imdrunk

The last update shows the storm moving NNW at 10 with winds steady at 160mph. Unfortunately the storm is just hours away from land (the eye at least) and many many people are still waiting to get inside the Superdome. These tend to be the less fortunate among us who couldn't afford to leave the city. I don't know what the status of SFNO will be but I'll be sure to see if I can find pictures online of what will happen. SFNO is on the east side of New Orleans and I live west of the city. Needless to say, I physically won't be able to get to that side of New Orleans for a long time. Well, since we couldn't find any liquor (or even cheap beer in this damned place), we are resorting to many hours of Mario Party. I'll update later. Dean

I made it to the De Ridder, LA (our evacuation location). When we first got on the highway, it took us over 2 hours to go what usually takes 30 minutes. It took us almost 8 hours to get here (it should have taken 4). We'll be camped out here in west central LA. The place we came from is Houma, about 60miles southwest of New Orleans. We are slated to stay here for two nights and return Tuesday. Some of my family decided to stay. I think they are crazy, but some people won't listen. If there was ever a storm to leave for, this would be the one. I'm really hungry now, so I'll be going to find some grub. I'll fill everyone in later on the latest. Of course, where we are, we can only catch the CNNs, Fox News, the Weather Channels, so you can find out exactly what we know by tuning in to those channels. Dean BTW - I'm supposed to get married this coming Saturday. Power outages threaten that unfortunately. WE'RE STILL GETTING MARRIED, DAMNIT!! The NO airport that everyone will be flying into will more than likely be under many feet of water. We'll have to see.

I started a new thread of my evacuation at http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18567 I'll update it if our hotel has broadband. I should be there later today. This will be my last post on this topic regarding the hurricane.

I posted previously on other topics, but I wanted to create this topic in the Random section to keep people updated on the storm and my evacuation. Currently the storm is a Category 5 (the highest designation) with 160mph winds (gusts to 196). It is currently slated to hit dead on New Orleans which has the potential to flood the city with 18+ feet for weeks. Thankfully I live in Houma, LA which is about 30-50 miles west of the track. Any small movement in the storm, though, will change it track and we'll be screwed. I posted this info elsewhere, but if you are interested: For you weather buffs, the place I work at has weather stations located on the coastal areas of Louisiana. Check it - *go to www.lumcon.edu *In quick links drop box, select weather *select any of the weather stations you see on the map and click it *the interesting things to look for are increases in wind speed, changes in wind direction, and an increase in water height *Also, on the station map page, under the map there is a link to two web cams. The picture of the camps is pointed toward the east. The picture of the estuary is pointed west. Keep in mind that these stations will more than likely be destroyed at some point and will be rendered useless. ------------------------ I'm evacuating to DeRitter, LA (west Louisiana) and will be safely out of the way. Unfortunately I'll be in back to back traffic for hours. I'm bringing a laptop, so if the hotel has broadband, I'll be posting perodic updates. Peace out.

Okay, so it (Katrina) is up to 196mph sustained with gusts to almost 200mph. It is currently 6:43CDT and I'm leaving at 9:00am when we'll enter miles and miles of stopped cars on the interstate. Sound fun? This hurricane strength combined with the path it is taking is unprecedented. New Orleans is in big big trouble. The levee system there can handle only about a 15ft storm surge. The surge with this storm is currently 25feet+. I'm bringing a laptop with me, so if our hotel has broadband, I'll continue to make mini-updates on a new thread on the Random forum so I won't be posting stuff like this in this coaster forum. For you weather buffs, the place I work at has weather stations located on the coastal areas of Louisiana. Check it - *go to www.lumcon.edu *In quick links drop box, select weather *select any of the weather stations you see on the map and click it *the interesting things to look for are increases in wind speed, changes in wind direction, and an increase in water height *Also, on the station map page, under the map there is a link to two web cams. The picture of the camps is pointed toward the east. The picture of the estuary is pointed west. Keep in mind that these stations will more than likely be destroyed at some point and will be rendered useless.

I am quickly packing and evacuating due to a direct hit from Hurricane Katrina. I'll have to make my next coaster for the next contest. Good luck everyone.

Okay, so I guess if I had poured more over the forum, I would have seen the other similar entry. Well, this thread is up now, so we'll see what happens.

I'm wondering just how many of us are current or ex employees of theme parks. Tell everyone if you are a current or ex, park name, and describe your job. Also, share any cool or unusual stories. I am an ex employee of OprylandUSA theme park in Nashville, TN. Actually, the park was removed in 1997 in lieu of a shopping mall (go figure). I worked there in the mid '90s. I was a game operator person. You know - throwing darts, guessing peoples' weight, throwing basketballs, etc. I do have a weird story that landed me a promotion, but I'll have to share that a bit later.

I'm Nintendo all the way. Mario Party rules.

Hey Dave. Guess what. I'm getting married on September 3rd and we are going to Universal Studios (Orlando) and BG Tampa for the honeymoon, too. Crazy!! When are you guys going there? The only ticket prices I found were the ones on the BG Tampa website. I'll keep looking and let you know if I find anything!

Hello everyone. I have a question. While building my inverted coaster, sometimes it appears the track supports are sometimes outside of the 10x20 limit even though the actual track is within the set limit. I guess this is cool, right?

I agree that this is the first contest and there may be a few hitches here and there. Let's see how this comes out and we can make rule changes later. I also agree to not allow restrictions on entries or separate entries based on the version of the program used. Would it be cool to render the RCT2/RCT1 coasters in RCT3 and have all images come from RCT3? It should remove the differences between the way the three RCT games are displayed. It would make all coasters equal as far as image quality goes. I haven't tried to import older coasters into the newer RCT3, so I don't know if some aspects of the coaster would be lost.

Good luck to everyone

I finally came up with a design I was 'cool' with. 'Cool' is in quotes because my coaster's name is Below Zero. Good luck to everyone!

Here is my entry - BELOW ZERO. Enjoy. FYI - RCT3 w/o Splash Expansion [WoodenRC]Below Zero.trk Below Zero RCT3 Track File Below Zero - Top View Below Zero - Side View

Hello everyone. This contest is very fun but I have come to realize that my coaster-building talents are weaker than I thought. This 15x15 restriction has been hard for me, but after viewing other entries, I see that it is possible to have a great coaster in such a small space. I think my problem continues to be my obsession of laying as much track in that 15x15 as possible. After I complete a coaster, it looks like a mess. Usually when I finish a coaster it either 1)sucks, but meets the excitement/intensity ratings; or 2)it is pretty good but isn't exciting enough. I've probably built about seven coasters in the last week and haven't been happy about any of them. I'm going to get home after work today and not get up until I'm satisfied with my entry. Time is ticking . . . .