New Orleans Faces Possible Destruction

Nowhere else in the country would the sense of fear be more justified than in a city that's 8 feet below sea level and facing 20 feet of levee-breaking flood waters from Hurricane Katrina.

"This has the potential to be as disastrous as the Asian tsunami. Tens of thousands of people could lose their lives. We could witness the total destruction of New Orleans as we know it," Ivor van Heerden, director of the Lousiana State University Hurricane Center, said as he ticked off the threats New Orleans faces from the ground, ocean and sky.

More than 1 million people could be left stranded away from home as emergency authorities attempt to pump out the water, a task that may take as long as three weeks. The newly homeless would be left with little food, no electricity and no transportation as cars are replaced by boats. Emergency officials fear that nearly 287 years of history could be destroyed in just hours and that half of the old Victorian homes could be lost along with the old brick buildings of the Vieux Carre, the French Quarter.
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Some 25 feet of standing water is expected in many parts of the city -- almost twice the height of the average home -- and computer models suggest that more than 80 percent of buildings would be badly damaged or destroyed, he said. (Watch a report on the worst-case scenario)

Floodwaters from the east will carry toxic waste from the "Industrial Canal" area, nicknamed after the chemical plants there. From the west, floodwaters would flow through the Norco Destrehan Industrial Complex, which includes refineries and chemical plants, said van Heerden, who has studied computer models about the impact of a strong hurricane for four years.

"These chemical plants are going to start flying apart, just as the other buildings do," he predicted. "So, we have the potential for release of benzene, hydrochloric acid, chlorine and so on."

That could result in severe air and water pollution, he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/28/katrina.doomsday/

The monster storm, which could become only the fourth Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in U.S. history, was threatening a huge area from southern Louisiana east to the Florida panhandle with sustained 160-mph winds, 190-mph gusts, torrential rains and tornadoes.

As it bore down on the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts taking dead-aim at low-lying New Orleans, Katrina already was the fourth-strongest storm on record, according to weather officials. Officials predicted it would come ashore as a Category 5 or very strong Category 4 storm.

Gulf of Mexico and onshore oil and natural gas facilities were closing ahead of the storm, and the fears of lost production - perhaps for months - sent crude-oil futures soaring above a record $70 per barrel in after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to media reports. It was trading at $70.11 a barrel at 1 a.m. EDT.

Freeways out of New Orleans were converted to one direction - out of town - and were deadlocked for miles. Tens of thousands of other residents, with no way out of town, flocked to shelters, including the Superdome, where they faced hours and perhaps days without food and water.

"The city of New Orleans has never seen a hurricane of this magnitude hit it directly," Mayor Ray Nagin said of the storm, according to the Associated Press.