Return of the Hurricane Party

[Sam Sagnella]

There was a pit in my stomach when I first saw video of this, but folks on the famed Bourbon Street in New Orleans are actually throwing 'hurricane parties' tonight. Pretty much everyone who's into the weather recognizes the term from the eve of Hurricane Camille in 1969, but are people in 2005 really so ignorant to the deadly threat that Katrina poses that they will not evacuate? There is still a night to party, I suppose, before it is absolutely vital to evacuate, but the lack of urgency these people exhibit is just f*cking scary. New Orleans is about to be smacked so hard that it'll be cleaning up for the next 10 years, and tomorrow, when people wake up and see a Cat4 Katrina and a mandatory evacuation order (the first in decades) and finally realize how serious it is, so many people will jam the roadways that not everyone will get out of the city. I really don't know how many major hurricanes it takes to teach John Q. Public about the right way to prepare, but apparently he still needs to get a tutor.

I just hope to God that I am not hearing about more "hurricane parties" tomorrow night :shock: :evil: :?

Sadly, I honestly believe that we may lose more people to this hurricane than we can even fathom at this time. :cry: Even though we're still a day and a half away from landfall, we're nearing the 11th hour as far as evacuations are concerned. An eyewall replacement cycle is pretty much what we should all be hoping for...

EDIT: I just saw this on CNN Headline News-->
"The only dangerous hurricanes we've seen so far are the ones we're drinking" says tourist at Pat O'Brian's

EDIT2: here's the link to the Bourbon Street Webcam

 

[Tim Vasquez]

People are gambling on the status quo... it's all too easy, and most people have forgotten Andrew and Hugo. I can see their side of it... from what I calculate, a 10-degree variation in the track shifts it 60 miles away from New Orleans, enough to get the eyewall away.

I figure it's somewhat easy to find a place of safety, but I think the real stupidity is putting oneself in that area if the food/water/electricity infrastructure is going to get trashed. I doubt these people have personal caches of bottled water and ready-meals. Or an inflatable boat, at that. :?

Tim

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Well let's hope the bourbon street cam stays up.... might need to cook up some bags of popcorn for later

Honestly, I have to take the asshole approach on this. If you're stupid enough to stay for a hurricane party, I have no sympathy if you bite it. If anything, you helped the gene pool out... so thanks!

Aaron

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Good point -- I realized just now that if they stay there, someone has to feed & water those people, and the burden will fall on an overworked disaster relief logistics system.

Tim

 

[Anthony Silver]

Yep, it's their own damn fault if they get creamed by this thing. The sad part is the time those people are wasting d*icking off with their ignorant party, they could be making those last minute preparations by boarding up their property, stocking up on supplies, and getting the f*ck out of there. I wouldnt be surprised if they have a lot of fatalities down there due to ignorance.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Originally posted by Anthony Silver
Yep, it's their own damn fault if they get creamed by this thing. The sad part is the time those people are wasting d*icking off with their ignorant party, they could be making those last minute preparations by boarding up their property, stocking up on supplies, and getting the f*ck out of there. I wouldnt be surprised if they have a lot of fatalities down there due to ignorance.

I believe that past estimates done by the Red Cross of this scenario assume that around 300,000 people won't or can't leave, and that storm related fatalities are between 25,000 and 100,000. Jefferson Parish has been stocking 10,000 bodybags for some time now in case something like this were to ever happen.

 

[Anthony Silver]

With the storm now at cat 5 status, things are really looking ugly for the people down there. I hope they wrap up their parties soon and get the hell out of Dodge! I hope the high fatality scenario does NOT play out like everyone's expecting. Even though people may be ignorant, I sure don't want to see them lose their lives to this storm.

Aside from the Hurricane parties, I've been hearing a lot of media reports about people who are planning on riding this storm out because they don't want to leave their property unattended because of possible looting. In a weaker hurricane I would say that would be fine, but in this case those folks are tossing around a ticking time bomb, and the outcome won't be nice. People need to remember that property is replaceable, but your life is not. That said, I think people need to be heeding these warnings and do whatever is necessary to keep themselves safe. I'm very protective of my property, but I sure as hell wouldnt put myself in the path of a cat 5 hurricane.

 

[Rob_Davis]

Originally posted by Sam Sagnella
Pretty much everyone who's into the weather recognizes the term from the eve of Hurricane Camille in 1969...

I lived in Gulfport, MS during Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Although we had moved to Florida by 1969, we still had friends in the area. The whole "Hurricane Party" thing is an urban legend. One survivor made an off-the-cuff comment about a hurricane party, and the media ran with it. I'm surprised it's not on Snopes.

From: http://www.answers.com/topic/hurricane-camille

The Hurricane Party

One persistent legend about Camille states that a hurricane party was held on the third floor of the Richelieu Manor Apartments in Pass Christian, Mississippi that wound up in the path of the eyewall as it made landfall. The high storm surge flooded and destroyed the building, and there was only one survivor to tell of the story of the 21 others. Who the survivor is, how many party guests there were, and just how far the sole survivor was swept by the storm varies with the retelling.

In reality, most of the people that stayed in the Richelieu Apartments survived, and there was no party. Residents, exhausted from helping to prepare the town to weather the storm, took refuge in the building not out of recklessness, but because it was believed to be one of the sturdiest buildings in the area. Survivor Ben Duckworth is quoted in Hurricane Camille: Monster Storm of the Gulf Coast as stating that the Richelieu was a designated civil defense air-raid shelter. However, their faith in the building's sturdiness was unfounded, as it was completely demolished by the storm. Twenty-three people are known to have stayed in the Richelieu Apartments during Hurricane Camille, but only eight died.

From: http://www.upress.state.ms.us/features/cam.../interview.html

Q) How satisfying was it to get to the truth about the myth of the \"hurricane party\" at Richelieu Manor Apartments?

A) It was very satisfying to piece together the story of what actually took place at the Richelieu before and during Camille. One of the survivors of the complex, Mary Ann Gerlach, created the myth of the hurricane party in numerous interviews she gave after the storm. She also may have created a misperception that she was the Richelieu's lone survivor. Other Richelieu survivors, however, including Ben Duckworth and Richard Keller, were irritated and hurt by those erroneous reports that were perpetuated over the years. Duckworth made his feelings known in several newspaper interviews, providing a more accurate picture of what happened at the Richelieu. I also received an e-mail message from Keller during my research that backed Duckworth's account. Keller's wife, Luane, died in the storm. Consequently, I was able to tell the real story. They and other residents had spent much of that Sunday, the 17th, helping the apartment managers move automobiles to high ground and generally preparing the complex for the storm's onslaught. Then, they huddled together in fear and prayer in a third-floor apartment as the building crumbled and disappeared beneath them.

There is a before and after shot of the Richelieu Apartments at the Harrison County Library site:

http://www.harrison.lib.ms.us/images/camil...le/c-040&41.jpg

Before all the casinos moved in in the 90's, there were still a whole lot of empty lots on the strip that remained vacant from Camille. Last time I was there two years ago, there still were a few. I believe the Richelieu lot was one of them.

But yeah, I have no doubt that there are people stupid enough to actually have such a party.

 

[David Wolfson]

I think just about the whole CDO of Camille would fit in the eye of K. :shock: I'm personally not partying, but praying this morning.

 

[Blake Michaleski]

No one is gonna even talk about Camille after this thing rolls through.






All I gotta say about those refusing to leave new orleans is ....

Go Darwin!

 

[Angie Norris]

I just got off the phone with my son who is in Pass Christian. Needless to say, he is getting the H... out of Dodge after I told him about the intensification overnight. Last night we had discussed the possibility of riding it out, but that was at Cat 3.
I don't think it would be exaggeration to say we're seeing a storm of biblical proportions. The people in New Orleans need to either be leaving by whatever means they can find or call their next of kin. The aftermath of this is not going to be pretty. The financial toll alone is going to be incredible and we may not be able to even get an accurate death toll.
The gulf coast as we currently know it probably won't exist after tomorrow.
Yep, for those who refuse to leave through stubborness or stupidity...Darwin rules! For those who can't leave because of lack of means, pray that they find sturdy shelter.
Angie

 

[Rob_Davis]

Everytime NO floods, then end up with bodies floating down the streets because of all the shallow and above ground burials. It's really spooky. I think this time, in a lot of cases they are going to have a hard time initially telling fresh deaths from old ones.

 

[guest]

web cam on bourbon street

i have read with interest your postings here. i am sure that the posting of the bourbon street web cam is going to boost the hits there, have been watching with some interest what the people of new orleans are doing in the wake of this weather phenonimin. it will be interesting to see how long the web cam stays up. i thank the responsible party for this post. you can believe that i will be back to your site.very interesting. kudos to those who keep it.

 

[Rob_Davis]

Re: web cam on bourbon street

I bet that thing is indeed getting a lot of hits. It is very slow to refresh for me. And I notice that the neon sign went out a few hours ago, so it looks like they may have shut down the business. You can bet that the owners will be watching the cam, wherever they go!

 

[Joannie]

web cam

i just realized that i could post my name, so it is done. my last look at bourbon street shows the front of the business is boarded up. hopefully the rest of the crazys still out there on the street (and on the last look, there were quite a few) will take note and head for the hills themselves. the one thing that all who stay should worry about is when they do find higher gound, what will they be sharing it with. there are reports from past storms and survivors of hundreds of poisionous snakes heading for dry land and to escape the sea water, only to end up biting survivors of the storm who become victims of venom. not a good scenerio.