Concern for New Orleans, and fellow Buzzers

Oh my god... this is horrid. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this.

---

If they get a lot of flooding in the city, how do they even hope to get rid of the water when they're already in a bowl below sea level, and their pump system has failed? This could be a long recovery.

---

Well I just read a report stating that in the worst case scenario the the city would be flooded 15ft and that much water would take 4-6 months to pump out. Right now the pumps have already failed and the city is under 8ft of water so logic is saying this is going to be a very long recovery progress.

My thoughts are with everyone affected..

I'd like to say a fond farewell to the MegaZeph, a short lived replacement to Zephyr. It is possible SFNO could survive this, but no coaster will be left standing after being hit by the eye of this monster. I just hope the storm's hard Easterly turn ends up saving New Orleans. Stay high and safe the rest of you. Hope those effected will be logging on very soon.

I evacuated to Dallas. Managed to snag a couple of rides on the Giant and Shockwave Sunday, SFOT's last day of daily ops. Would have gotten more but I got there at 6:30 PM and the park closed at 7 PM - it took a long time to get here even though we left before 7 AM.

Checked out the Dallas Zoo today. It's nice to get my mind off all of this. I actually ran into an SFNO employee there.

I have no idea yet how SFNO, or my house, fared.

I hope everyone is OK.

BTW, for those who say Global Warming has nothing to do with this, I read a news article earlier this season which attributed the trend of more "named storms" each year to Global Warming, due to rising temperatures of water creating conditions that are condusive to more hurricanes.

Frontrider

Waterville USA was just on Fox News and while it looks like the Cannonball survived the park is now under a ton of water.

Anyone who thinks this is caused by global warming should read the novel, "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton. Trust me, you'll change you're mind:)

http://www.crichton-official.com/fear/

---

Paul Drabek said:
...Cannonball survived the park is now under a ton of water.

---

That little woodie has survived three or four major storms now. I don't think it can be destroyed. :)

I heard something on the news about some dolphins being evacuated from a theme park and put into a hotel pool somewhere, does SFNO have a dolphin show or something?

*** Edited 8/29/2005 11:44:28 PM UTC by Jophish***

---

kyleds108 said:
Anyone who thinks this is caused by global warming should read the novel, "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton. Trust me, you'll change you're mind

http://www.crichton-official.com/fear/

---

Never trust a novelist with an axe to grind. ;) It's almost as bad as a filmmaker with one.

---

*** Edited 8/29/2005 11:55:37 PM UTC by prabe***

Even though this is a roller coaster discussion site, I find it incredible that people are concerned about the fate of a wooden coaster when human lives and livelihoods are being destroyed.

I don't think anyone is saying that the parks or rides are more important than the lives or the livelihoods. I think that people are reacting by grabbing hold of something they can relate to. We ride these things and take them for granted, expect that they'll be there (within the vagaries of the business); we're seeing how fragile they are, and how quickly something important to us can be erased.

Global warming is a very complex issue that needs to be taken seriously and relying on silly rhetorical nonsense is not helpful. There are many reputable sources of real information. I suggest the Union of Concerned Scientists excellent website:

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/global_warming/page.cfm?pageID=1826

well thank god its all over for New Orleans but look at the damage it done to houses and towns and SFON.

Man, thats so bad, during Typhoons over when I lived in Japan, the magnitude would get as high as this, but never ever would we have storm surge. Atleast on the island of Okinawa. And you would think, Island = lots of storm surge. But acually the entire island were inhabitated, has a 15 foot tall, sea wall that rises 25 feet because they elevate them onto the streets. But still we never had storm surge. And the only damage we had was to trees. Everything was concrete, houses, power lines, schools, all structures were concrete. Now I still don't get it, Florida and the south have been having these Hurricanes for a long time, why don't they get with the picture?

We never had to evacuate, (well we were on a island only 50 miles long) But there was never panic. It just never got this bad. Once it was gone. Life went back to normal. We did get the ocasional power outage, but that was only for very serious storms (150+ MPH). But with Japanese efficiancy the power was back up in less then 3 to 4 days.

No, I'm not saying EVERYONE move to Japan! Or build structures only out of concrete from now on. But it still gets me why we don't catch on.

Colin, because people delude themselves that it will never happen where they are-- after all it hasn't happened in the past X number of years.

I'm sure it's also a matter of money. People would prefer to spend their money on the fancy trappings rather than on sound construction. Concrete construction also requires more skilled workers which also translates to more money.

Then again, a lot of the structures they were concerned about in NO are already well over 100 years old. People figure the odds are in their favor.

I'm just glad the worst case scenarios never played out-- 80% of all buildings destroyed, tens of thousands dead, etc. Thank God!

What happened is what happened. Theres nothing we can do, we can only HOPE that SFNO was not MAJORLY affected by the Hurricane. However, if the New Orleans area has never prepaired for a huricane, considering its on the coast, then its pretty bad. Because even if you live on a coastal community, you should ALWAYS be prepared for a huricane, well at least if you live on the East Coast, or Gulf Coast. I think SFNO has survived, all I think that the only damaged caused was a little flooding, trees, bushes, ect.

Has Fox News blamed the hurricane on terrorists yet?

I've never been to New Orleans, but it sure seems like a strange place to build a big city. Not that these kinds of storms come along that frequently, but it seems like it's just asking for it. There are a bunch of people up here in NE Ohio that live on some relatively small rivers, get flooded yearly, and refuse to move.

Did you see the pictures of the oil rig that slammed into a bridge? That's crazy. I haven't seen photos or video from the residential areas though, only downtown New Orleans. They're talking about tens of thousands of people not having anywhere to go, so that can't be good.

---

Watch "The Day After Tommorrow." That is seriously what is happening to us right now!

---

This is simply the most ridiculous post I have ever read on CB! Everybody knows that we meet our untimely demise when the Empire defeats the Jedi Knights and takes over the galaxy…

Ha! Funniest post ever, JRS.

---

Has Fox News blamed the hurricane on terrorists yet?

---

No...but CNN just blamed Bush and Big Oil...something about a scam to increase oil profits!

As far as people gettting out, a lot did. It would take a minimum of 72 hours to evacuate New Orleans and the the order came about 48 hours in advance. As anybody who lives on the Eastern and Gulf Coast know, predicting these things, while getting much better, is still a pretty iffy science. There were a lot of people who just didn't have the means to evacuate. Its not like busses come and pick you up. If your old or invalid and have no family, what choices do you have? Seeing as there are no rooms in Houston right now, that should tell you how many DID evacuate.

The people that stayed in the French Quarter because they chose to should count their blessings. We should be praying for those who couldn't leave their homes for whatever reason. The casulty count will start rising as rescuers get to the areas afected the most.

And this was one heck of a storm. One of the biggest I have ever seen. This was just a monster storm. It was just massive.

Oe of the CB'ers is Crazyb, and I am waiting to hear from him. He lives north of the lake so he should be ok (I Hope) but will be without power or phones for awhile.

SFNO looks like it was very close to the western eye wall. It will be interesting to see how it fairs. (I know that an amusement park is not as important as lives and I am not trying to compare, but this is a coaster board)