| This thread has been locked, it will not receive new replies. |
|
Locked on 09/21/2005 4:38:48 PM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason:
Locked - New Thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1488924/posts |
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
Isn't that Joe from AccuWeather on there right now?????
KLBJ (AM-Austin) is quoting local emergency folks as saying we should prepare for "tropical storm winds" (that would mean up to 73 MPH). Sunday AM might be a dicey time to be flying. Sunday night might be better. The airport is in a somewhat low-lying part of Austin near the Colorado River so I could see flight delays as a possibility for Saturday night or Sunday morning depending on how fast she blows through.
A lot of the amount of wind we see in Austin will depend on two yet-unkown factors - how easterly Rita moves through Texas and how strong her winds are when she makes landfall. If she's a 200-180 mph major Cat 5, she could still have Cat 1 or Cat 2 winds this far inland. If she's in the 130-140 mph range coming ashore, I'd say TS winds are more likely. Some projections have her moving right up the I-35 corridor (or more precisely up Governor Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor) into the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and up through central Oklahoma.
" Wow--nothing gets by her, huh?"
LOL...I had about the same reaction.
So........I will say it again:
If you are staying because you don't have the money to leave, Freepmail me CONFIDENTIALLY and we'll get it done.
ping
I thought this post by Strategerist might interest you.
"The current GUNA consensus for Rita is a landfall at East Matgorda Bay, a few miles east of the actual town of Matagorda, right over the little town of Gulf."
At the very least couldn't this produce some strong tornados in the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma?
Yes. Rebelbase posted a vanity, about enough already with that lame-o crack, a few days ago and got a pretty good flaming for his trouble.
I see no reason not to add "no Bush's fault," just after no racism.
ping to 1498
Yes, and Sean is sucking up to him big time right about now.
From Steve Gregory's blog on Weather Underground -
SEP 21 2005 - 1:20PM CDT
The latest RECON reports confirm RITA is now a CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY 5 Hurricane.
Center Pressure is down to 920mb, and MAX Sustained winds of 153KTs at Flight level -- implying 155mph surface winds. with gusts to 175mph.
Lowest barometeric pressure with Carla was 931mb. This one's already gotten down to 922mb.
That's a lot better use for school buses than the use NAGIN put NO's to.
Bless you for offering to help coordinate!
Well one thing is for darn sure. Texans are a whole lot better organized than another area I won't name.
forget hotels, do you have a place you can go - friends, family, closer then 570 miles? do you have gas in your car? if you evacuate, consider leaving off-hours - in the middle of the night perhaps. running out of gas while evacuating isn't a good position to be in. worst case, know where the evacuation centers are in your area and prepare to go there.
Of course, it's not (that) funny, but there is a long tradition at FR (going back years) that LIVE threads are going to get spammed with standard jokes from the FR lexicon. Just ask Howlin.
Taking showers. Stuned Beebers. Bush's Fault. A moose bit my sister. It would be silly not to expect these things. They're like a tradition.
Anybody who remembers the OIF threads knows that multi-day live threads are going to have long dead periods followed with a flurry of real news. I think it's unreasonable to expect that the slow periods will not get filled with "Freeperisms". There will be many hours between now and Saturday where nothing is happening.
It was during one of these dead periods that we discovered the legendary "Achmed Vila". Funniest dang thing I've ever experienced. In the middle of a WAR!
Just my .02 . Silly jokes have a place in a multi-day live thread.
OK now it's "Holy Sh*t time",right?
What can possibly slow this thing down?
does anyone have a map of the texas coast that shows those locations in detail?
are you listening to HF?
Now, someone put this next to the "Yellow submarines" picture.
Repost link please. Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
