Flooding Update: NASA Satellite Photo shows a Huge part of Plaquemines

[Up2Late]

and most of St. Bernard Parishes still under water. I'm beginning to wonder if they are permanently lost to the Gulf.

(NOTE: The first 2 photos below are RAW and unprocessed and un-cropped, so they have a few lines and distortion on the edges, but New Orleans is near the middle were their is very little distortion.)

If you look at the September 8, 2005 Satellite, (in the Bands 7-2-1, 500m Photo) look at the Eastern side of the Mississippi River, where it makes the 180 degree turn just to the east of New Orleans and then heads due South.

All of that Black on the East side of the Mississippi River is Flood waters.

9/08/2005

Click Thumbnail, then click Bands 7-2-1 500m view

For the photo from today (but with a few areas covered with clouds) is below:

9/13/2005

Click Thumbnail, then click Bands 7-2-1 500m view

Click the thumbnail below to goto earlier Gulf Coast Photos for comparison. The Pre-Katrina photo is at the bottom of the linked page:

Date: 2005/239 - 08/27
19 :25 UTC
The Gulf Coast (before flooding)
Satellite: Aqua

Click Thumbnail

Older (and a few links to Hi-Res photos) with a full explanation of why the "false color" photo is better for seeing the flooding is at my post in the Science forum, link below:
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x12169>

[texpatriot2004]

1. If I wanted to alter my political landscape, and I were a heartless

evil void of a human all I really needed to do when I saw Pam was nothing. I know, :tinfoilhat: it's too far out there huh?

[Up2Late]

2. Yup, Is that someone's actual quote?

I do know the Pam you're talking about though.

[texpatriot2004]

3. mine...good gut feeling + good horse sense + Grace of God =

use my noodle

[jobycom]

4. Wow. The barrier islands off Mississippi are a mess

It looks like East Ship Island is gone, and West Ship Island seems smaller--hard to tell with the scale. If you look at the 9/13 pictures, the row of small islands off Mississippi (just east of Louisiana), starting with the one that looks like a checkmark, are (IIRC) Cat, West and East Ship, Horne, Deer and Dauphin (just below Mobile Bay). On the pre-Katrina picture, you can clearly see East and West Ship Islands, but on the 9/13 picture, East Ship seems like a faint mark, and West Ship looks smaller. Also, Dauphin Island looks cut in half.

Ship Island has a Civil War fort, Fort Massachusets. During Camille, the island was cut in half. The west half had the fort, the east half has an old graveyard. The west half is a tourist attraction, with two commercial boats carrying people to it every weekend. You can barely see it from the mainland if you know what to look for. The fort used to be on the very western tip, but storms and tides had moved the island westward, so last I saw it the fort was in the middle. Now, who knows? It could be in the Gulf. The East half just looks gone on the map.

Deer Island has several camps, and I saw a report that they were destroyed, along with the entire deer population of the island. One camp owner said there was debris 25 foot up in the trees on the island, meaning a wave of water 25 foot washed over the island. That may mean the storm surge was closer to 25 foot and not the 30 foot that some say. You can see Deer Island from the beach in Pass Christian, and several of the houses in Pass Christian on the beach survived, maybe because Cat Island helped cut the storm surge in that section. Maybe not, that's just my guess.

Dauphin Island, unlike the others, is inhabited, with a full-time town as well as beach houses, campsites, and another Civil War fort, Morgan, famous for firing on Admiral Farragut as he screamed "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." It is connected to the mainland by a bridge on the west side of the bay, and a ferry on the east. The ferry had been closed since Ivan. The satelite photo makes it look like a gash has been cut through Dauphin Island, as Camille did to Ship Island, though I could be seeing that wrong.

I'm not sure what to think about Plaquemines. As you know, the Lake drains right there through two outlets (My father always calls them the Rigalees and something else--interestingly, between those two outlets is where Jane Mansfield died). It could be still draining, and that could leave the waters elevated. Also, there are levees and dikes around there, too, and water may be held inside the levees instead of outside. Eventually they could repair and pump the levees. I don't guess we'll know until the Army engineers have a chance to get on the ground there and figure it out. Unless there are stories I've missed.

[Up2Late]

5. Wow, thanks for the Island Info, I do think that Dauphin did get cut...

...in two, though it looks like it could be more like a sand bar dividing it now, which could probably be fixed. Something similar happened at Port St. Joe (Cape San Blas) or St. George Island, in Florida a few years ago, I think.

I didn't know the particulars of the different Islands, but they did look a little different to me. Be careful judging them from the September 13 photo though, I think one of the scan lines (because these are RAW images) goes right through some of those Islands. Better to check them out on one of the other images, if they are not covered by clouds.

Do you know much about the islands of Terrebonne Parish (below Houma, LA)? Some of that area looks changed to me too.

[jobycom]

6. I looked at the 9/08 photo, too, and East Ship Island still looks gone.

When I was down in Gulfport, no one had yet boated or flown out to the island to survey it. I read on one of the local web pages today about Cat Island having damage. It's closer to the shore, and you could probably reach it easily with a kayak. That, plus the private property on the island meant people reached it earlier. I don't know if anyone has reached Ship Island since I left Sunday.

I don't know much about the Louisiana Islands, but I did see a discussion of some of them, the Chandalier Islands (sp?). From the article I read (I think on WWL's web page, or else WLOX.com or Sunherald.com), the islands have always been low in the water, and delicate, and have been eroding for decades. Nagin mentioned them at some point, and how their detorioration left New Orleans more vulnerable to storm surges. There have been bills before Congress to repair the Louisiana wetlands and barrier islands, but they don't usually get much results. I think one was defeated recently, in fact. Anyway, the article (from memory) said there was a lot of damage to the Chandeliers, but that some of it might come back. They talked about the fishing around the islands more than the ecological aspect, or the protection of New Orleans aspect.

Anyway, that's all I know about them. I've never been to the Chandalier Islands. I've been to Ship Island and Dauphin Island often (I have some nice memories of my first girlfriend on Ship Island--shoulda married her! But that's another story), and you can see Cat and Deer Islands from the mainland. If you've ever been in the casinos on the east end of Biloxi, Deer Island is the one you see out of their windows. It looks close enough to swim to. Horne Island I know very little about. You can't see it from the coast, but you can from Ship Island. People probably boat out to it for various reasons, but as far as I know, there's nothing permanent on the island.

[Up2Late]

7. I was looking at the NDVI 250m image, and I think you can still see...

...East Ship Island, but it's very small now. I haven't really figured out what NDVI stands for, all I know is that it is a false color filter. The link to the MODIS FAQ is below:

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/faq/#faq18

I think the Louisiana Islands (at the toe of boot) look almost completely gone though. Their might be a tiny bit of the largest of the Chandeleur Islands still there, but the North Islands, Freemason Island, Breton Island, Grand Gosier Island, and the Curlew Island all seem to be completely gone. So much for the Breton National Wildlife Refuge.

Let me know if you find out any more info, I find this sort of thing very interesting.

[Up2Late]

8. Check this out from The Huntsville Times

In Katrina's wake

Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Huntsville Times

News updates on Gulf Coast alternate between good, bad...

(Clip)

- The bad news is Fish and Wildlife Service officials have been unable to locate Breton National Wildlife Refuge in the Gulf southeast of New Orleans. It is the nation's second-oldest refuge, established and visited by President Teddy Roosevelt 101 years ago.

Aerial surveys show the famed Chandeleur Islands, Grand Gosier and Curlew chain suffered intense damage. There are signs of white sand replenishment, but it may take years for recovery, if it ever happens.

Likewise, from aerial photos by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that portions of the "boot" of Louisiana have been changed forever. Massive flooding, wind damage and storm surge completely innundated communities such as Port Sulphur, Buras, Boothville and Venice. Tankers and barges were tossed around like children's toys. Large charter and pleasure boats at the "End of the World Marina" in Buras are piled up at the Louisiana 23 highway bridge. The marina was destroyed, as is Venice Marina further south.

A friend in Baton Rouge said a Plaquemines Parish official described it this way: "It looked like somebody picked up the Gulf of Mexico and moved it 40 miles north."

<http://www.al.com/outdoors/huntsvilletimes/aclemons.ssf?/base/sports/1126084784254610.xml&coll=1>
(more at link above)

[Up2Late]

9. Cat Island takes a hit from Hurricane Katrina (9-13-05)

Posted on Tue, Sep. 13, 2005

Cat Island takes a hit from Hurricane Katrina

By AL JONES

[e-mail]

GULFPORT - Hurricane Katrina left her mark on Cat Island, a small island 10 miles south of Gulfport. The island, home to excellent white trout and speckled trout fishing during the late fall and spring, features six individually owned camps. One of the camps belongs to Gulfport doctor Boyd Benefield, who made the trip to the island earlier this week with the Coast Guard and the Harrison County Sheriff's Department.

What Benefield found was terrifying. Amazing, too. "The caretaker sprayed insulation in the camp next to mine just before the storm hit," Benefield said. "The insulation that's still intact is 25 feet off the ground. Our best gauge is the water came 25 feet over the island."

(clip)

"We had hurricane straps on the pilings that went through the ceiling," he said. "The pilings were bolted with all thread (material). We built it so strong that the wind lifted the pilings out of the ground that were 10 feet down. Some of the pilings are in the top portion of the oak trees.

(clip)

"You can see Ship Island from the South Bayou," Benefield said. "It comes in behind Smugglers Cove and goes through the marsh and comes back out 100 yards north of the stumps. "The deer herd is gone and we have reports that some have washed up in Pass Christian. The raccoons, however, are still there. They're a hearty group that hung onto whatever they could find to survive."

<http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/sports/12631494.htm>
(more at link above)