with everyone else.

:shrug:

[xultar]

19. You might be right. While I lived there though I was always told and

maybe it was my assumption that they would open all lanes out in one direction.

[tjdee]

20. That's what they said on the news yesterday....

so that's what I expected. I was a little confused when I saw the video, then I just figured it must be cops,etc.

[lonestarnot]

22. Well I hope those that are tanked aren't too tanked to swim!