[KarlInOhio]

Just to give an idea of how powerful a hurricane is, the MOAB has about 9 tons of explosives. Assuming it is TNT (the explosive I have some numbers for), that would be about 3.8 x 10^10 joules of energy. An average hurricane releases about 5.2 x 10^19 joules per day. So the MOAB has as much energy as 63 microseconds of an average hurricane. Rita is far more powerful than an average hurricane.

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/D7.html for hurricane energy info.

[Thud]

Yup, both Rita and Katrina were huge in area as well as being powerful. The total energy each carried was far greater than the average bad hurricane.

[Tennessee_Bob]

So, nuking a hurricane would be just as effective as that guy in Mississippi mooning the hurricane - it just wouldn't have the comic relief...

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

Reports on TV indicate that Rita has become the third most powerful storm on record. John Sealy hospital in Galveston was evacuated (first time in its history). I have heard from people in Houston that there are about three million people attempting to leave the area. Hotels in Dallas, 250 miles to the north, and San Antonio, 200 miles to the west are approaching their capacity. I am in Lubbock and the story here is that all the Katrina evacuees are gone and we're expecting 500-1,000 folks fleeing Rita. I have to go to Houston next week and it will be interesting to see what level of damage the city suffered....

[Fred Hayek]

That works out to 12 gigatons a day. Energy output is about 600,000 gigawatts, according to your numbers.