A Picture from Katrina

[Amontilado]

I have a sneaking suspicion I misled. It is the storm surge from Katrina, overflowing the levies near the Michoud facility (they ended up having several feet of water in the facility). My bad. Needless to say, when one sees water overflowing said levies (and if they knew how poorly built some sections were), it was something to worry about.


Steve

 

[CarlGlas]

The image is one of a series captured by Don McClosky, manager of Entergy's Michoud power plant in New Orleans.
Mr. McClosky rode out the storm at the power plant, from which he snapped pictures like the one displayed above. As WWL-TV noted of the event: "There were waves up on top of that, that were probably 15 to 18 foot on top of what you saw form the hurricane protection levee that was out there," [McClosky] said.

In a home video made by a worker at the power plant, you can hear Katrina's winds screaming through the power plant. McClosky and his crew watched as the levee reached the limits of its protection and water began pouring in. Eventually Katrina dumped between five and eight feet of water inside the power plant.

On the tape you can hear McClosky talk to his employees about moving higher as the water rose about a foot every ten minutes.

"There were waves up on top of that, that were probably 15 to 18 foot on top of what you saw form the hurricane protection levee that was out there," A gallery of Mr. McClosky's photographs is available for viewing on the WWL-TV web site.

http://www.wwltv.com/cleanup/160.htm


Austin, Texas, resident Mike Collins has also put together some analysis and post-Katrina photographs of the area in which these pictures were taken.

http://www.mgcollins.com/Katrina/MRGOPage.html

 

[Marlowe]

I feel like rambling a bit, so here goes.

I've noticed in the last few years a proliferation of faked photographs. I guess it's to be expected with the availability of programs to play with digital photographs. I say OK, let them play. But, when I see a picture that looks impressive, my first impression is to give it the benefit of the doubt. That's pretty much the same way I treat people with a outlandish story. Who knows, it could be true, and I like to think the best of people in general. If they fool me, shame on them. I don't see what they gained and it cost them the time it took to fool me.

As to this picture, it looks pretty scary to me. I lived through hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the thing that bothered me most was that the storm's fury came in the middle of the night when it was black dark outside. I couldn't see or photograph a thing. I'm sure if I could have though, some of the things I would have seen could have made this rough water shot look tame. Hurricanes are pretty impressive phenomena. I was able to see a smaller storm come in during daylight hours a year ago. It came in as a very distinct and scary wall of clouds. Nature can come up with real shots that are far more impressive than anything we can dream up.

Tom. Thanks for the ramble.

 

[CT_Tree_Guy]

Carl - Thanks for that excellent explanation. I love hearing things that have that "ring of truth" to them, and I'd bet quite a sum of money that what you said is right on the mark.

(Hey, by the way - I know this is off topic, but what's a Turken? ) /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Tom - thanks for the ramble, those were wise words. One of my main passions in the pursuit of truth. I wish for all of mankind that we learn to tell, and try to determine, the truth, to the very best of our ability. Life is way to short for lies, half-truths and (baloney).

The world is in a lot of trouble right now, more than ever before. To me, that means that we need the truth more than ever before. Let's all try to find it.

John

 

[CarlGlas]

Turkens or Transylvanian Naked Necks are a love or hate breed and most likely originated in Hungary or Transylvania. They were given their names because of their featherless necks. Their looks are so odd people believed that they were some kind of turkey/chicken mix. Of course this isn't true because it's not possible for a turkey and a chicken to have viable offspring.

Turkens are a dual-purpose bird and lay between 120 and 180 medium/large brown-shelled eggs a year with very good food conversion. They don't generally weigh more than 8 pounds but some places use them as a meat bird.

More: http://tinyurl.com/bo7lc

 

[Amontilado]

Marlowe,
I nkow the feeling about some bad going on and not being able to see a thing. I was that way in 2004, when Ivan came through. Sure, I could see it on radar, but there are those tiny pockets of higher winds that one really can't see on radar, plus it was my first hurricane (living in central Pa when TS Agnes came through in '72 doesn't count), and a major one at that. I had to work, so I couldn't be with my family when it was going through. Needless to say, my stress level was up there.

Steve