Update: Category 5 Hurricane Rita - Live Thread, Part II

NHC - NOAA ^ | 21 September 2005 | NHC - NOAA

[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

[milagro]

And not with any feeble-faith attitude of "it's ALL we can do".

Our God is a MIGHTY God--remember election night 2000 when Florida wnet into the Gore column? A bunch of us, including me and my beloved 1John started praying--earnestly! And, within a half-hour, Florida was back up for grabs. Course it took several nail-biting days before we knew if Bush won--but that night was a true turning point.

So call me nutso--but I truly believe it was God's answer to some powerful prayer warrioring!

So--am putting on the "full armor"--but need re-inforcements!!

[Guenevere]

Thanks!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Not as big as Katrina, but getting bigger...and she will be pushing a lot of water with her...

[MikefromOhio]

well about 20 minutes later, the storm is now a CAT 5....

Dear God in Heaven....

[carinafox5]

I lurk here quite often.. having posted last in September of last year.. been a while. I do appreciate the efforts of all giving great info on these threads. Thank you!

Now, my question.. I live on the outskirts of Austin on the border of Pflugerville. At the moment we are in a Palm Harbor Home. We had straight line wind damage 2 years ago and that was 75+ mph winds.. tore down our garage, blasted in a window and ripped up the roof a bit. Now, I want to go to a relative's house with our new baby. My husband doesn't think it is necessary. He seems to think all we will get is rain :/ We live along the I-35 corridor which seems to be a storm highway for some reason. Anyways, should I follow my personal gut feelings and be safe and leave him and my stepsons here (he refuses to go and doesn't want his boys to go either as he thinks I am being silly) or am I being too cautious and ridiculous as he thinks I am. How bad do you guys think it will be? And should I high-tail it out of here with my 3 month old? Planned on going to sister's apartment (first floor) or a friend's house nearby. He says chances of anything severe is like winning the lottery and I need to just relax and not worry about it so much.... Really need some thoughts here.. I am from Pittsburgh originally... so I have never experienced this before... Thanks guys!!

[NautiNurse]

We haven't seen rain here in a month...forgot what it was like...

[ErnBatavia]

Email that slob and tell him ... we are supporting President Bush. He is not likely to read our emails.. but bombard him

I did that shortly after Katrina, when he was blathering on in his smarmy way about Bush "hiding out on vacation"....I know he read it, because he sent back a one word reply within 10 minutes: "CLASSY".

Sheesh...all I did was advise him he sounded like a bitter bar-room drunk!

[mjwise]

Thankfully!!

[Myrddin]

Hubby has his ham license but no equipment!!

I've had my license since 1976. My wife earned her TechPlus a few years later when she needed communications in the field while flying her Red Tail hawk. My equipment is pretty old. My handheld 2m rig is a 1976 vintage Icom 2AT. The lowband rig is an Atlas 215XL (160m to 15m). We are planning to pick up some new multi-band handheld (144/220/440) with full CTCSS/DTCS as most repeaters are using CTCSS on input and are completely unusable with our old radios. Ham emergency traffic on VHF normally starts on 146.52 MHz simplex. You can program that into a scanner to listen. RACES normally brings on multiple repeaters to coordinate communications for public service agencies that are having problems with normal resources.

My local area (Pocatello, ID) has no RACES active. As as Extra Class licensee with ties to local law enforcement, I'm in a position to launch that capability. I just need to update equipment and get some antennas up. The edge of my roof line is 25 feet above ground. Getting up there has been the major obstacle.

[steveegg]

Changes from the last Vortex Data Report (1 hour 46 minutes prior on the eye fix) -

- Movement 4 minutes north, 11 minutes west (general WNW direction)
- An EXTRAPOLATED drop in pressure of 6 mb to 914 mb (exrapolated from 700 mb at 2360 m in the latest VDM)
- Max flight level winds up 8 knots to 161 (and now measured in the NE quadrant; last was in the W quadrant)

[laz]

I mean, holy crap, they have this tone that they have to exclamate each word when talking about Katrina and now pending Rita.

Each of them fantasizes about being Dan Rather. And I must tell them that they are already as worthless as he is.

[knak]

thanks

[JFC]

WTG.. Let CNN know what jerks they are... cnn is so biased it is unreal.. You all who are ditching FNC better thank your lucky stars we have them.. email cnn at caffertyfile@cnn.com tell them they are biased. I bet half the emails they read are from moveon.hate groups or their own cnn.. memo emails...

[rwfromkansas]

Where are people from the Atrodome going (or have they already left?)

[AliVeritas]

It's like a wardrobe... they'll pull out global cooling then... and the price of oil.

The libs are probably cutting heads off chickens for it to hit the rigs and somehow Crawford. Even the lack of a horrible hit on the keys let them down. It is the death party.

[conservative in nyc]

Can anyone direct me to somewhere that tells what parts of Houston are being evacuated.

Map of parts of Brazoria/Galveston/Harris planned to be evacuated, by category of hurricane

From the Houston Chronicle:

HARRIS

No evacuation orders issued

No evacuation orders, either voluntary or mandatory, have been issued for Harris County, said Frank Gutierrez, county coordinator for homeland security and emergency management.

The county has, however, asked those with special needs in areas at risk for a storm surge to contact the county's emergency management office, 713-881-3100 if they wish to evacuate, so that transportation can be arranged, Gutierrez said.

--Snip--

[freeperfromnj]

I really don't think they care. I sent plenty of emails to various media outlets during the early Katrina coverage, as did hundreds of others. Nothing will ever make them change their stance on the President. They are all losers. Best thing we could do is not watch (even though it's hard not to during trying times). Just look at what's happening to the NY Times and other print media - they are getting hit right in the pocketbook.

[Zacs Mom]

...and in other breaking news...

;^)

[james_f_hall]

I think they should start planning evac of Houston now.

[steveegg]

Steve, who posted the link with 908mb? That was a comparison line right?

I believe that was Knitting A Conundrum (don't quote me though). The latest Vortex Data Message had an extrapolated 914 mb pressure.