Hurricane Ida - The Aftermath

[MN-Skeptic]

At this point, I think Hurricane Ida deserves its own thread. Right now it is causing immediate destruction. But, based on what we have been seeing, it's going to continue to generate headlines after it moves on and dissipates.

By the way, first thing I'm going to do tomorrow is donate to Direct Relief and designate to go to people affected by Hurricane Ida.

[filly]

I thought I'd wake up to tons of photos and videos of the damage, but there's not much out there yet. Too much devastation to get information out?

[MN-Skeptic]

[sugar magnolia]

Let people get over the shock of things, collect their thoughts, and assess things in the light. No power means everyone is conserving their devices for things like letting their families know they are alive, or reaching out for help. The ones who evac'ed don't have photos to post yet because they aren't at home. Phone, text, zello, etc are at best, slow and spotty.And those are just the ones who are in areas that the weather has passed, or mostly passed. NOLA expecting more heavy rain any minute. AT&T and T-Mobile out completely, Verizon comes and goes. Photos aren't loading to facebook, instagram or text. My friends are more concerned about themselves and their neighbors than they are posting photos, and most of them are extremely limited in what they can take photos of anyway since trees are down everywhere and they can't go more than a few houses away in any direction. There will be plenty of time to peruse the photos of the destruction once the water goes down and people begin moving around. For now we'll just have to take their word for the amount of destruction done.

[sugar magnolia]

Um, yeah. That "historic landmark" has been an abandoned building, nothing but walls and a partial roof, for years. The biggest surprise isn't that it collapsed with the first wind gust (literally) but that it didn't collapse before then.

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[realist]

BB is safe and sound in Memphis.

According to our last communication, a few minutes ago, she has no idea yet about the condition of her property except that according to the news there is no power, water nor 911 service.

[sugar magnolia]

Funny how he knows that since the head of Entergy just said they have no idea how long it will take and it will be 2 to 3 days before they can even assess the damage from the transmission tower in the river.

[Butterfly Bilderberg]

Let people get over the shock of things, collect their thoughts, and assess things in the light. No power means everyone is conserving their devices for things like letting their families know they are alive, or reaching out for help. The ones who evac'ed don't have photos to post yet because they aren't at home. Phone, text, zello, etc are at best, slow and spotty.And those are just the ones who are in areas that the weather has passed, or mostly passed. NOLA expecting more heavy rain any minute. AT&T and T-Mobile out completely, Verizon comes and goes. Photos aren't loading to facebook, instagram or text. My friends are more concerned about themselves and their neighbors than they are posting photos, and most of them are extremely limited in what they can take photos of anyway since trees are down everywhere and they can't go more than a few houses away in any direction. There will be plenty of time to peruse the photos of the destruction once the water goes down and people begin moving around. For now we'll just have to take their word for the amount of destruction done.

This.

Sitting in my hotel room in Memphis, of course I am anxiously awaiting word on the condition of my home and and the North Shore community, which is without power and is under a boil water advisory. Currently, the governor and local community leaders are advising us not to return until after the damage has been assessed and trees and debris are cleared from the roads. I'm in no hurry to return to a home without A/C or power for my blow dryer! But my thoughts are constantly with those who are stranded elsewhere.

I feel blessed to have the financial means to evacuate and stay away for whatever time is required. If longer than a few days, I have offers of long-term lodging from my brother-in-law to use his guest house on Lake Lanier, GA and the attic apartment of my cousin in Nashville. All of my files are at home in Mandeville, but I have my government computer in tow and intend to get back to work on my cases and reconstructing the files digitally by next week.

Later, y'all ...

[Volkonski]

[Reality Check]

This.

Sitting in my hotel room in Memphis, of course I am anxiously awaiting word on the condition of my home and and the North Shore community, which is without power and is under a boil water advisory. Currently, the governor and local community leaders are advising us not to return until after the damage has been assessed and trees and debris are cleared from the roads. I'm in no hurry to return to a home without A/C or power for my blow dryer! But my thoughts are constantly with those who are stranded elsewhere.

I feel blessed to have the financial means to evacuate and stay away for whatever time is required. If longer than a few days, I have offers of long-term lodging from my brother-in-law to use his guest house on Lake Lanier, GA and the attic apartment of my cousin in Nashville. All of my files are at home in Mandeville, but I have my government computer in tow and intend to get back to work on my cases and reconstructing the files digitally by next week.

Later, y'all ...

I was thinking of you. So glad to hear you are safe!

I spent a lot of time in LaPlace before I retired and I really feel for those folks. I was watching the #LaPlace Twitter feed and there were dozens of posts from people stranded in attics of on rooftops,

[sugar magnolia]

Before you fault the people who didn't evacuate....

Robert Owens felt defeated and helpless Sunday as he waited in Louisiana’s capital city for landfall by one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the U.S.

The 27-year-old had spent days anxiously watching long lines of cars evacuating from Baton Rouge, bound for safer locations out of state as Hurricane Ida approached. He had hoped he and his wife, his mother-in-law, roommate and four pets would be among them. But leaving would have required money for gas and a hotel room — something they didn’t have.

Out of desperation, Owens went to ACE Cash Express on Saturday and submitted documents for a payday loan. He was denied, told he didn’t have enough credit history.

By Sunday, it was clear they would be riding out the storm at home in his family’s duplex apartment.

“Our bank account is empty – we can’t afford to leave,” he said.

Owens said the majority of people in his low-income neighborhood are in the same predicament. They want to leave to protect families but have no choice but to stay.

“A lot of us here in my neighborhood have to just hunker down and wait, not knowing how bad it’s going to get. It’s a terrifying feeling,” he said.

“There people who have funds to lean on are able to get out of here, but there’s a big chunk of people that are lower-income that don’t have a savings account to fall on,” he continued. “We’re left behind.”

By Sunday night at 9 p.m., Owens said his family and all others in his neighborhood had lost power. The sky was lighting up green from transformers blowing up all around them, he said.

Several trees had collapsed on neighbor’s properties, but it was too dark to see the full extent of the damage. Owens said they were trying to use a flashlight to survey the street, but were wary of jeopardizing their safety.

“Never in my life have I encountered something this major,” he said as giant gusts rattled his home’s windows.

More than 1 million customers in Louisiana lost power overnight Sunday into Monday, according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks outages nationwide.

Owens said there were a few times when it sounded like the roof of his duplex might come off. He said his wife was packing a bag of clothes and essentials, just in case.

“We’ll shelter in the car if we lose the house,” he said. The family all share his wife’s Toyota Avalon, a vehicle “not nearly big enough” to shelter four people, three dogs and a cat.

Earlier in the day, Owens said he was hurriedly placing towels under leaking windows in his duplex and charging electronics. He tried to go to Dollar General and Dollar Tree to pick up food, but they were closed. His family has lights glued around the walls of the house. They planned to hide in the laundry room or the kitchen when the storm hits — places without windows.

“There’s a general feeling of fear in not knowing what’s going to be the aftermath of this,” he said. “That’s the most concerning thing. Like, what are we going to do if it gets really bad? Will we still be alive? Is a tree going fall on top of us?”

Owens said his mother-in-law is on disability. His roommates both work for Apple iOS tech support. His wife works scheduling blood donations. All of them rely on the internet to work from home, and if it goes out, they won’t be able to bring in any money.

“We might be without work, and rent, power, water, all of those bills will still be needing to get paid,” he said. “We are a little bit concerned about losing our utilities or even our house — if it’s still standing — because we’re not going to have the money for any other bills.”

He said it’s hard to feel so vulnerable, like his family is getting left behind.

“The fact that we are not middle class or above, it just kind of keeps coming back to bite us over and over again, in so many different directions and ways — a simple pay-day advance being one of them,” he said. “It’s like we’re having to pay for being poor, even though we’re trying to not be poor.”

https://www.wjtv.com/weather/tropics/so ... -is-empty/

[Volkonski]

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Would this be a good time to out power lines underground?

[Volkonski]

[RTH10260]

Quite a mess - a news item that just flipped by mentioned that *all* eight tracks of high-voltage power supply lines into New Orleans have been taken down by the storm. Good luck of finding the steel to rebuild those crippled towers and find the special copper wiring to carry the electricity into the town. I understand that at several locations strands of this wiring is currently blocking the Mississippi.

[Reality Check]

Quite a mess - a news item that just flipped by mentioned that *all* eight tracks of high-voltage power supply lines into New Orleans have been taken down by the storm. Good luck of finding the steel to rebuild those crippled towers and find the special copper wiring to carry the electricity into the town. I understand that at several locations strands of this wiring is currently blocking the Mississippi.

Those lines are probably 230 kV or higher. Yeah those will take weeks to repair. The conductors at that voltage level are ACSR, aluminum conductor steel reinforced. The have a steel core for strength and aluminum conductors wound around the core that carry the current. I had heard some of the lines across the Mississippi had come down. Sounds like worst case.

[Foggy]

!	Message from: Foggy
	Merged "Ida recovery" with "Hurricane Ida aftermath".

[Volkonski]

Based on experience with other big storm-

FEMA folk are renting every available vehicle for 300 miles.

Evacuated people will be buying tarps, generators, cleaning supplies, etc. in Texas.

Half the roofers in Texas are loading up their trucks to be ready to head to LA.

Whole neighborhoods in LA will have blue tarped roofs for months some for years.

Trees will keep falling for a while.

Some businesses will fail.

[Volkonski]

[sugar magnolia]

Would this be a good time to out power lines underground?

Can't do that in ground that's below sea level, or here where we're built on Yazoo clay. The cost of installation and upkeep would bankrupt the city in a matter of months.

[RTH10260]

Based on experience with other big storm-

FEMA folk are renting every available vehicle for 300 miles.

Evacuated people will be buying tarps, generators, cleaning supplies, etc. in Texas.

Half the roofers in Texas are loading up their trucks to be ready to head to LA.

Whole neighborhoods in LA will have blue tarped roofs for months some for years.

Trees will keep falling for a while.

Some businesses will fail.

From Katrina I remember that FEMA had a park of camper vans and RVs to move to or near the location. Do they still make that?

[Reality Check]

Would this be a good time to out power lines underground?

It just isn’t practical at higher voltages for various reasons.

https://www.xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/ ... tSheet.pdf

[RTH10260]

Question: from Katrina I remember that many small hamlets along the shoreline just got washed away and disappeared? Have they been rebuilt? Did Ida damage them again. I seem to remember that there had been many recreational buildings badly hit at the time.