August 29, 2005
Inside The Superdome
With Katrina continuing to hurtle toward the Gulf Coast, it's important to note that somewhere between 8,000-9,000 people are going to be riding out the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome, home of the Saints.
Last night, Wizbang speculated on what might happen inside once the storm makes landfall:
It's a near certainty the electricity will go out about midday Monday. The Dome has backup power but it is only for lighting -no environmental controls- and the backup lighting is not full power. The Dome is about 20 stories high, but people will be scattered all thru it.
If the worst happens -and at this point it seems implausible that it won't- the bottom 2 stories will fill with water. Dirty nasty foul water full of chemicals and raw sewerage. Further the bathroom facilities are only expected to function for the first day.
So in rough terms, 40,000+ people will be trapped in a building with no plumbing, little light and no air conditioning. The temps after the storm rolls thru will probably be in the low 90s. Considerably hotter in the building.
According to this report from ESPN.com, the power actually failed at 5:00 a.m. this morning, and a parts of the roof have ripped off as well (though one local station in New Orleans says the damage is minor). I'm still praying for the people inside.
Hat tip to Instapundit on multiple links.
UPDATE: Here's a photo of the Superdome taken a few hours ago.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ericmcerlain.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/5053
Looking at the live feed from WDSU you could see the damage and they were saying that a reporter inside indicated that 1/12 of the roof was missing, that it is raining inside (obviously) and that people are pretty calm.
I heard figures of 20,000 - 30,000 inside.
Hope everyone's alright
Posted by:
at August 29, 2005 02:14 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in,
.
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
12:00 PM
![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.ericmcerlain.com/offwingopinion/nav-commenters.gif)