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

[steveegg]

Send over the caution pool pick early then.

[shield]

Chambers Cty has flood surge problems. Which is Port Arthur and Beaumont. Do a search and see if you can't find a storm surge map for that area. This AM local weather man talked about the areas for storm surge and Chambers Cty is one of them.

[laz]

I am nearly in tears of pride watching the evac go as PLANNED.

The only silver lining in Rita is that the world is going to see Texas do what Louisiana failed to do, and no matter how the MSM tries to spin it, the bozos in LA will be properly judged by history... and by God.

[RDTF]

I'm here in the DC area with ya - and I'm worried about the lack of news coverage this weekend too. Only the local news.
When the rally was going on in Crawford and Katrina was going thru FLA we were robbed of live coverage. On the rally thread we even came up with a nickname 'getting Katrina'd.' (Of course that was before it entered the gulf).

[kemathen7]

I woke up this morning to see this news. Cat 4. Just damn.

Please God, no. My employers is one of the contractors that is helping clean up LA, MS and AL. We are all working insane hours ... so yeah, its a selfish reason, but I wanted a break from the cleanup insanity.

And of course, I also don't want to see anymore devastation and heartbreak. This is too much.

[johnb838]

It looks like a buzz saw blade.

[Strategerist]

Information is limited given no recon back then but the Galveston storm topped out at 125 kts, based on best estimates, which is 10 kts below Cat 5.

[Zacs Mom]

"f someone could note a couple of the more significant storms and post some links to more detailed data on what effects they had, especially surge and runoff flooding, I'd appreciate it."

This may be helpful:

Atlantic Tropical Storm Tracking by Year from Tropical Prediction Center Best Track Reanalysis

This is a list of Atlantic hurricanes since 1851. Provided are charts on the track of the storm plus a text based table of tracking information. The table includes position in latitude and longitude, maximum sustained winds in knots, and central pressure in millibars.

[NCC-1701]

What's the bag limit for looters in Texas?

[SouthTexas]

Think I better get my race team up too. Let WCG pick first.

Glad I'm at work and have time to do these things. :)

[Hoodlum91]

I think Cindy is the cause. Every time she tries a huge grandstanding event, a major hurricane hits.

BTW, they are QUITE concerned in Dummieland that the hurricane will steal their coverage.

[johnb838]

People in the Kroger last night were sort of acting like the storm was going to hit in a couple of hours. Frankly, the shopping experience really freaked me out. I hope I don't have to go back. I got a bunch of stuff I can open and eat cold. It's all I need. I've got a pocketknife with an opener. I pity the fool without a swiss army knife.

[spectre]

Agree. Besides that, sheltering and feeding thousands of rescued lost pets costs a small fortune. They are literally begging for pet food from Katrina. And these pets still remain homeless :(

[RDTF]

dunno - but just be sure and drag em inside the house after you shoot. (wink wink)

[daybreakcoming]

You and your trees sound like us and ours. We have huge oaks and pecan trees bordering the back of our house...one of those things we always talked about needing to take down but didn't want to. But now they are the primary reason we plan to leave tomorrow morning.

[hadaclueonce]

I'm abit concerned about the nuke reactors outside of Bay city, near Matagorda. Looks like possible landfall area. The nukes will be shut down per NRC rules. They will be safe. My concern is all the Linemen are still in LA putting that stuff up in the air.

[queenkathy]

I'm probably bing dumb here but isn't the fact that the Levees broke the main reason it was so bad in LA? Didn't they say they were going to be ok and then when the levees broke they got flooded.

[LikeLight]

jj, I don't know you from Adam, but I read virtually every post on all the before and after Katrina threads, and you were probably the most accurate "expert" poster on there. You certainly earned my trust and I take your posts very seriously.

[diverteach]

I trying hard not to think about the reconstruction costs of rebuilding a significant portion of the Texas coast (especially a highly urbanized and or industrialized portion), as well as the Miss. and La. gulf coasts.

It's looking more and more inevitable though. :o(

I wonder how many people who evacuated from New Orleans to Texas and had decided that they were'nt going back to NO making Texas thier new home are now having second thoughts?

[thackney]

bookmark for later

I believe that is only drilling rigs. I do not see production platforms shown that I have been on.