How is New Orleans going to prepare for Hurricane Gustav?

Question

It's heading towards the city again.Are the levees, or the federal flood protection in general, repaired? Have evacuations come underway as of now? Will FEMA do its job properly this time? Anything else I forgot to mention?

Answer 1

The experts say that the city of New Orleans is still not prepared for a another big hurricane. The project that is underway now to improve levees is still in its infancy and will not be completed for another 3 years. The levees in place now have been poorly constructed and are just a "bandaid" so to speak and have been leaking due to poor construction and planning.

Ya gotta really love New Orleans to want to live there knowing that it could happen again. As far as FEMA goes, they were not prepared the first time so what are the chances they will be prepared this time. It's only been 3 years since Katrina so my guess is they are still cleaning up the mess from the last one.

Anybody's best move is to get out and do a lot of praying.  

Answer 2

how about letting go of New Orleans since it's so below sea level and wouldn't even exist without man-made efforts to redirect the river ... this is a perfect example of how you shouldn't mess with Mother Nature ... i'm sure New Orleans is a lovely and fun city with a great history ... but putting so much money, time and effort to rebuild it when another natural disaster is probable is just a waste and could and probably will cost lives

Answer 3

All of the levees that were damaged by Katrina have been repaired and reinforced. The levee system is getting a $14 Billion upgrade with more work planned after that. The upgrade won't be complete until 2011 or 2012, but many of the improvements are already in place.

There are plans for an evacuation starting on Saturday, but it does depend some on the forecast for Gustav - remember the storm isn't even in the Gulf of Mexico yet.

FEMA had its problems, but the mismanagement during the crisis of Katrina was the fault of Democrat Governor "Blank Stare" Blanco and Democrat Mayor "Crazy Ray" Nagin. The media simply covered for the Democrats by blaming Bush.

Louisiana has a new and competent Republican Governor, and he is not letting Nagin s***w things up as badly as in 2005. However, my friends in NOLA tell me Nagin is trying really hard to provide a disfunctional cty government during the Gustav preparations.

Answer 4

I can't wait for Gustav! He is my boyfriend! The only thing is that he already has a girlfriend...She is tropical storm Hanna.

Answer 5

Mayor Noggin has applied for Federal grants to buy gasoline for the buses. No gas, no evacuation.

Fortunately Louisiana has a real governor this time who has things under control.

You really need to look up FEMA's mission as laid out and funded by the Democrat congress.

Should we send some Midwestern leaders down there to run things? They seem much more able to deal with disasters than the New Orleans chattering class.

Answer 6

George Bush is going to be in charge again.  Everything will be fine.

Answer 7

New Orleans now has a 120 hour contingency plan that wasn't in effect when Katrina hit.  There is more time to prepare and more people may be able to leave before Gustav hits than when Katrina came. As for the rest, we'll see how fast FEMA reacts and with what.

The fact that George Bush is still in charge, oops.

Answer 8

It won't be long before we know. My best guess is once again the Federal Government is way behind the curve on this one too. If we see the poor and disadvantaged sailing through the air like untethered kites and Black-water shooting them down like skeet we will have a pretty good idea that FEMA has blown it again.

Answer 9

The levees are not ready and will not be ready until 2011. I am sure Gustav will set this back. Evacuations started yesterday (thursday). Governor Jindal sent buses down to start evacuations. Schools are being canceled today.Jindal has declared us in a state of emergency. He is doing more than Blanco did with Katrina.

We live 45 mins away from NOLA and places are running out of gas. There are no more generators available and Walmarts are packed. A lot of people are planning on evacuating New Orleans today so I'm sure traffic will be horrible. There are no hotels with openings from here to Tennessee.

I don't think NOLA could take another hard hit, much less a F3 hurricane. With the levee not being finished, it already being under sea level, and reconstruction still continuing in areas Gustav would do some extensive damage. People are in a frenzy (I can not blame them) and getting ready to leave. We have friends who just got back into their house a couple of weeks ago and are having to evacaute again. And there are homeless that have nothing due to Katrina. I did hear FEMA and Red Cross have people stationed in the Gulf Coast states and are more prepared this time.

Good luck to everyone, I hope everyone stays safe and no damage is done! I'll be here in Louisiana watching the news on Gustav.

Answer 10

well i am in new orleans...and so far there have only been mandatory evacuations for the elderly,disabled,prisoners,people in the hospital and all the animals in kennels and shelters....all of the universities are closing after today and everyone has been told to evacuate them as of tommorrow morning...they are saying the mandatory evacs are going to start tomm. and sunday for everyone else...there has been alot of talk about how ready the govt is for it this time...but who knows

Answer 11

You can see the projected path of the storm, and find links to local TV and newspaper coverage, live streaming webcams in the affected areas, preparation guides, plus links to the National Hurricane Center coverage of the storm on http://www.USAMediaGuide.com

Answer 12

Watch CNN and the Weather Channel.