Mayor Ray Nagin ordered an immediate evacuation Sunday for all of New Orleans

[lord of the mark]

Re: To the Astrodome!

Originally posted by techumseh
They're going to move the people from the Superdome in New Orleans by bus to the Astrodome in Houston. It's a 7 hour bus ride and many of the folks in there are elderly and ill.

CNN:


"Evacuees with special problems already have been evacuated to hospitals in other Louisiana cities, but the 23,000 people now confined to the stuffy, smelly Superdome, as well as some other refugees will go to Houston, about 350 miles away."

[lord of the mark]

I would assume the astrodome is the staging area - you have to let people off the bus somewhere - before alternate arrangements are made.

I dont think you can just put people in active military bases, as there are security restrictions there.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Flubber
That makes no sense-- I can see flooded equipment failing but lack of water should never be an issue. The fire trucks I used ALWAYS had two forms of water intake-- one was for hydrants while another would give just as much supply of water in any place with a water depth of more than 2 and a half feet. Ponds, brooks, even an irrigation ditch could serve.

Well, that's what I was thinking, but that's what the firefighters were telling CNN...

[Dis]

Originally posted by Koyaanisqatsi

Well, that's what I was thinking, but that's what the firefighters were telling CNN...

I'm not familiar with civilian firefighting equipment. But in the navy you can actually take take suction from flooded compartments (on a ship) with various equipment (educters and pumps etc).

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Dis


I don't want anyone who's been wading in raw sewage sleeping on my rack.

Wading through a very yucky ditch is included in the initiation ritual for the Swedish Coastal Rangers (=our 1337 amphibic infantry). You won't get your beret if you refuse.

And it's not your rack, you only borrowed it from the government. You don't know what filth has been going on under the sheets before you were assigned to that bunk.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by DanS
Mobius: It is obvious that you haven't visited DC, dude. Or were blind when you visited it.

I'm sure you do very well out of it...

Actually I was pretty shocked getting out at Chinatown - you sort of knew that there was almost 100% certainty something bad would happen to you if you took the wrong turn...

Looking the one way kinda reminded me of the way the road the Hobbits were on in Fellowship of the Ring suddenly turns really sinister the first time they meet the Nazgul...

But NO made DC feel like the Garden of Eden by comparison...

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Koyaanisqatsi

Well, that's what I was thinking, but that's what the firefighters were telling CNN...

Perhaps urban fire trucks are set up such that they are dependent on fire hydrants but our trucks in rural Newfoundland had no problem using any standing water source. The volunteer brigades trained to use them since any forest fighting operation would be unlikely to be near a hydrant plus many many homes were outside the area of hydrants.

Besides the trucks, we also had a number of portable pumps that could also work off of a hydrant or standing water. less powerful than a truck, they could still supply two --- inch and a half attack lines. heck our town of 2500 had 4 of these portable pumps (again the major reason was to increase ability to fight forest fires)

[Edan]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
I would assume the astrodome is the staging area - you have to let people off the bus somewhere - before alternate arrangements are made.

It's also got showers, plumbing and air conditioning, so if it takes them a number of days to figure things out, they're far better there.

[Edan]

Originally posted by Flubber


That makes no sense-- I can see flooded equipment failing but lack of water should never be an issue. The fire trucks I used ALWAYS had two forms of water intake-- one was for hydrants while another would give just as much supply of water in any place with a water depth of more than 2 and a half feet. Ponds, brooks, even an irrigation ditch could serve.

Is it possible that this is one of the types of fire that can't be put out by water? Or maybe that the "toxic water" is less suitable than normal water?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Dis


I'm not familiar with civilian firefighting equipment. But in the navy you can actually take take suction from flooded compartments (on a ship) with various equipment (educters and pumps etc).

Well our volunteer brigade could get source water from ANY standing water source with sufficient depth-- and that was 1970s and 1980s equipment (Fire trucks can last a LOOONG time-- we had a 1950s model that worked any bigger fire))

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Flubber
Well our volunteer brigade could get source water from ANY standing water source with sufficient depth

Yeah, that's how ours work too. Generally they have to work off their tanks, though, then run off to a nearby stream to fill up. I think theres a fire hydrant about 15 miles from here, but I'm pretty close to the big city, ya know...

[Chemical Ollie]

On a side note, the D-day Museum's web site is not accessible at the moment. Perhaps they have the server in the museum. What artifacts and collections did they keep there anyway? Have those pieces of close-past history now been destroyed?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Edan


Is it possible that this is one of the types of fire that can't be put out by water?

Possible-- but they should have some alternate equipment for those types of fires regardless of the flooding (although perhaps mobilizing it is the problem)

Originally posted by Edan


Or maybe that the "toxic water" is less suitable than normal water?

Perhaps-- although the only real problems would be if the water contained concentrations of of flammable materials or something toxic when burned. But the quatities of water are huge so I don't see a big problem ( but am no expert )-- I'm thinking that even a gasoline sheen on the water would not hurt your ability to use it for firefighting if your intakes are 4-5 feet below the surface

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Ah, now they're using the floodwater on the fire. Weird.

[SlowwHand]

Fighting fires is not all, and in fact is one of the lesser worries on water.
Lack of water to drink seems more ironic to me.

Cajuns are arriving in Dallas. Arriving in Houston.
Cities are providing all possible, with the exception of crawdads.
No one can keep Cajuns in supply.