久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

  Home>News Center>World
         
 

Hurricane could leave 1 million homeless
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-29 09:13

When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries, AP reported.

Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category 5 storm.

That's exactly what Katrina was as it churned toward the city. With top winds of 165 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite image of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico on August 28, 2005.
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite image of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico on August 28, 2005. [Reuters]
"All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario," Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.

The center's latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday, vast swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. In the French Quarter, the water could reach 20 feet, easily submerging the district's iconic cast-iron balconies and bars.

Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city's houses will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.

"We're talking about in essence having 錕斤拷 in the continental United States 錕斤拷 having a refugee camp of a million people," van Heerden said.

Drivers and passengers wait outside their cars as traffic snarls on the interstate highway leaving downtown New Orleans August 28, 2005. Authorities in New Orleans ordered hundreds of thousands of residents to flee on Sunday as Hurricane Katrina strengthened into a rare top-ranked storm and barreled towards the vulnerable U.S. Gulf Coast city.
Drivers and passengers wait outside their cars as traffic snarls on the interstate highway leaving downtown New Orleans August 28, 2005. Authorities in New Orleans ordered hundreds of thousands of residents to flee on Sunday as Hurricane Katrina strengthened into a rare top-ranked storm and barreled towards the vulnerable U.S. Gulf Coast city. [Reuters]
Aside from Hurricane Andrew, which struck Miami in 1992, forecasters have no experience with Category 5 hurricanes hitting densely populated areas.

"Hurricanes rarely sustain such extreme winds for much time. However we see no obvious large-scale effects to cause a substantial weakening the system and it is expected that the hurricane will be of Category 4 or 5 intensity when it reaches the coast," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Richard Pasch said.

As they raced to put meteorological instruments in Katrina's path Sunday, wind engineers had little idea what their equipment would record.

"We haven't seen something this big since we started the program," said Kurt Gurley, a University of Florida engineering professor. He works for the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program, which is in its seventh year of making detailed measurements of hurricane wind conditions using a set of mobile weather stations.

Experts have warned about New Orleans' vulnerability for years, chiefly because Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal wetlands in the past seven decades. The vast patchwork of swamps and bayous south of the city serves as a buffer, partially absorbing the surge of water that a hurricane pushes ashore.

Experts have also warned that the ring of high levees around New Orleans, designed to protect the city from floodwaters coming down the Mississippi, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. Katrina is expected to push a 28-foot storm surge against the levees. Even if they hold, water will pour over their tops and begin filling the city as if it were a sinking canoe.

After the storm passes, the water will have nowhere to go.

In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials are going to be wondering how to handle a giant stagnant pond contaminated with building debris, coffins, sewage and other hazardous materials.

"We're talking about an incredible environmental disaster," van Heerden said.

He puts much of the blame for New Orleans' dire situation on the very levee system that is designed to protect southern Louisiana from Mississippi River floods.

Before the levees were built, the river would top its banks during floods and wash through a maze of bayous and swamps, dropping fine-grained silt that nourished plants and kept the land just above sea level.

The levees "have literally starved our wetlands to death" by directing all of that precious silt out into the Gulf of Mexico, van Heerden said.

It has been 40 years since New Orleans faced a hurricane even comparable to Katrina. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3 storm, submerged some parts of the city to a depth of seven feet.

Since then, the Big Easy has had nothing but near misses. In 1998, Hurricane Georges headed straight for New Orleans, then swerved at the last minute to strike Mississippi and Alabama. Hurricane Lili blew herself out at the mouth of the Mississippi in 2002. And last year's Hurricane Ivan obligingly curved to the east as it came ashore, barely grazing a grateful city.



Japanese PM launches general election campaign
Katrina slams US Gulf Coast, oil rigs adrift
Japan's 6 parties square off in TV debate
 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

President Hu Jintao: Gender equality crucial

 

   
 

Special grants offered to poor students

 

   
 

EU takes steps to unblock China textiles

 

   
 

Farmers sue county for illegal land use

 

   
 

Search for 123 trapped miners suspended

 

   
 

Hurricane Katrina rocks New Orleans

 

   
  Bush promises post-storm help for victims
   
  Sharon: Not all settlements in final deal
   
  Hurricane Katrina rocks New Orleans
   
  Sri Lanka PM focuses on ending civil war
   
  Musharraf warns Pakistan Islamic schools
   
  Katrina may cost insurers $25 bln
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Hurricane Katrina lands in US Florida, Killing 2
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 中文字幕一区二区三区精彩视频 | 亚洲欧美中文日韩在线v日本 | 写真片福利视频在线播放 | 欧美性巨大欧美 | 国产91精品露脸国语对白 | 美女一级毛片免费看看 | 亚洲国产成人久久一区www | 免费区一级欧美毛片 | 99久久精品男女性高爱 | 亚洲精品一区最新 | 播放一级毛片 | 美女黄网站色一级毛片 | 国产色视频在线观看免费 | 国产亚洲欧美日韩在线观看一区二区 | 一级做a爰 | 免费99视频有精品视频高清 | 99视频国产精品 | 久久99亚洲精品久久久久网站 | 在线a毛片免费视频观看 | 欧美日韩中文一区二区三区 | 在线观看视频国产 | 国产夫妇精品自在线 | 日本wwwwwwwww| 久久久久久久久免费影院 | 久久成人视 | 一级a美女毛片 | 久久99国产乱子伦精品免 | 欧美一区二区在线观看 | 欧美成人三级 | 亚洲美女自拍视频 | 黄网站色成年小说系列 | 成人免费在线播放视频 | 一本色道久久综合亚洲精品加 | 99视频精品全部 在线 | 欧美日韩精品高清一区二区 | 视频一区二区三区在线 | 国产一级内谢a级高清毛片 国产一级片毛片 | a黄毛片| 亚洲一区浅井舞香在线播放 | 亚洲国产精品欧美日韩一区二区 | 日本三本道 |