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August 31, 2005
How do you evacuate a flooded New Orleans?
Katrina, Flooding leave immense logistical challenge
There may be as many as 80,000 people stuck in New Orleans with little or no food, no sanitation service and a lack of potable water. There is no electricity and both mobile and landline phone networks are down. The water continues to rise in New Orleans and rescuers are working to save in those immediate danger. Everyone seems to agree on the need to get survivors out. But how?
The city's evacuation plan calls for people to leave across land in buses and cars - but roads are impassible because of downed trees, power line and, of course, flood water. Exit by water is troublesome because of floating debris, varying water depths and the simple fact that it will only get people to the levees that still stand - more water lies beyond them. So we're left with exit by air - more specifically, by helicopter.
So let's say you can cram 20 people into a helicopter. It would take 4000 trips to get all 80,000 people out of New Orleans. If you had enough helicopters to do one trip every 10 minutes it would take more than 650 hours to move everyone to safety - that is nearly a month. If you just evacuate the 15,000 or so in the Superdome it would still take about six days. And that is if you have enough helicopters and are organized enough to get them off every ten minutes 24 hours a day.
In the meantime the siege mentality that is beginning to set in at the 'dome and elsewhere in New Orleans will continue to grow, making crowd control and the evacuation process that much more difficult.
The challenge is mind boggling, but it has to be done. There is now word the Superdome evacuees will be headed to Houston's Astrodome. While I'm sure everyone will be happy to hear they'll be leaving the Superdome, I can't imagine the idea they'll be calling another dome home is all that appealing. The Louisiana Governor has said the evacuation will begin within two days. She needs to keep that promise - people in the Superdome are counting on her.
Posted by maxthecat on August 31, 2005 at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
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