Posted on 09/20/2005 4:12:29 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
GOVERNOR Kathleen Blanco declared a state of emergency in western Louisiana today and urged people to evacuate parts of the state due to the new threat of Hurricane Rita.
"I have put the state on alert. We've declared another emergency ... for southwest Louisiana," Ms Blanco said. "We're urging people to evacuate," she said as Rita barrelled near southernmost Florida, gaining strength and heading west on a track that could take it close to the devastated Louisiana city.
Emergency services have already begun evacuating residents of New Orleans, which is still a disaster area following Hurricane Katrina's August 29 hit, Mayor Ray Nagin said.
"We have had an influx of evacuees that have made their way to the convention centre. We've already evacuated two busloads of individuals," Mr Nagin said.
Officials were quick to emphasise that the convention centre would function only as a staging place for people to board buses, not as a shelter.
Tens of thousands languished without food, water and sanitation for days after fleeing to the facility during Katrina.
The National Hurricane Centre forecast a track that would have Rita making landfall in Texas over the weekend, but a "cone of probability" in the forecast indicates the storm might slam ashore anywhere between northeastern Mexico and the swamplands of southern Louisiana, west of New Orleans.
"We're watching Hurricane Rita very, very closely. If you've had a chance to see what has happened last night it was aiming at Galveston, Texas ... This morning it's a little more westerly. It can move in any direction based on the winds. And so that concerns us," Ms Blanco said.
A decision on mandatory evacuations will be made tomorrow as officials, who came under fire for their slow response to Katrina, monitor the new hurricane.
"If the storm becomes a threat, we will start to strictly enforce the evacuation process tomorrow," Mr Nagin said.
Katrina killed close to 1000 people in four states, including 676 in New Orleans, which was 80 per cent under water after the storm broke levees protecting the low-lying city.
Mr Nagin already suspended on Monday his controversial plan to allow some 180,000 residents to return to the city by the end of the month to check on their properties.
"I know there are lots of people ... anxious about coming home. And I know that some of you were prepared to come back to New Orleans. Just hold on for a little longer," he said.
I have no idea.
Y'all missed my sarcasm tag.
;^)
For those who don't live in hurricane alley, what does influence what way a hurricane moves? Gulf Stream? Heated waters? I know the latter can strengthen them.
Keep us informed, i_dont_chat. Thanks.
Is this an example of Louisiana public schooling or a private education? Does she ever even watch the weather channel? Weather news?
Don't be so sure, RW! Based on the predicted track a few posts before yours, western Louisiana will be impacted by Rita's right-front quadrant and that quadrant is generally recognized to have the most damaging conditions at land-fall. From the link:
This is because the winds have an additive effect - the hurricane's sustained on-shore winds plus the speed of motion of the hurricane. So, if a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph is moving toward shore at 20 mph, the total wind speed at the coast could be about 120 mph in the right-front quadrant.
Because the onshore winds are strongest in the right-front quadrant, the surge and waves in that section of the cyclone are also the highest. "Depending on the tropical cyclone's speed of motion, wave action in a cyclone can be three times as high in the right-front quadrant than in the left-rear quadrant," says Lyons. "The right-front quadrant is definitely the damage quadrant at the coast."
N.O.LA got some after-the-fact flooding from Katrina but it was the Missippi Gulf coast that got obliterated by Katrina's right-front quadrant. If Rita's predicted path is towards the eastern side of the 'cone of probability', then Cajun country is in a whole lot of trouble.
I'm no weather geek, but I always thought that the direction of the hurricane's movement was caused by the barometric pressure of the area around it. For instance, a high pressure ridge will prevent the hurricane from moving in that particular direction. It more or less follows the path of least resistance. Someone more knowledgable could probably add to that, as it is probably more complicated. But hurricanes certainly aren't pushed around by wind like a tumbleweed.
>> INSERT PIC
Wonder where they took them?
I'm in Mobile and every motel/hotel, travel trailer park and etc are crammed full.
It must be even worse west of here.
Not every day you get a second chance to do it right.
The region's flood control infrastructure is in a weakened condition. I think this is why the Mayor is showing concern. His levees and pumps might be overburdened by much less this time than what hit last time.
"We have had an influx of evacuees that have made their way to the convention centre. We've already evacuated two busloads of individuals," Mr Nagin said. "
Not every day you get a second chance to do it right.
Mo money?
blanko a day late, a dollar short, and WRONG again.
But wasn't Katrina headed directly for Lousianna, and it made a sharpe turn and hit Mississippi more direct. Couldn't Rita do the same thing which would then make a direct hit on Louisanna?
The earth's rotation also imparts a force (termed the Coriolis Force or Coriolis Effect). This force causes cyclonic systems to move toward the earth's poles in the absence of strong steering currents. Tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere are deflected toward the north pole and cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere are deflected toward the South Pole, if no strong pressure systems are counteracting the Coriolis Force.
When a tropical cyclone moves into higher latitudes, its general track around a high-pressure area can be deflected toward a low-pressure area.
Temperature differentials, surface drag, trade winds and the jet stream all play a part in the path a hurricane takes.
LOL!
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