Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VIII

NOAA - NHC ^ | 29 August 2005 | NOAA - NHC

[NautiNurse]

Category 4 Hurricane Katrina is approaching landfall in Eastern Louisiana. At 4:00AM EDT the storm's center was about 90 miles south of New Orleans.

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

Lake Ponchartrain Real Time Water Level

Wind Speed Data

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 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:

Cut and Paste:

http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=beloint_khou&props=livenoad

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

Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VII
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

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

[Admin Moderator]

#2811 removed because of Getty complaint.

Reference.

[WestCoastGal]

"How much of the city has 8 feet of water and white caps? "

Unfortunately that is how he reported it [south of Lake Ponchartrain]. I don't know. I wish we had better news for those who are affected. I fear many are in real trouble right now and we just don't know it.

[LincolnLover]

I was thinking the same thing about the "south of the lake" statement. It's essentially meaningless since so, so much lies "south of the lake".

[Calpernia]

Mobile Bay Cam:

http://flhurricane.com/imageanimator.php?3

[DCPatriot]

"...That's the explanation I got from an (gas station)owner"

I don't feel the gas station owner is gouging.

If you owned the gas station and had a mortgage and tuition and food bills, what would you charge for the gas underground on your station property?

Before you answer, remember that you probably won't have any customers for weeks to come.

$4 @ gallon is pretty cheap under the circumstances.

[CindyDawg]

I just heard that they were able to rescue the mom and babies. They lost a rescue vehicle but "things" can be replaced.

[cgk]

I'm trying to find out, too.

---

Flooding, power outages from Katrina
  posted: 08-29-2005


Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore in southeast Louisiana this morning, charging across the low-lying area with 145 mile per hour winds and the threat of a catastrophic storm surge.

Water has either breached or risen over levees in several parishes. Gov. Kathleen Blanco said water was rising at a rate of approximately one foot per hour and conditions are expected to worsen throughout the day as the storm moves across Louisiana and Mississippi.

There was six to eight feet of flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward near St. Bernard Parish, Blanco said. Flooding also was occurred in other parts of Orleans Parish and in St. Bernard, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes.

Some buildings have collapsed in downtown New Orleans, while winds have blown windows out of several high-rises.

Blanco advised residents, who evacuated by the hundreds of thousands, not to try to return home today.

Late this morning, the hurricane was getting a little weaker and had been downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane with winds of nearly 125 mph. It was expected to get weaker as it moves over land but hurricane-force winds are still expected as far as 150 miles inland.

Katrina, which weakened to a Category Four storm overnight, edged slightly to the east shortly before making landfall near
Grand Isle, providing some hope that the worst of the storm's wrath might not be directed at the vulnerable city of New Orleans, which is below sea level and protected by a system of levees. But Biloxi, Miss., was taking a pounding.

National Hurricane Center meteorologist Martin Nelson said the northern part of the eyewall came ashore at Grand Isle about 5 a.m.

Katrina's fury was soon felt at the Louisiana Superdome, which became the shelter of last resort for about 9,000 people who could not leave New Orleans. Winds blew two holes in the roof of the stadium, sending water onto the field. Officials said they do not believe the building was in danger because it was built to withstand 200 mph winds.

Three nursing home patients are reported to have died during their evacuation.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)

[LibSnubber]

Not really much info on the Slidell/Mandeville area yet. Been waiting and watching myself. Slidell got hit bad.

[RobFromGa]

All morning I've been hearing about breached levees and that P lake spilling over.

One of the Mississippi River levees was breached, haven't heard that any Lake P levees were breached (yet). Did I miss something.

NO dodged the bullet from the standpoint that the storm weakened just enough before landfall and started to break up enough to escape complete and total flooding and devastation that would have resulted from a Cat 5 forcing a major breach of Lake P levees. Plus it shifted a little east rather than direct hit on the city.

SO "dodged the bullet" is relative to total catastrophe. It will still be very bad. And worse for other areas.

[RockyTop4GOP]

Man, I'll take the cold in Alaska any day over gators and snakes in my house.

Add in there the neutra (LA sewer rats) that are displaced by all the canals flooding. They're major pests when the weather conditions are perfect.

[IMRight]

Fire ants will form a big ball of hundreds+ of them to float on water, hate to brush into that!

Ick!

[txdoda]

I hope he gets there without getting killed by flying objects.

Be nice if **AP Photo/Dave Martin** would help shelter these people, rather than just photo them "struggling to get to the Dome".

[NCC-1701]

Sure thing. I enjoy sharing information. Hey, besides, the Alabama IS a battleship. It was designed to absorb more punishment that it got today. It still would have been neat to have been aboard it during Katrina. I would have felt safer there than in a building.

Godspeed to those in harms way.

[cyborg]

good grief

[Calpernia]

Thanks for the roof info. Did the 10ft pillar that fell support anything? I mean main support.

[cajungirl]

Best thread tip ever,,I never knew that about the soap.

[rolling_stone]

thanks I have people in both haven't heard from them since last night...

[Marysecretary]

I feel the same about NY! I love AK. My sons have all lived there and it's a gorgeous state.