<p>Before Katrina hit, The New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a five part series on potential hurricane flooding. They have the five part series available on their website at:</p>
<p>The modeling projections done for this article provide an amazing accurate prediction of the current flooding, including a very similar storm track, the exact mechanism of the flooding, and potential flooding maps that are almost spot on for the current high water level in New Orleans. The graphics in the article assume a flood level in the city of 3 feet above sea level. I think the current conditions in the city may be a foot or two above that, but it’s very close. These graphics show flooding to Bourbon street at 2.5 feet above sea level. I think the actual flooding extends a couple blocks further, to about St. Charles:</p>
<p>Here are two versions of the flooding graphics:</p>
<p>Do you happen to know the elevation of Tulane University’s uptown campus. From one of the maps in your post I could not tell if Tulane is in the zero to minus 5 ft. or in the zero to +5 ft. area.</p>
<p>But, to add a few more data points, according to a live CNN report an hour ago the intersection of Bourbon St. and Canal Street has water about a foot deep which is disturbingly close to the flood level estimated in the graphic.</p>
<p>Also, I just heard on LA news that the intersection of St. Charles and Napolean is being used as an emergency rescue boat launch. Follow St. Charles around counter-clockwise towards the French Quarter from Tulane. Napoleon is a major cross street.</p>
<p>St Charles appears to be the edge of the flooding in most locations.</p>
<p>Flooding won’t be the issue at Tulane. The issue is the the city of New Orleans is completely uninhabitable and will be for a month or more.</p>
<p>One more data point from some news footage. Follow Napolean north from St. Charles until you come to a major intersection with Claiborne St. The intersection of Napolean and Claiborne is at least waist deep – deeper than the bed of a pickup truck.</p>
<p>St Charles is the ‘front’ of the Tulane campus. Claiborne runs along the ‘rear’ of the Tulane campus.</p>
<p>Some flooding will be an issue at Tulane. Flooding is not uncommon in non-hurrican weather. Here is one student’s description of non-hurricane flooding–</p>
<p>More likely, the issue at Tulane will be lawlessness and protection of property and facilities. Secondary to that will be financial stability and insurance matters. What happens when an educational facility must close for a…year?</p>
<p>I just grabbed these images from the local news in Houston. I couldn’t find them online but look at the difference in the satellite image of Lake Pontchartain:</p>
<p>Photos showing the flooding near the Tulane campus, looks like 3 to 4 feet–which would not be devastating in historic terms, that level of flooding has happened frequently in the past. </p>
<p>In group #21 of the Times Picayune Photo galleries:</p>
