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

[Cboldt]

That letter looks like a near-exact copy of the one she sent on August 28. Both conclude with a request for exactly the same amount of money - $130,000,000.

[SpottedBeaver]

In case anyone is interested, this is Rita at sunset from Allen, Texas.

It's a beautiful Texas sunset.

>>Mash here for Pic<<

[Jrabbit]

Placid is correct. Date may be off a bit....74, 75, 76

[steveegg]

And steady hurricane-force winds haven't even hit there. Now the undersize table with Sharpies is just outstanding TV </sarcasm> Now they got a laptop showing a pic of a transformer blowing up in downtown Lake Charles.

[Tall_Texan]

On the other hand, we haven't had a good 'looter season' in TX for a while.

Looters in Texas know we have more *liberal* self-defense laws in this state and we take the death penalty seriously.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Great rant! That one gets a MothersSon rating of 9.5.

[fishntex]

Hurricane Party with eight crazy cajuns in my house! LOL I'd love to see this.

Here is the band for the party: http://media.bestprices.com/content/music/80/163084.jpg

[RDTF]

go here and then on the right it says KPLC and click on it:

http://www.weatherserver.net/hurricanecenter/

[steveegg]

Thanks; thought they left town completely.

Looks like they're about to be on generator power there.

[Ellesu]

Thanks, I'm trying to catch up reading this thread. How's the weather where you are? Heard a tornado was in Gonzales earlier.

[cake_crumb]

"Thank you!"

You're very welcome. My dad was born and raised in the Beaumont/Fort Worth area and he's the one who taught me cajun cookin' and when not to fear a 'gator. I'm tired of the leftist Katrina platform and tired in advance of the Rita-maneuvering I know will come over the weekend from our fair and balanced press and the fact that nobody in the media EVER gives credit where credit is due.

[frankjr]

"For those who turned of BOR he blasted Clark for appearing with CS. Asked if he had any idea of the things she has said."

I saw that. I think O'Reilly caught him off guard. Clark thought he was there just to bad mouth Bush's hurricane response. Clark tried to use the "grieving mother" line. I loved it when O'Reilly read off a few of Sheehan's quotes and then said Clark was giving her credence. Then Clark started to back-peddle "Uh, I don't endorse everything she says". Clark made a mistake meeting with her. He did it to please the far left and was hoping no one else would notice.

[Spktyr]

Report from the ground in Dallas: Odd cloud formations in the sky, light turned orange and had an odd quality to it not normally associated with sunset here.

Wind is out of the north. Cloud bands clearly visible in the sky. I took and posted these pictures in the last 15 minutes; too dark to see anything more now. No smell of rain yet, but it is rather humid here anyway.

Here's a link to the pictures, the rest are over 50K and therefore not suitable for posting. Check out the cloud bands.

Dallas Rita Pictures

[TheMom]

It has started to sprinkle here, for real this time.

We took a drive around the block just now. It's dark, windy and the streets are basically empty.

It is very strange to see the streets and parking lots empty.

[sinkspur]

I hope you have some zydeco playin' too.

I got Jim Cantore playin'. One of my nephews is anal about storm tracking; he's got this elaborate computer program, that he's feeding coordinates and all kinds of data from the NWC and TWC into. He's from Lake Charles, so he's also attempting to listen to a feed from KPLC. Reminds me of that fat guy from "Twister."

He works for a company that locates underground power cables, so he and his wife are outta here the first chance he gets 'cuz they've got a contract to work with Reliant.

[onyx]

Got it, thanks.

[rwfromkansas]

Looks quite crappy on radar....eyewall opening up.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/loop/DS.p20-r/si.klch.shtml

Of course, at this point, that doesn't really help too much.

But, every bit helps.

[Eaker]

Pinging my old bat!

[don-o]

Can you get O'Reilly right now?

No, thank God - I cannot get BOR.

[Dog Gone]

There's still power on in the shots of Galveston that I can see. It just went out in Anuhuac, the county seat of Chambers County, just east of Galveston Bay.

I think the real story will be where power doesn't NOT go out in the next six hours or so.