Superdome and High Rises

[B Ozanne]

Maybe a good place to discuss the stability of the Superdome and other high rises in NO. I was thinking they would be safe, but I am questioning that right now.

 

[Anonymous]

Not sure about that, but I am curious about how the wind meters will hold up, here in Florida most of our METARs failed at our moderate hurricane winds compared to this. Also, I am wondering how long TV stations will be able to hold up, could there transmitters go down? I doubt we will see many live shots as the storm passes, it will be just to strong, DOT cams will likely go down too. How about the NEXRAD? Can it withstand it?

 

[Alex Lamers]

From what I know, NEXRAD is designed to withstand winds to 150 MPH...no guarantees after that.

...Alex Lamers...

 

[B Ozanne]

Any type of spinning anemometer is going to struggle. Wish they had some pitots like we do on Mount Washington.

There is going to be unprecendented shutdown in services. Sewer, TV, electric, etc. Not only are they going to fail, before that the people running them are going to evacuate.

In that NWS message they do mention the failure of high rise buildings.

Ever been in a building during 130mph winds? I was on Mount Washington. That thing is built for 300mph and mostly underground, but it shakes and howls like you wouldn't believe. The pressure differences that setup are quite impressive.

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew...

Just came to my mind, it brought down the NWS radar at Miami, winds were borderline 5.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

The Florida Coastal Monitoring Program is intercepting this storm. This group sets up a series of towers/isnturmented houses.

They are on a quick time schedule, so no deploment map is available yet, but here is their latest update:

unday, August 28

Teams have been reorganized to deploy towers in Mississippi and Louisiana:

Louisiana Team: Dr. Forrest Masters, Jimmy Jesteadt, Jesus Jayaro and John Gamache pulling T1 and T2

Mississippi Team: Dr. Kurtis Gurley, Victor Camps, Collette Blessing, Jimmy Erwin, Jorel Vaccaro, Kristin Barndt and Rob Davis pulling T0, T3 and T5.

T2's generator isn't providing power, so we rigged two marine batteries in serial to provide additional 24V power to the UPS system. We expect 24 hours of data collection.

Cell reception looks poor in many of the areas we may deploy, so this may prevent operation of the real-time system. If so, the summary files will be posted as soon as the towers are retrieved.

http://users.ce.ufl.edu/~fcmp/

Aaron

 

[Anonymous]

That program looks pretty cool, but by the looks of those mobile towers, I really can't see them lasting very long...

 

[Rob_Davis]

In metro NO, I don't think it is so much a question of the buildings, stations, towers, radars and transmitters withstanding the wind as it is the question of them surviving underwater. If the levee is breached, NO becomes one with the ocean.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Never said they had to last the entire time

These towers helped verify wind speeds in quite a few hurricanes for NHC.

Aaron

 

[David Schuttler]

Originally posted by B Ozanne
Maybe a good place to discuss the stability of the Superdome and other high rises in NO. I was thinking they would be safe, but I am questioning that right now.

The Dome might hold up to the wind speed but not if something hits the roof at 150 mph plus and causes damage that allows the wind to get in under it.

 

[B Ozanne]

A friend of mine is stuck in a hospital in Thibodeax, LA, southwest of NO. The hospital is constucted to withstand winds of only 135mph. That's what it was designed for, but he has low confidence that the building was constructed exactly to spec.

Makes me wonder about the quality of the Superdome. It may have been desinged for 200mph winds, but that's only if it was built perfectly. Its also an old structure.

 

[Andrew Khan]

Originally posted by B Ozanne
Maybe a good place to discuss the stability of the Superdome and other high rises in NO. I was thinking they would be safe, but I am questioning that right now.

What are you talking about, superdome? IS that the nexrad?

 

[Robert Dewey]

Originally posted by Andrew Khan+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Andrew Khan)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-B Ozanne

Maybe a good place to discuss the stability of the Superdome and other high rises in NO. I was thinking they would be safe, but I am questioning that right now.

What are you talking about, superdome? IS that the nexrad?[/b]

The Superdome is a stadium in New Orleans where they are evacuating those who cannot leave.

 

[Kevin Bowman]

i have some concerns about the superdome, is that roof able to withstand the hours of wind

 

[Blake Michaleski]

there gonna be more folks in the dome for this than your average Saints game. :roll: