kjb434

^^^^ Also, From downtown NO they can cross the river and ride the Westbank Expressway. Highway 90 will take them all the way to Layfayette. That route didn't get damaged and the water is off the road now. It's mostly freeway too. They don't have to take I-10 west to leave new Orleans to Houston. I'm from a small town off of Highway 90 about 50 miles from New Orleans. Some state trooper friends of mine have me on a email list for emergency postings. The roads are all clear in that direction. They just have troups guarding inbound. The weirdest thing is that I haven't heard anything reported about the Westbank. They aren't as flood proned as the eastbank.

Whether its a designer name or it or not, its still shipped in from Asia. The designer name is just a marketing tool. The designer gives some designs to Targets people and they move forward with production. The name allows for to be charged little more. I'm not saying this is bad. A lot of people like the products and buy. As for selection. Wal-Mart does have every other store like it beat. Many products are sold at Wal-Mart and only Wal-Mart since the product maker can meet their profits without having another distributor. Wal-Mart sets the standard on many of the products you by at Target. Ever wonder why some products just changes designs or marketing? All major product vendors have offices in Bentonville, Arkansas next to Wal-Mart so that they work together. Wal-Mart sells so much that these companies will do what Wal-Mart tells them to do to sell more. Their partnership is mutually beneficial for them. Target or K-Mart or any other retail outlet does not have this influence. In the end, it truly does not matter to me. I don't hold ill will towards a store. If the store is not what you want to shop at, then don't. Easy enough. You dont' have to have hard in stone answer why. You just don't like the store because of ______ (dirty, bad service, selection). I never like K-Mart growing up in Louisiana because of selection, but when I move to Houston and K-Mart still existed, I shopped there and it was nice compared to Wal-Mart. I never shopped Target until I moved to Houston. I just don't see much difference. How the store appears to me doesn't affect me at all? I just shop at the closer one. But that's just me.

The one good think about the Mississippi and Alabama damages can be reviewed and begin clean up now. New Orleans still has get ride of the water before any clean up. Either situation is heartbreadking. The damage to Gulfport and Biloxi are immense. These two town were beautiful seaside communties where everything was going good.

westguy, do you know which levee you are talking about? None of the levees that broke or that are part of the Lake Ponchartrain levee system are classified as East Bank. The use of the word East Bank in the Army Corps and in the New Orleans area relates to the Mississippi River. Within the New Orleans (urbanized area), few land levees exist. Most of the protectino from the River within east bank area within New Orleans is natural highbank. The corps has installed gates and some concrete walls (completed project) along the area for trucks to get to the loading docks. East Bank levees exist south of New Orleans and and further upstream. These are under routine maintainance. The money most probably pulled was study money and future project money. Also, the Army Corps has some of its own accounting issues. They routinely overspend budges just like the Pentagon. The Bush administration made a move that no president (whether republican or democrat) has been brave enough to do. He decided to crack down on the reckless spending within the Corps. As much as I love the Army Corps, I too notice their problems. His order forced an oversight of the budgets for study money and some proposed construction constracts. Whether its perfect solution or not is a whole other story. The same thing should be done to many other government programs including the defense department. Also, read my post above about the weakest part of the levee.

Hey Redscare, I've gotten see some good pics of the bridges into and out of the city. Now that I've gotten to see them, the damage looks pretty extensive. Many road decks have been knocked off. The one good thin is the bents (beam conecting the pilings) still appear fairly intact. The worst one I've seen is just west of Biloxi. All the road deck has been removed leaving only the supports. I do have faith the city will rebuild. I guess with the rate information is coming from there what you see and here one minute will change with the next. I wish I had a TV in my office. I could consistantly keep up with the new pictures.

nmainguy, 1.) if you looked at my post and the date it occured, you would realized it was made prior to the levee breach. 2.) The levee was designed for a Cat 3 and it held up that expected storm surge. The weakest part of the levee is the upper levels unless it is paved in solid concrete, but the environmentalist won't let the corps do that. 3.) at the time of the levee construction, the corps believed larger storms would inundate the city with so much rain and wind that the levee would be useless. The rain water would do the flooding and not the surge. The wind damage would be so catastrophic that keeping the surge out wouldn't be worth it. 4.) was I wrong, sure, if move my post up after the levee breach. 5.) what does republican have to do with this? Does it bother you that I have a positive outlook on the situation. I would rather look upon the realities and how to solve this problem and get the city moving than constantly re-enforcing the doom and gloom. This isn't avoiding reality, this me accepting it and wanting to figure out how to solve it. 6.) how I'm getting involved? I'm putting my talents where I can use them. I actively participate in ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers). This is the same group that performed the analysis to discover why the twin towers really collapsed (not from the planes hitting it either). ASCE will partner with the Army Corps to evaluate the flooding situation and help in finding solutions to the problem.

4000 NG had been deployed of a total of 8000 NG. Texas has pledge to send some over. There are only so many that can go there now. Until the water is pumped out, having 1000s of NG troops won't be of great benefit. Right now they are driving through the shallower waters to get people loaded up and into the Superdome. Then they are going to start getting them out of the city. We don't have a lack of NG to worry about to handle this situation. The largest issue to be takled is repairing the levee. That'll be taken care of today. Next is lowering the water in the city.

Also, remember, this is not the first time the city has flooded like this. It's happened several times in its existance. The last one being in 1965.

I just heard this morning that the home opener will play in Baton Rouge at the LSU stadium.

One good think is the developer mentioned in the story is currently behind the project on Memorial where the Bayou Bend Apartments uset to be. I'm thinking if the Alabama project occurs, it'll be after the Memorial one is nearing completion. If anyone has further information, please correct.

yeah, it's off of Champions Forest south of Cypresswood.

The mayor is expecting a three month time frame to prepare the city for people to really start entering and getting lives back to normal. The three months is to get the levees fixed an power to the pumps to get the city dried out. Then to get the electrictiy restored. After all that, restoration and rebuilding can really get moving. How long did take Homestead, Florida to recover?

The bridges were broken up? unless there is a tremendous current, destablized foundation, or the concrete beams float the bridges are ok. They will have to have complete inspections though. Trucks are using the I-10 bridge on the westside of the cities which scrapes Lake Ponchartrain. The twin spans (I-10 on the east side of the city going to Slidell) I have hear had damaged. it understandable, but there is a back up with the old highway 11 bridge. The causeway would be in the same shape as the I-10 bridge on the westside, but inspections would be needed also. I'm more worried about old Huey. The bridge has been there since 1935 and holds a worlds record for the large incline train bridge in the world (4.1 miles long). The city will rebuild. The people will go back. I don't think it will be completely abandoned. The city holds to much importance to the US to let go. I don't see us letting go of San Fransisco after a major earthquake where much of the city is in shambles. The solution is simple to fix. The Netherlands have measures in place to control storm surges (their biggest problem) across their country. We can build larger levees. Think about, the rising waters is coming from a recently breach levee. Not the storm itself. New Oreans regularly recieves tidal surchage the raise the lake water and the river regularly rises in the spring. I think the Army Corps will take the challenge and try to put in the one the best systems in the world to control the problem. The Netherlands and Venice, Italy are two places that are really attacking storm surge problems. New Orleans is a little easier to solve but just build a bigger levee, unless they want to build something out on Lake Borne to constrol inflow into Lake Ponchartrain, but that would be a much bigger project and the environmental and economic impacts would prevent the construction.

yeah, It's getting worse. Just remember, in 1965 the city had an average of about 7 feet of water across the entire city. This was before ANY levees on the lakeside existed. The levees were built after that. The were aim to protect from a large category three storm figuring that any larger storm would destroy the city from wind. All the historical buildings have been flooded before. Most of the modern structures were built in the late 70s and early 80s just like in Houston. Mold is not an issue since water is always a problems. That's why I was so shocked how everyone is scared of mold in Texas and wondered why New Orleans never had the problem. Most of the lower homes and buildings have flooded if they are over 40 years old. To me the most critical thing is time. The national guard of Lousiana and assistance from Texas will need to get to work to get the pumps and levees fixed first. The the water can go down. As areas of the city start emerging from water clean up can begin.

Outside of the residential/office space on the central street on the Atlanta one, it's not much different than wha planned for Houston. It's still a big box store with the parking lot. The store will have all the trees just like the Atlanta since it is now required by Houston also. I don't see it being any different. Most of it architectural detailing. The true urban place on the west end or rice military will be along washington especially when they try to fit the LRT down the middle.

Thanks for the observation. I was figuring at least some people from the Cinco Ranch area headed south to the Westpark Tollway, but coming from north of I-10 would be further than I thought.

Good luck in the selling. I hope it all works out.

Yeah, They did everything they could to maximize the Tollway and keep Westpark road the same. I think they did a very good job in the end.

is that truly wrong? Most bars in town charge higher price for drinks or require cover to keep unwanted patrons away (particularly homeless). Should they be penalized? Some states have price gouging laws the allow the price to go up somewhat by not too much. Florida has them. Some people were going after Hilton Americas because they're were over $200 a night, but that is their normal rate. They just lower it to $109 a night. I agree the statement was off, but raising prices to keep some people away is all too common.

His family was still in charge. Whoever is in line of succession have moved back. My mom sent me the article from Louisiana.

Hey, Wal-Mart News!!! I don't think the News Media will mention this: Wal-Mart has given $1million dollars to the Red Cross Specifically for the clean up. They have already opened their store in Kenner, LA and are offering it up at a supplies relay station and to house the supplies. Kenner was hit hard specifically near the Lake front. Most of the Lake front aerials i've seen were actually in Kenner and not in New Orleans. They will operate at a loss at that store as long as it takes to get New Orleans back up. I guess they aren't a bunch of big corporate meanies after all.

Similar approach to levee breaches in 93' in the midwest. I can see billions of federal money going to New Orleans and the surrounding areas and the Army Corps to rebuild this system and better. Just like Houston, HCFCD and the Army Corps received after Tropical Storm Allision. As a hydraulics and hydrology specialized engineer, I can't wait to see the projects proposed come out of this.

Also, Roadrunner is not the only on on TW. You can get other services under TW. You can also go with a satelite internet provider. They don't use the same dish as a TV. They have to use a second one. The only issue it that you may see a little interuption when it starts raining and if you play online games there will be a little lag sometimes, but not a lot. I had a friend who had Direct TV and got internet from them because he moved just outside of the small city that Cox Internet provided cable for. They would run a line out for internet unless he paid for it. He just got satelite internet. I'm sure you can google satelite internet and find something.

I can see variable pricing coming into affect eventually, but I'll think they'll wait until the Katy Freeway completed to test the system out. Also, some people are using the Westpark to avoid the Katy while it's under construction since both routes get you to uptown and downtown.

Well ... MODERATOR, OH MODERATOR. DELETE ME!!! Thank you.