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NOLA and Katrina

I’ve been sitting here all day, worrying about our favorite city: New Orleans. It looks seriously like Katrina could remove it from existance. Betsy and I were married in New Orleans, and we made it to Mardi Gras many, many times. We love NOLA…it’s not like any other US city. That is, it’s the most non-US of any US city…you feel like you’re in another country when you are there. The fact that this time tomorrow it could be underwater hurts me.

To give those of you some idea how serious this storm is, take a look at some of the National Weather Service advisory notes:

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE…INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY…A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD…AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS…PETS…AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS. Wow. Nearly everyone seems to be expecting this to be the largest natural distaster in US history.

Hopefully everyone has evacuated appropriately. This is not something to “wait out.” If someone out there finds a good blog/news site for updates, let me know.

EDIT: Here’s a couple of good webcams and local streaming stations for those following this:

http://www.portno.com/webcamnew_out.htm
http://www.wwltv.com/cgi-bin/bi/video/makeadplaylist.pl?title=beloint_wwltv&live=yes
http://www.dotd.louisiana.gov/press/traffic_cameras/cameras_no.asp?camera=Cam4

High Res satellite images from NOAA

Good blogging regarding the ‘cane from Weather Underground

By griffey

Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.

4 replies on “NOLA and Katrina”

Here’s the blog from the Times-Picayune. They are hunkered down in the center of their building – their own little Hurricane Bunker – and are blogging until they lose connectivity.
I know how you feel. I have a similar love for NOLA and, having lived through Ivan at Cat 5 strength last year in Jamaica, I am terrified as to what the hurricane will do to NOLA, its people, animals, and its landscape. We also have friends near Lake Pontchartrain, whom we met during Ivan, who are going to be married in two weeks.

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