Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part VI

NHC - NOAA ^ | 23 September 2005 | NHC - NOAA

[NautiNurse]

Dangerous Hurricane Rita is expected to make landfall in the northeast Gulf of Mexico within 24 hours. Tornados have spawned in Louisiana. Water is filling the Ninth Ward of New Orleans again. A bus carrying elderly evacuees was gutted by fire this morning outside Dallas, with multiple fatalities. Television crews have positioned their hurricane reporters throughout the region to attain maximum drama effects. Whoooooa.

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 Western Gulf of Mexico
Houston/Galveston/Beaumont/Lake Charles Wx Watches/Warnings
Jefferson Co TX NWS Weather
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Texas
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Louisiana
Hi Res Houston Flood Zone Map Slow load, great detail

Images:

Lake Charles Long Range Radar Still image, with loop link
Houston/Galveston Long Range Radar Still image, with loop link
Lake Charles Experimental Radar Outages and Delays May Occur

Storm Floater IR Loop
GOM WV Loop
GOM IR Still Image
Visible Storm Floater Still (only visible during daylight hours)
Color Enhanced Atlantic Loop

Streaming Video: (coverage may be intermittent)

KHOU-TV/DT Houston
KPRC-TV/DT Houston
KTRK-TV/DT Houston
KTRH-AM Houston
KPLC-TV/DT Lake Charles/Lafayette
KSLA-TV/DT Shreveport

Additional Resources:

FReeper Sign In Thread Check in to let us know whether you are staying, going, and when you get there
FReepers Offering Lodging To Rita Evacuees People and/or Pet Friendly FReepers Offering Shelter
KHOU Houston
KTRK ABC News Houston
KPLC Lake Charles Evac Routes, news
KFDM Beaumont/Port Arthur News, evac info
Hurricane City
Wxnation Houston
Galveston Webcams
Golden Triangle Weather Page Provides Galveston Weather, Warnings, Radar, etc.

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 V
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part IV
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part III
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part II
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part I
Tropical Storm Rita
Tropical Depression 18

[antivenom]

Everytone said New Orleans dodged the bullet with Katrina, and they were SO wrong...I do not see good things for Houston in the weeks to come.

I made it out to Austin hope to go home soon.

[ElisabethInCincy]

According to this Oil rig map Rita is barreling through quite a bit.. am i correct ????? http://gom.rigzone.com/rita.asp

[fishntex]

Yes. I just got it a few months ago. I saw some really cool stuff on the Katrina threads that helped me to find some overlays.

Google earth is probably the best software that has come out since windows maybe. Google is on a roll. I have the free version.

[mathluv]

No, HE was the one who liked sweet tea. After that, I never had to bother to make it that way.

[Howlin]

Me, too. Be sure to keep it upgraded.

[LA Woman3]

Well, I do have a small boat.


LOL! You are set then! Our power went off just for a minute...
Glad we have Demco as opposed to Entergy since they are bankrupt!

[knak]

Is it even windy or anything yet? My dad lives near there.

[TheMom]

It sprinkled here for half a minute. We are still dry.

[mware]

Just put on that pot of coffee, and putting a couple of slices of Texas Toast in the oven. You are welcome to come join me even if it is just virtual.

[Blogger]

Sorry :) We girls usually aren't Math luvers. Men usually can't spell but are great at math whereas the opposite is usually true of women. (not a blanket statement, just an observance).

[fishntex]

Yea its great. Love it. Best thing since sliced bread.

[johnb838]

They are convinced the landfall is east and all will be fine. I keep thiking on the hard and long rain that is going to fall all over the place down there.

If what we get is a major rain event, the first thing that will help us is that there is no traffic. We always wind up with thousands upon thousands of cars underwater when we get flash floods.

Secondly, we've done a lot of flood abatement here since Allison, and we've been very dry for about a month so water from the sky we can handle a lot better than cat 5 storm surge.

Thirdly, with so many people gone, that will ameliorate somewhat the problems we will have with rescues of people that ARE unfortunate enough to get flooded out.

My view of Houston is we can handle a lot of water, but sometimes we get a HELL of a lot.

[Blennos]

The biggest rise in water level that I've seen so far is at the Black Bayou at Hwy 621 "near Prairieville." I guess everyone defines "near Prairieville" a little differently, but I tend to think of Hwy 621 as being Gonzales. In fact, I live less than a mile from Hwy 621. The water in Black Bayou has risen four feet today at that location so far. A link to the reports from the monitoring station is

If we still have power and if I can get access to it, I will report on the state of bayou manchac tomorrow.

[Elderberry]

Claudette was a tropical storm when it hit. Not in 2003 though. This is the one where Alvin had over 40 some inches over several days. It hit us three times. It would go north only to be pushed back down. I think it occured around 1980 or so.

[johnb838]

Well, the name of the drinking game of course ought to be "Dodge the Bullet!"

[Jalapeno]

Everytone said New Orleans dodged the bullet with Katrina

Heh, the fact is they did. But more than one shot can be fored from a gun.

The wind storm was the greatest danger to this point. And the danger of series damage from that is fading.

It floods in Houston all the time. People in the prone to flood areas have evac'd if they had sense. Sure there will be floods and damage, but this ain't New Orleans. No levee's to blame Bush for. Houston will be running by Monday or Tuesday.

[Fish Speaker]

You missed it...Shep had his hat on backwards during the 3:00 segment.

[meyer]

that Fox lady keeps adding inches..

Is she preggers?

[don-o]

mark - I do not want the Big Nurse on my case.

Thanks FRiend

[WFTR]

You are correct. Rita is going right over much of our domestic production. All of those rigs have likely evacuated already and are not producing oil. When Rita passes, the companies will need to get workers back to the rigs to begin repairs. They'll also have to check pipelines for damage. Once those checks are complete and damage is repaired, we can restart production. Of course, many of the rigs are already down because of damage from Katrina.

When the rigs come back online, they'll be sending oil to a smaller number of refineries. I've heard that four refineries are still down as a result of damage from Katrina. Shell has a big one at Port Arthur that could be damaged by Rita. Exxon has a big one at Bay City, Texas. Conoco and Citgo have refineries in Lake Charles. Any of these or maybe all of them could be down for the next few days to a few weeks. The three or four refineries around Houston are likely down because of the threat of Rita but now are less likely to sustain major damage. They could be producing again in a few days.

This country needs more production and more refining. Unfortunately, we have a business climate that is hostile to both.

Bill