Absolutely bloody terrifying: a PSA

[vulgarweed]

As I'm sure most of you in the US have heard, Hurricane Katrina is a Category 5. It looks like this.
It is in the Top Three of all-time recorded US hurricanes for its size and intensity.

It has sustained winds of 175 mph, and gusts up to 215. It might bring up to 30-foot storm surges. That will overwhelm the levees and sea walls built to protect places that are at or below sea level. There's no pumping system that can handle that. It is not being alarmist to say that the destruction of New Orleans, by most accepted definitions of that word, is a very real possibility.

There are an estimated 100,000 people in New Orleans who do not own cars and have no way to evacuate.

Those of you on the flist who are religious, magical, and/or spiritual in any way, please take some time out for this today. Everybody: clear a little space in the budget for the Red Cross if possible.

Comments

[notlefthanded.livejournal.com]

It's really scary. I was watching the Weather Channel report a few minutes ago and they showed the difference between Hurricane Charley last year and this new one. Last year I was in Florida to see my grandparents after Charley and was shocked to see huge metal light poles, etc, twisted and bent like cocktail straws. And this one is SO much bigger, and the storm surge is terrifying.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

I know, it looks horrific. I have a dear friend from my teenage years who was several years older than me - he was a military brat, and his family was on a base on the Gulf Coast for a while: he was a small child when Camille hit. He's still got scary memories of what that was like.