Picture of the superdome roof leaks

[dogday]

[Zynx]

1. That doesn't look too serious at the moment

[Lochloosa]

5. Any breach of a roof in a hurricane is serious....

This allows the wind to uplift the roof. They could start losing the roof at any time....

[BamaLefty]

16. Exactly.

Anything hurts. :(

[GOPisEvil]

2. Doesn't look like 1/12th of the roof to me.

I hope that is the extent of the damage though.

[Cassandra]

8. I assume the roof is constructed in segments.

Perhaps this is part of a 1/12th segment which would have to be replaced later, rather than just patched.

[GOPisEvil]

10. My point is that there's a lot of hyperbole concerning this.

I had visions of a whole roof panel blown off. These are just a couple of relatively small holes. Serious, yes, but not the doomsday I wan envisioning.

[Stephanie]

14. The 1/12 figure was from a reporter inside talking to CNN

[GOPisEvil]

17. I understand that. I blame that reporter.

It was irresponsible "journalism". Reporters aren't supposed to freak out and over-estimate things. Just report things as they are, don't make shit up.

[Gman]

18. I heard the reporter say originally

something about taking the circumference of the dome, divide by pi, and he continued to "calculate" the size of the hole(s). At that point, I said, "Huh?" I didn't give the report much credence after that.

[Roland99]

9. 1/12 of 1/2 maybe

[Walt Starr]

3. Since the worst winds are well to the west of NO

That is not going to be too bad of a situation.

They'll probably even be able to lose to the Giants on September 18.

[theboss]

4. The roof on the Kingdome used to fall apart for no reason at all

I'm not going to panic about this.

[Ian David]

6. Is CNN saying they're considering evacuating the dome?? WTF?? n/t

[jim3775]

7. That's not 1/12th, can we all please stop panicking now? n/t

[SaveAmerica]

12. And start complaining to CNN

[cynatnite]

11. CNN is irresponsible

On MSNBC they said the roof is made out of a fabric and not part of the actual structure. They are moving people to the safer parts of the superdome, but not out of it.

There is no danger of the roof collapsing or anything like that. It's tears of the fabric covering it. The people there are safe.

CNN is talking out of it's ass.

[underpants]

13. Complete 1975-30 year old structure

seems to be fairing fairly well so far, considering.

[Stephanie]

15. the reporter who said it is inside the superdome

[Individualist]

23. CNN: The mistrusted name in news

[ultraist]

19. That roof structure is now compromised, will it collapse?

The structure is now weakened and if that roof collapses, it's going to be very ugly. Let's hope they can evacuate everyone OUT of there, soon!

[spinbaby]

20. Safer in than out

The structure is sound. You want people to go out into the storm?

[ultraist]

21. Obviously people cannot go out now, into the storm.

I hope the worst passes by quickly though, because the roof structure is no longer sound.

There is a hole in the roof which means the entire roof structure is weakened. I'm not an engineer, but it's pretty apparent that with 1/12 of a structure destroyed, the remaining part of the structure is not as strong as it should be.

[theboss]

24. Where did this 1/12 number come from?

It looks like about a ten-foot hole.

[tigereye]

25. no, engineers have said the structure is sound

it was built to withstand very strong winds....

[ultraist]

28. Yes, the engineers said it was built to withstand strong winds

And they said that BEFORE part of the roof was blown off. I doubt any engineers have been in there to examine the damage at this point.

[tigereye]

31. no, the governor said that there was a structural engineer

on site and that the skin above a small part of the roof was partly blown off.

[LSK]

26. think of it this way

If someone throws a baseball through your living room window, will your whole house fall down??? No. Same situation. The part that ripped is not the actual support structure of the dome, it does nothing to keep the dome standing, it just holds water out.

[ultraist]

27. If you had a big hole in your roof, your entire roof could come down

Yes, the structure holding up the roof is now compromised. We don't know what structural beams are now gone but we do know, that part of the structure is weakened.

[LSK]

29. we are not talking wood here

We are talking concrete and steel. And that is now what has been hurt by these holes ripping.

[buddysmellgood]

22. Here is background on the Superdome roof material and construction

http://www.polythane.com/library/superd.htm

[daleo]

30. A hole in the roof is never a good sign

I suppose it depends on the wind strength. But with a hole, I think the wind can attack from above and below, and possibly create much more damage at that point. I have a feeling it will hold, but I wouldn't want to be in there myself.