RSS Feed
Twitter
Editor's note: Initial rpeorts from Michoud talk of some water inside the facility - but not from flooding. The External Tanks and their associated manufacturing hardware seems to be more or less OK. More to follow.
Hurricane Katrina threatens shuttle external tank facility, Spaceflight Now
"A small "rideout" crew is in place at Lockheed Martin's sprawling external tank production facility in New Orleans, braced for potentially catastrophic flooding and destructive winds from Hurricane Katrina."
Michoud Operations, LockheedMartin
Urgent Weather Message from NWS New Orleans
WWUS74 KLIX 281550NPWLIXURGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED
HURRICANE KATRINAA MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969. MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. ATLEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED.
Miles O'Brien's hurricane blog, CNN
"The hotel location near the French Quarter in New Orleans was good for our personal safety (we could operate out of the fourth floor in an interior hallway during the worst of it), but parking the satellite truck would be a problem. Since the streets of New Orleans sit mostly below sea level, it would very likely become a satellite submarine as the storm water surges into the city. Using small satellite phones to dial in for a lower resolution signal seemed like an option, but even that was not assured. I called my friend (and former NASA administrator) Sean O'Keefe at his new post -- chancellor of Louisiana State University. Turns out they recently installed a fiber optic link to the studio at the school and local station -- and CNN affiliate -- WWL is evacuating their operation to that studio."
