Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VII

NOAA - NHC ^ | 28 August 2005 | NOAA - NHC

[NautiNurse]

Extremely dangerous Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on the North Central Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans metro area. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin conceded that as many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport. At this hour, people are still filing into the Superdome after security screening for weapons and contraband. National Guard have brought in 360,000 MRE (meals ready to eat) to feed the estimated 30,000 storm refugees in the Superdome.

The following links are self-updating:

Public Advisory Currently published every 3 hours 5A, 8A, 11A, 2P, etc. ET
NHC Discussion Published every six hours 6A, 11A, 6P, 11P
Three Day Forecast Track
Five Day Forecast Track
Navy Storm Track
Katrina Track Forecast Archive Nice loop of each NHC forecast track for both three and five day
Forecast Models
Alternate Hurricane Models via Skeetobite
Bouy Data Louisiana/Mississippi
Buoy Data Florida

Images:

New Orleans/Baton Rouge Experimental Radar Subject to delays and outages - and well worth the wait

Mobile Long Range Radar Loop

New Orleans/Baton Rouge Radar

Ft. Polk, LA Long Range Radar Loop

Northwest Florida Long Range Radar

Storm Floater IR Loop
Storm Floater Still & Loop Options
Color Enhanced IR Loop

Other Resources:

Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VI
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part V
Hurricane Katrina, Live Thread, Part IV
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part III
Katrina Live Thread, Part II
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part I
Tropical Storm 12

Hurricane Wind Risk Very informative tables showing inland wind potential by hurricane strength and forward motion
Central Florida Hurricane Center
New Orleans Web Cams Loads of web cam sites here. The sites have been very slow due to high traffic
New Orleans Music Online Couldn't resist--love that jazz
Golden Triangle Weather Page Nice Beaumont weather site with lots of tracks and graphics
Hurricane City
Crown Weather Tropical Website Offers a variety of storm info, with some nice track graphics

Live streaming:

Fully-linked version of the live feeds (just in case a few people don't want to first open up WMP to cut-and-paste) -

WWL-TV/DT New Orleans (WMP) - mms://beloint.wm.llnwd.net/beloint_wwltv
WVTM-TV/DT Birmingham (WMP) - mms://a1256.l1289835255.c12898.g.lm.akamaistream.net/D/

1256/12898/v0001/reflector:35255
WDSU-TV/DT New Orleans (WMP) - http://mfile.akamai.com/12912/live/reflector:38202.asx
Hurricane City (Real Player) - http://hurricanecity.com/live.ram
ABCNews Now (Real Player) - http://reallive.stream.aol.com/ramgen/redundant/abc/now_hi.rm
WKRG-TV/DT

Mobile (WMP) - mms://wmbcast.mgeneral.speedera.net/wmbcast

.mgeneral/wmbcast_mgeneral_aug262005_1435_95518 WDSU-TV/DT New Orleans via WESH-TV/DT Orlando - http://mfile.akamai.com/12912/live/reflector:38843.asx

Category	Wind Speed	Barometric Pressure	Storm Surge	Damage Potential
Tropical Depression	< 39 mph < 34 kts			Minimal
Tropical Storm	39 - 73 mph 34 - 63 kts			Minimal
Hurricane 1 (Weak)	74 - 95 mph 64 - 82 kts	28.94" or more 980.02 mb or more	4.0' - 5.0' 1.2 m - 1.5 m	Minimal damage to vegetation
Hurricane 2 (Moderate)	96 - 110 mph 83 - 95 kts	28.50" - 28.93" 965.12 mb - 979.68 mb	6.0' - 8.0' 1.8 m - 2.4 m	Moderate damage to houses
Hurricane 3 (Strong)	111 - 130 mph 96 - 112 kts	27.91" - 28.49" 945.14 mb - 964.78 mb	9.0' - 12.0' 2.7 m - 3.7 m	Extensive damage to small buildings
Hurricane 4 (Very strong)	131 - 155 mph 113 - 135 kts	27.17" - 27.90" 920.08 mb - 944.80 mb	13.0' - 18.0' 3.9 m - 5.5 m	Extreme structural damage
Hurricane 5 (Devastating)	Greater than 155 mph Greater than 135 kts	Less than 27.17" Less than 920.08 mb	Greater than 18.0' Greater than 5.5m	Catastrophic building failures possible

[U S Army EOD]

If that happens, I just don't know what to say or think. This thing is like the two 747's that collided on the runway in the Canary Islands. You can't come up with this in FICTION disaster movies.

[STARWISE]

LOL .. the old land shark

Miles O'Brien's Hurricane Blog

Apparently, he's setting up to have on-site reports afterward,

[pnz1]

Weather guy on Fox is saying around 6 or 7 am.

[Interesting Times]

1am Eastern / Midnight Central: 908 mb / 160 mph.

They haven't indicated any weakening.

[exhaustedmomma]

When this is done and over with, that one who stayed behind needs to be laureled!

Another part of this story I don't like... my mom is in a personal care home (residential home with round the clock care... smaller numbers than nursing home... there are 4 residents)... any way, we have to sign that we will get her in a situation like this. If we don't get her within time for the home to evacuate her we pay all expenses plus a fine. Bottom line is... they get her to safety. There is responsibility on family and on the residential home to ensure the safety of these vulnerable human beings. For crying out loud.

[JeffAtlanta]

I remember the mayor that evacuated Galveston once.

This is a point that many 20/20 hindsight warriors are forgetting. Hurricanes are very hard to predict - we can see them on satellite, but their path can defy predictions.

Many areas of the southeast have been instructed to evacuate and the storm either missed the area completely or caused only minimal damage.

Another problem is that authorities are very reluctant to let people back to their homes after they have been evacuated. One guy in Florida got tazered by the police in front of his family last year because he wanted back into his house but the authorities wouldn't let him because they wanted to make sure it was "safe".

These situations are much more complicated that those who just want to play the blame game realize.

[CFC__VRWC]

Fingers crossed, hoping the trend continues.

I hope the trend continues as well, but like you said, your data has yet to show that easterly component. And there just ain't much more time or room for that to happen any more.

Well, I've got to go to bed. Thanks for all your hard work and for the information - I've really gotten interested in what makes these things tick, and I've learned quite a lot from you and from others here. I just wish there was some way the people of New Orleans could be spared the misery they're about to face.

[connectthedots]

I put butter on the bread first and then the sugar and cinnamon on top; put it under the broiler ans wait for the combo to sizzle for about 30 seconds. Lots of sweet on soft hot bread. Much better than using the toaster. It's adictive.

[Miss Marple]

Yes. Every time I think about it I get mad again. Those poor folks in the Dome are at risk because there was no plan to get them out of the city. It just infuriates me.

[Jrabbit]

Thank you..

[Skywarner]

"Maximum sustained winds...160 mph. Minimum central pressure... 908 mb."

Looks like the winds, and the pressure, has not changed.

Prayers go out to everyone who is - and will be - impacted by this storm of historic proportions.

[newzjunkey]

Welcome aboard. :)

[Coldwater Creek]

I do not know. I haven't heard from them. They are on the Alabama/Florida boarder, but they have already had tornado warning in their county tonight, I know that they are not in the direct path, but if it turns to the east a little more they could still be in great danger. Thanks for asking.

[jdontom]

A little attaboy to all the LEO's working tonight in LA, god speed.........

[Termite_Commander]

Well, these updates are getting somewhat repetitive. Nothing looks new.

[U S Army EOD]

Perhaps both of them will wash up there.

[colorado tanker]

How did Karl Rove do this???? Obviously, this is his diabolical plot to get Cyndi off the front pages. As usual, this is ALL BUSH'S FAULT!

It will be interesting to see what the MSM do Monday; run their manufactured anti-Bush story or the real news?

[CT]

From a link at Michelle Malkin's Blog:

Superdome: Can It Withstand The Winds?

Ugh. The media is now asking the question we speculated about earlier: can the Superdome withstand the winds of hurricane Katrina? The answer we noted was “not sure” every time we saw it asked. And the message was consistent from every official asked - you know it’s grim when officials agree. Oh Good God, a’Mighty. They’re estimating more than the initial 30,000 people will be in the Superdome, too. Joe Bastardi is saying that if the central pressure stays so low (902 millibars), it’s even more devastating. However, the problem is that Andrew was a hurricane with a central pressure at landfall of 921 millibars - not much better. Curfew is 6pm in New Orleans, BTW, not 9pm as was originally reported to us.

We noted NOAA’s forecast discussion has not yet been posted; this is not a good sign.

[Bush gal in LA]

I read part of that thread before it was pulled. It was pretty pathetic.Blaming Bush and God , for just about everything wrong with the world. I really think those people need some serious mental help.But knowing how far gone they are ,it's probably too late.

[StolarStorm]

Money had nothing to do with it. It had to do with safety.