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Posted on 09/21/2005 1:36:24 AM PDT by NautiNurse
Category 3 Hurricane Rita became the fifth major hurricane of the 2005 season during the night. Hurricane Rita threaded the needle through the Florida Straits and moved into the Gulf of Mexico. Storm damage in the Florida Keys and South Florida Peninsula was light, with scattered power outages, scattered tornados, and mild to moderate flooding.
Mandatory evacuations are in effect for Galveston County TX and New Orleans. Additional evacuation orders in the Greater Houston Metropolitan Area are anticipated throughout the day.
Crude oil prices reacted as oil producers shut down and evacuated workers from platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
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
Rita Forecast Track Archive
Forecast Models
Buoy Data Eastern Gulf of Mexico
Buoy Data Western Gulf of Mexico
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Texas
Images:
Storm Floater IR Loop
GOM WV Loop
GOM IR Still Image
Visible Storm Floater Still (only visible during daylight hours)
Color Enhanced Atlantic Loop
Key West Long Range Radar Still Image
Streaming Video: (coverage may be intermittent)
KHOU-TV/DT Houston: mms://beloint.wm.llnwd.net/beloint_khou
WWLTV NOLA
Additional Resources:
Coastal TX Evacuation Maps
KHOU Houston
KTRK ABC News Houston
Hurricane City
Wxnation Houston
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 |
Previous Threads:
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part I
Tropical Storm Rita
Tropical Depression 18
Jonah, call your office. The Boss wants to talk to you.
Oops.
We are in NW Houston too. We thought we would ride it out, but now I'm concerned. Here's a general question for Houston FReepers, who is leaving from this part of town and why?
They said on the news that Tennessee was taking 3,000 of them.
My understanding was that the Astrodome itself had already been emptied, through placement of refugees into more permanent living arrangements, and that a few thousand refugees were left in the adjacent Reliant Center. Those from the Reliant Center are the ones recently shipped up to Arkansas.
On an unrelated note, the northward jog I saw on the last few satellite frames of Rita is getting more pronounced now.
KHOU (CBS) - LIVE feed (links already above in the "article" part of the post)
KTRK (ABC) (no live feed yet, link also above)
KPRC (NBC) - LIVE stream (offers a choice between Windows Media Player and RealPlayer, and between 56k and 200k streams) - NEW INFO
Good one.
Guy on Hannity finally announced it's becoming a five and said to those in Texas, 'This is Carla'.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They had camera's there yesterday showing people with their bags waiting in line to get on buses and leave there.
book it don-o
Contrary to reports and previous links, it is a five. Get moving.
The President's Ranch is probably in the current path since they said there is going to he hurricane force winds all the way to Austin and Waco.
No, it doesn't mean it is officially a Cat 5. I don't know why the title was changed to Cat 5 when the NHC has not published an update to that effect.
Recon just found 157kt flight level winds (up from 153kt)
Make that 161kt
thanks for the webcam link
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