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

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

[Ditter]

Our local weather guy just said the water in the western Gulf is cooler that in the central Gulf and Rita is expected to be a cat 3 by landfall. If it goes into Matagorda where they have said for 2 days it was going it will have been over land for 120 miles by the time it gets to me. If it goes east and comes into Galveston it will have been over land for 50 miles by the time it gets to me.

[HairOfTheDog]

I like how you think :~D

Other hosp workers have pets too.... let 'dog gone' be the pet watcher, somewhere safe in the hospital.

[LA Woman3]

I have a friend who lives in The Woodlands. She was wondering how to prepare her swimming pool for the hurricane....

[RummyChick]

accuweather guy - not bastardi- says it will likely strengthen in the next report but it probably won't be a cat 5 when it hits land. 50-60 miles south of galveston.
storm surge higher than sea wall.

downtown houston will be devastated if this changes just a bit in the track.

[No Blue States]

I pray it doesnt hold true. To be honest its hard to even post knowing how serious this is. I might say something wrong.

[freeperfromnj]

That's OK. I'm hardly an expert - I just trust accuweather and I've been following Bastardi for years. He's usually right on with snow storms too. I just pray that everyone takes this seriously and leaves. My son's godparents moved to Spring TX a few years ago - I fell in love with Texas when I went down to visit them.

[NautiNurse]

Throw lawn furniture into the pool. Safest place for it. Do not drain the pool. Best to turn off the pump the day the weather starts getting bad until the end of the storm.

[Dog Gone]

GPS dropsonde measured a 180KNT wind at 908MB on 050921/2000. That's a sustained wind of 207 MPH

Weee! This is gonna be better than that wooden roller coaster at Astroworld.

[Strategerist]

18Z GFDL has followed the NGP and GFS North; NGP and GFDL both landfall in the precise location of the 1900 storm, GFS a tad more N directly up Galveston Bay.

[NautiNurse]

Weee! This is gonna be better than that wooden roller coaster at Astroworld.

You are breaking my heart!

[SE Mom]

I know..I know.

[Dog Gone]

If you can ship the dogs over here, I can take care of them. (Or, is it too late?)

I appreciate it, blam, but it's too late. We're mandatorily evacuating about 1.5 million people. I'd guess that another million are leaving, too. Just among my friends and co-workers it's about 80% leaving, but I doubt it's anywhere that high for the folks in the poorer neighborhoods.

I'm not even counting the coastal communities that would be hit the hardest and are probably the most motivated to leave.

I don't think I could get to work if I wanted to tomorrow. I'd have to cross a major evacuation route. Fortunately, my company sent me home at noon today with some phone numbers to find out when the office will re-open. Cell phones are already worthless in Houston and the storm won't be here in earnest for 48 hours.