Looking at a map question re: New Orleans

[wndycty]

It appears Katrina is going to hit land before it gets to New Orleans, are the other cities that it hits more at risk? Also is New Orleans in trouble die the high winds or more so for the flooding?

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Flooding I think.

New Orleans sits in a big bowl 6 feet below sea level. The 17-foot-high dykes keep the water out....wave surge is supposed to be up to 28 feet.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. The towns south of NO

are pretty small. There are a lot of beautiful plantation homes down there in the Delta but it is largely uninhabited. It is farmland.

I would suspect that these communities are at great risk. The first thing I thought of when I saw the map of the path of Katrina was Oak Alley, a beautiful plantation south of NO.


http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/

[lonestarnot]

3. Damn that's pretty, but looks like a slave owner's house.

[Selatius]

7. If the structure pre-dates the Civil War, it probably was

[lonestarnot]

9. Trees look to be that old.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. They are older than the house

The trees were there first. They aren't sure who planted them, but the guide told us it was most likely a Spanish explorer in the 1600s.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. It was

It is now open to tourists.

[HamdenRice]

4. Worse than a direct hit is a hit to the west ...

Remember, a hurricane is a huge whirlwind turing counter clockwise. That means that when a hurricane hits to the west of a city, the winds coming at full speed directly off the ocean hits that target. That is the worst possible scenario for NO.

It will be much worse for NO if the hurricane hits a little to the west than if it is a direct hit.

[misanthrope]

12. Not necessarily...

...if New Orleans were on the eastern side of the eyewall, the winds would drive water into Pontchartrain first and then the south winds would force water from the river into the Garden District while the surge into the lake would be driven to the Slidell side.

If the Crescent City is on the western side of the eyewall, then the easterly winds drive surge from the Gulf into the lake, then the northerly winds that followed would push the lake over into New Orleans.

Given the option of having the river spill over OR having the lake spill over, I'll take the river.

[jim3775]

5. Katrina is so powerful that cat5 winds will hit NO before the eyewall...

comes ashore. Also, even 140 miles inland it will still be a cat2-3.

[eallen]

6. Much of what you see isn't so much land as it is swamp.

There aren't many towns down there. Anyone who is still south of New Orleans right now had better be bugging out as fast as they can.

[BayouBengal07]

8. Mostly

Most of it is fishing communities and small towns. Hopefully they got out. A lot of those barrier islands are always under threat of being washed away when a hurricane comes. I know a guy who lives down on Grand Isle, said most people had left.