Katrina could inundate New Orleans

Marshall Eubanks tme at multicasttech.com
Mon Aug 29 05:25:37 UTC 2005




On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 06:37:56 +0200
 Chris Gilbert <Chris at lainos.org> wrote:
> 
> On Monday 29 August 2005 06:21, Dave Stewart wrote:
> > Granted, it'll be interesting to see how things shake out - but I just
> > can't buy that getting the Internet working should/will be a really high
> > priority.
> 
> Well being as for most intents and purposes, internet access is dependant on 
> power and telco... I think it will certainly be secondary.
> 

Well, when I rode out my Hurricane (Bonnnie, South Carolina), I had Internet access as long
as I had a dial tone, which almost to eye passage and a good while after the local 
radio stations went off the air. It was sure good to get those NWS predictions over a dial up
connection when there was no other source of news except looking around the room.

> Even if the infrastructure is lit up and working, it isn't going to do 
> residents or local businesses one bit of good unless they can access it. (And 
> that requires power and a way to connect to it)
> 
> And in all honesty, I think the focus there will be on whatever helps the 
> locals the most, as opposed to getting someone's colo box back online.
> (As well it should be IMHO)
> 
> However, what kind of impact could this have for people peering through this 
> region?
> 
> Anyone familiar enough with the network topology related to this region to 
> chime in on this?
> 
> I think it would be good for the operations community to have some heads up if 
> we should expect some routing issues elsewere as a result. It could save 
> people from trying to chase down false leads if/when things start to go awry.
> 

A little bit of hurricane physics might be useful  :

Hurricanes in the Northern hemisphere rotate counter-clockwise as seen from above.

Thus, a storm coming from the South onto a East-West coastline (like the coast near
New Orleans) will have winds coming on-shore on the East of the eye, going off-shore to the West of
the eye, when the eye makes landfall. Winds coming from the sea on shore
tend to push water onto the  land, and also tend to be stronger (because they are not attenuated by
going  over land).

Therefore, _as a general rule_, there is  more flooding and destruction to the East
of where the eye makes landfall than to the West in a upper Gulf landfall. 
So, you want the eye to pass to 
your East, if you have a choice (in this situation). Your milage may definitely vary. 
(Remember, also, a lot of the worst damage can come from tornados spawned by the big storm, which
can be anywhere within the storm.)

> And finally, if you are reading this from inside said area... get the hell out 
> of there!
> 

Yes. If you have doubts, Google camille pass christian 1969

> --
> Regards,
> Chris Gilbert

Regards
Marshall Eubanks



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