Sunday, August 28, 2005

 

Sunday downside and Katrina

Dang it! This is the downside to takin' off early Friday to get my yard in order: Here I am at my desk at work, with a pretty good lookin' day goin' on outside this stinkin' eighth-floor window. Bah.

Hurricane watchin' -- via TV, thank goodness -- is goin' on at the house.

Speakin' of. The following is what a friend of mine who is an actual geographer is sayin' about Katrina:

Well kids, there things Geographers dream about and/or
have nightmares about. One is on its way.

We have a catagory 5 hurricane headed towards three of
the softest parts of the American belly. If it stays
on course and force these are the senarios that very
well could play out.

1. Port Fourchon oil depot and refinery: 27% of
American domestic production (Gulf of Mexico
platforms) and 13% of foriegn oil production
(tankers)come into the U.S. via this port and
off-shore oil unloading stations. A force 4 or 5
hurricane will simply erase it.

2. New Orleans: Entire city is 15 to 20 feet below
sea/river level and only exist even on a normal day
because of massive pumps that keep it dry by pumping
seepage back over their levees. Lake Pochatrain, North
of the city, will receive the concentrated sea surge
and will flood the city from the North.

3. Atchafalaya River: This river has been trying to
pirate (change the course of) the Mississippi River
for the last 100 years and it is only through massive
cost and effort by the Army Corps of Engineers that it
has not. It almost took the river in 1969 when Camille
came through and Camille was not a direct hit. This
time, with Katrina, it looks like it might succeed.
If so all of the old Mississippi River below it will
be mud flats and swamps, including what's left of Port
Fourchon and New Orleans, and there will be a new
Mississippi River route to the Gulf.

So remember you heard it first from the old
geographer, and go out right now and fill up all of
your gasoline tanks. If any one of the above three
things happens, gasoline will be at least as scarce as
it was in the oil crisis of the 1970's. I don't mean
it will be expensive (it will be), I mean you won't be
able to find it.


Redneck prayers aloft for the Gulf Coast, and the rest of the country, too.

--ER

Comments:
Looks like Halliburton will be lining up for another big rebuilding project. Lord have mercy.
 
Apocalypse now.

http://drudgereport.com/flash.htm

(repeats N.O. National Weather Service warning)
 
Whoa. All that weather report needs is a quote from Revelation.
 
ER, I live in Florida, close to the central Gulf Coast. This one missed us, but i feel very deeply for whoever it hits.
The thought that it could ruin our domestic oil supply scares the beJeezus out of me.
My prayers, as well as the wife's go out to whatever area this thing hits.
Nobody deserves the kind of devestation that awaits the victims of a category 4 or 5 hurricane...
 
I heard on the newes that Bush has to decide whether to release some oil reserves to make up for the loss of oil production caused by the storm.

I'd like to know, if not now, when?
 
Amen. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is meant for emergencies. Real ones. This is a real one.
 
The thing about the Strategic Oil Reserve is, if we use it, it has to be replentished, and if Oil prices stay at the levels that they are at currently, or go up even more, then we could be screwing ourselves in the name of a temporary quick fix.
I still believe that we should sit on those reserves, for a little while longer, until we can more accurately guage what the oil supply is going to do over the next few weeks or months.
Believe me, it is not comfortable to have to pay for Gasoline at the current prices, but judging by the level of traffic on the roads, prices have not yet prevented anyone from buying gas yet.
If one quarter of our domestic supply in shut down by the Hurricane, then our ability to BUY gas at ANY price may be affected, in which case, we may wish we had not used these reserves so hastily.
 
ER,

You're welcome for the column idea.
 
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