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Author Topic: Hurricane Damage Joseph L. Kleiman Master Film Handler Posts: 380 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Apr 2005 posted 09-01-2005 12:54 PM                     Confirmed IMAX Dome at Exploreum, Mobile, is flooded. Have not yet received word on Entergy IMAX, New Orleans. Portions of the theater are built below the Mississippi waterline, with the walls shored up to prevent leakage from the river. Generators are in operation at adjacent Aquarium. McWane Center in Birmingham suffered no damage and has resumed regular operation. UPDATE 9/2 9:30AM PDT Exploreum flooding appears to be limited to exhibition hall. No word yet on Entergy IMAX. Have sent an email to Rodney Daniels and Mark Henderson hoping they, their staff and families are ok. Aquarium next door has been abandoned due to looting and violence in area and backup generator has died. [ 09-02-2005, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: Joseph L. Kleiman ]  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-15-2005 06:12 PM                     Really Joe, Who gives a crap about the Entergy Imax as long as the folks that run it are ok it could be easily rebuilt... and there probably won't be much need for it for quite some time anyway. What one might want to give a hoot about is the Sanger Theatre on Canal Street that was more than likely under alot of water. what a valualable gem and piece of history to loose...... Mark  |  IP: Logged Joseph L. Kleiman Master Film Handler Posts: 380 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Apr 2005 posted 10-17-2005 03:20 PM                     Mark, Thanks for the loving words of encouragement. This forum is called "LARGE FORMAT FORUM" for a reason. By the way, the staff of the IMAX is ok, but they've all be laid off. The projector is rusted beyond repair. Not that we should give a sh*t. Joe  |  IP: Logged Jamie Glossop Expert Film Handler Posts: 100 From: Nottingham Uk Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-18-2005 09:35 AM                        Now now boys, Joseph L. Kleiman, I am sorry to hear about the Entergy IMAX but i am glad the staff are ok and living, as for a rusty projector that is easy to replace, I realy hope the cinema will reopen in time as its not nice to see floods happen anywhere big or small palces, Mark Gulbrandsen, That looks a nice looking place, Yes it is hard to replace the history that that threater had, It is good to hear that ther staff are ok too, But i feel that your post is not a nice on towards joe, No matter which cinema got flooded, burnt or smashed it shouldnt happen to anyone of them big or small, Just because the imax cinema that joe mentioned is kind of newish doesnt give you the right to say who gives a f*** about it, I feel sorry for both cinemas and i hope they get back to running soon, Every cinema has history no matter how long they've been open or not, Some more then others in some cases, So please play nice, I dont mean for it to sound nasty or any other way,  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 10-18-2005 04:18 PM                        quote: Jamie Glossop Just because the imax cinema that joe mentioned is kind of newish doesnt give you the right to say who gives a f*** about it Mark never said that. He asked who gave a crap about it. Every forum member has the right to ask questions, in fact we encourage it.  |  IP: Logged Joseph L. Kleiman Master Film Handler Posts: 380 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Apr 2005 posted 10-18-2005 04:37 PM                     Mark and I actually get along just fine....and I'm still waiting for his list of laserdiscs. When I wrote the original post, I was trying to locate staff from the IMAX theater. That's been taken care of, so his post isn't taken as a personal jab. I'm actually concerned about any theater that suffers trauma. We should all be.  |  IP: Logged Jamie Glossop Expert Film Handler Posts: 100 From: Nottingham Uk Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-19-2005 08:05 AM                        quote: Daryl C. W. O'Shea Mark never said that. He asked who gave a crap about it. Every forum member has the right to ask questions, in fact we encourage it. Sorry, I must of read it wrong, Sorry mark, Have a free beer on me  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-21-2005 08:14 PM                     quote: Joseph L. Kleiman I'm actually concerned about any theater that suffers trauma. As long as no one is hurt or killed my personal feelings generally only extend to historically significent or important structures both theatrical and otherwise, only one Imax structure is what I would call "significent and unique" and thats the Cinesphere!! Structures such as Multiplexs and every day Imax Theatres are damaged by hurricanes now and then and to me the re-construction/repair time also presents an opportune time for doing upgrades and repairs... some of these damaged theatres do indeed get upgrades.... don't think they don't!! Sturctures such as the Saenger Theatre are not replacable, they are generally repairable but are never the same as they were originally. Having been in the Saenger before I'm thankful that all the main floor seating was out when the hurricane hit.... had it been in place the damage would have been very very bad, probably mainly from mold. Mark  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 10-21-2005 11:10 PM                        quote: only one Imax structure is what I would call "significent and unique" and thats the Cinesphere!! ...and what's the chance of that place getting wet? It's got to be pretty slim. Now where'd that lamphouse go?  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-22-2005 09:43 AM                     quote: Daryl C. W. O'Shea ...and what's the chance of that place getting wet? It's got to be pretty slim. I'd be more concerned that it might float away one day..... After all when you're down in the basement you're something like 15 feet under water...... That lamphouse.....well..... I donno..... Mark  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-15-2005 03:30 AM                        The Imax at the Exploreum in Mobile flooded the entire first floor, where all the doodads that run the show are located. Only the auditorium was on the second floor. If they ran the projector up to operating position, then it was the only piece of equipment that wasn't submerged. The Exploreum was built in the old (I mean REALLY OLD, 1858) City Hall on Water Street on the Mobile River at the mouth of Mobile Bay. Water Street is low, & during hurricanes, it floods. It's crazy to build anything you want to keep dry at ground level on Water Street. When City Hall was built, it wasn't a problem: if you look at that picture, you'll see the whole first floor was stables & carriage/pedestrian entrances, all the rooms were on the floors above; so when the water rose, it just cleaned out the stables. The people running downtown Mobile just get more & more stupider. Let's enclose the 1st floor, & put a museum, exhibition hall, & IMAX in there! It floods every hurricane, but it's a city-owned arts & downtown commission thing, & they fling money at it again. The Entergy Imax in New Orleans is at the foot of Canal Street, right on the Mississippi River. However, New Orleans is actually quite a ways up the river, & the river didn't rise into the city. The New Orleans flooding was from the failure of the levees on the canals, which didn't get to the foot of Canal Street. Damage in that area was loss of structural components from wind, loss of power, pumping, & all that for too long. It's hard to explain what happened to folks who just hear the "New Orleans is below sea level" cliche, which is misleadingly broad & not enirely true. If you think about it: the original settlement couldn't have been a city built below sea level on the river. Bienville went a good ways up the river to find a good port safe from direct coastal weather problems, found a high spot off the river, & told the engineers & workers to build New Orleans there while he went back home to civilization in Mobile. That's the old, original part of New Orleans, near the foot of Canal Street, the French Quarter, a.k.a. the Vieux Carre' (Old Town). The Vieux Carre (French Quarter) & along the river didn't flood during the hurricane. However, the land does dip between the Vieux Carre' & then goes back up again at the edge of Lake Pontchartrain a bit to the north. Roughly, the River *used* to flood & inundate the city often, then the river levees were built to stop that (way back when), then they found out the water during floods which couldn't get out because of the river levees just found its way into Lake Pontchartrain, then Pontchartrain would flood, sending water into the city from the north. So they built the levees around the lake, essentially walling the city in. Then, stormwater became a problem becuase now it couldn't drain out of the city into the lake or the river, so utilizing some existing navigational canals & building new ones, they began to pump stormwater from the city into the canals to drain into the lake. The city, except for the high part near the river, then began to dry out & subside (sink) in many, central areas away from the levees. The canal network, which ultimately has a dual function just as a drainage ditch network, then had to have levees built along them, since their water level would seek that of the lake. Essentially, the canals became huge above-ground drainage ditches. The levee breaches were on various levees built along the canals. The flooding on Canal Street seen in pictures actually came from the north, from the lake side, & made it all the way down Canal Street, but not much past Rampart Street (several blocks from the River, & the northern boundary of the Vieux Carre'). It's a skeletal overview: New Orleans is actually one huge Army Corps of Engineers project being built, modified, & evolved over a hundred years. There are a bunch of other devices which are included like floodgates & standby gated floodplains communicating between the river & lakes Pontchartrain & Borgne, etc., across several 'unimproved' areas designed to be put into operation during a hurricane or flood conditions when the river, canal, or lake levees may be overtopped, depending on where the water is piling up & where it needs to go. Obviously, the whole thing goes pfooey if the levees themselves don't hold.  |  IP: Logged

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