Will tomorrow's headline be: 1000 prisoners and seputies dead in Galveston Jail?
I just read where the Galveston Sherrif's Department has refused to evacuate over 1,000 people from the one-story jail... that figure includes inmates and staff... The Sheriif's position is that the jail was built to withstand a hurricane, therefore, why evacuate?
This was diaried earlier... Butcher Girls'Diary
However, that was at 2:30 in the afternoon..it is now 7:30 PDT and the news is now saying IT IS TOO LATE TO LEAVE and the online reports say the prsioners are still there.. But there is even more
I just checked CNN.... their main reports mention NOTHING about the situation at the jail... I guess prisoners and deputies don't count...
Here is from theCNN report
The weather service painted a vivid picture in its warning of the destruction it expects: a towering wall of water crashing over the Galveston Bay shoreline as the brunt of Ike comes ashore. That wall of water could send floodwaters surging into Houston, more than 20 miles inland.
Remember, this is a one story jail... CNN mentions
"Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family one- or two-story homes will face certain death."
And the vaunted Galveston seawall? According to science blogger Greg Laden
the one (factor) that may make the biggest life or death difference in this case, is shoreline configuration. Any place that channels water into smaller areas as you head inland (like the bay at Galveston/Houston) will raise the water. A mile wide inlet that narrows down to a quarter of a mile with a ten foot storm surge will potentially produce a forty foot flood.
All these factors together were important in a storm that came to Galvaston in 1900. It is called the 1900 storm. The existence of hurricanes, at that time, was not fully appreciated or understood in the same universal way it is now. This is one of the storms that told people that living near the shore in low lying areas is potentially dangerous. (But did they listen? No, of course they did not listen..)
At that time, Galveston was under ten feet above sea level, and the storm surge was more than 15 feet. The ocean simply came and took the town away. About 8,000 people died.
Today, Galveston has been built to withstand a storm surge. The city was raised five or ten feet (depending) and a sea wall should stop a 17 foot storm surge.
Unfortunately, the expected storm surge is as much as 20 feet.
Laden gives a very understandable and guaranteed to scare the bejeesus out of you on the mechanics of how hurricanes work...
He also makes a wry and spot on comment on the connection between Repuglican disdain for science and their total inability to comprehend what the hell is happening and why....
One of the reasons why people are stupid about hurricanes is that for the last eight years we've had a Republican administration (and prior to that a Republican legislature to varying degrees) which has been doing all it can to keep people stupid about science. Science is the secular devil, the teacher of things our kids should not know (about or how to do). Science is the antiChrist. Knowledge of science may lead to important conclusions such as how the Energy Companies are screwing us, or how "Clean Energy Brought to you from Canada by the song Funky Town" will just produce more nuclear waste, and so on.
This stupidity is what led the Bush administration to actually say "Katriana, the hurricane, did not flood New Orleans. That was rain that flooded New Orleans." ... and do you know, there are still people walking around saying that. Uffda...
To a Republican, Science is bad.
Some links for those who haven't figured out how to do The Google....
Google News Page
Houston Chronicle Online