NEW ORLEANS — Saturday, you can expect a loud boom when the cranes at the Hard Rock Hotel are demolished. When will this happen depends a lot on wind.
"You're definitely going to feel it in this area," said Mahony's Po-boys Director of Operations, Casey Levy.
Mahony's is one of the businesses in the French Quarter that is in the temporary evacuation zone. It won't be able to feed customers, so it'll be closed for the day. They'll come in early to donate food to first-responders and crews on site.
"We're a community, we're tight, and this is what New Orleans does," Levy said.
The goal is to get the cranes down as quickly as possible, but the weather could push things back.
"The wind is our biggest problem," said Chief Tim McConnell, NOFD.
Crews are using small explosives to cut cables on the cranes, so the cranes fall into themselves.
"The goal is to bring it down right where it is," McConnell said.
The soonest the demolition could happen is noon.
"That's looking harder and harder to meet with the wind we have," McConnell said.
Once there is a set time, firefighters will go door to door to get people out about four hours ahead of time.
The evacuation zone will expand about a block each way for several hours. The exclusion zone goes all the way to Bourbon Street.
"If you are in line of sight of this, you're too close," said Collin Arnold, Director of Office of Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
If everything goes as planned, the evacuation zone will shrink back down.
"This doesn't make our problem go away totally, but it shrinks the area at risk," McConnell said.
To get alerts on your phone from NOLA Ready about the demolition and evacuation times, text HARDROCK to 888-777.
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