"If you lived through Katrina you can't help but think back to that time," Thornton said. "It's just

Like many New Orleanians, Doug Thornton rode out Hurricane Isaac at home on Tuesday. For Thornton , home during major tropical storms is the Mercedes-Benz napili vacation rentals by owner Superdome. As the manager of the world-renowned napili vacation rentals by owner stadium, Thornton knows it is his responsibility to be at the facility 24/7 during a major weather event.
Eliot Kamenitz / The Times-Picayune National Guardsmen Sgt. Matthew Limbert, left, and Cadet Clovis Vaughn of the 141st Field Artillery stationed at Jackson Barracks guard the Louisiana Superdome as weather begins to deteriorate in the New Orleans area as Hurricane Isaac approaches New Orleans on Tuesday morning, August 28.
So, just as he did seven years ago for Katrina and for Ivan and Georges before that, Thornton weathered the storm inside the massive steel-and-concrete fortress on Poydras Street . He spent the day monitoring napili vacation rentals by owner the storm and a skeleton crew of a dozen engineers and security personnel.
Since Katrina, the stadium has undergone a multi-phase $336 million renovation. napili vacation rentals by owner The most important upgrade was a $32 million roof job, designed to protect the facility from winds up to a Category 3 hurricane.
Katrina exposed construction flaws in the old roof, which was installed in 2002. The hurricane's gusts peeled the thick black rubber sheets from the Dome's exterior like an onion, dislodged three massive air conditioning ducts and punctured eight smaller holes in the surface. More than 70 percent of the old roof's 9.8-acre surface was damaged.
napili vacation rentals by owner The new roof is armed with a stronger metal decking, two-inch-thick polyurethane sealant and hard white acrylic coating. It's rated to withstand winds of 120 mph. Isaac's top winds are expected to reach only 90 mph.
While Thornton is confident the roof will hold, he said the main concern is that flying napili vacation rentals by owner debris could damage the building's aluminum outer shell. Such damage would affect the facility aesthetically not operationally. Otherwise, Thornton expected a relatively quiet night at the stadium, which in addition to playing host to Saints napili vacation rentals by owner games this season also will be the site of Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3.
Despite the storm upgrades, the Superdome's days as a refuge of last resort are over. The disastrous experiences during Hurricanes Georges and Katrina forced state officials to reconsider using the facility napili vacation rentals by owner as a storm shelter. In addition to storm damage, state officials napili vacation rentals by owner estimated the Superdome sustained millions of dollars in damage from vandalism and environmental cleanup costs.
While the stadium did provide refuge for an estimated 20,000 displaced storm victims, it also turned into a house of horrors for many. In the end, the bad outweighed the good and state officials made the correct call shortly after Katrina to end the ill-advised practice.
"We don't ever want to use it like that again," Thornton said. "It's not a hospital. It's not a hotel. It's a football stadium. We're equipped to house people for a four-hour football game, not for four days."
The myriad responsibilities of overseeing a shelter of last resort removed, Thornton 's task for Isaac was much simpler. The vast majority napili vacation rentals by owner of the Superdome's 180 full-time employees were sent home Monday. The building was essentially on lock down Tuesday. Military personnel patrolled the perimeter of the building and made sure no one tried to park in the stadium's two parking garages. napili vacation rentals by owner Fuel trucks pumped gas into the building's massing temporary generators. On the Girod Street loading napili vacation rentals by owner dock, a skeleton crew hastily loaded food supplies onto a semi-truck as the first bands of Isaac swirled overhead. Rain peppered the side of the Sysco Foods truck as workers loaded boxes of frozen chickens with a forklift.
Exporting food supplies was just one of the many lessons Superdome officials learned from Katrina. If everything goes as planned, Thornton said he expects all of the supplies to be returned to the stadium Thursday or Friday, in time for Tulane's home opener against Rutgers on Saturday at 7 p.m.
"I feel much better today about the levee system and our emergency plans at the state level and city level," he said. "We're much better prepared as a community. You learn from your mistakes. You learn from experience."
The eerie similarities between Katrina and Isaac are not lost on Thornton . He felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu as he drove to the stadium last Friday night for the Saints' exhibition game against the Houston Texans. The circumstances were almost identical to Katrina, right down to the dates. The Saints hosted the Baltimore Ravens napili vacation rentals by owner for their penultimate exhibition game on Friday, napili vacation rentals by owner Aug. 26, 2005. Even the two storms projected tracks were the same.
"If you lived through Katrina you can't help but think back to that time," Thornton said. "It's just the irony of the whole thing: A storm in the Gulf bearing napili vacation rentals by owner down you a couple of days after a football game. You kind of get a pit in your stomach. It's an eerie feeling and brings back a lot of bad memories."