Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part VII

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

[NautiNurse]

Hurricane Rita landfall is anticipated within the next few hours. Strong winds and heavy rains are battering southern Louisiana and southeastern Texas.

MSM news crews are shouting over the howling winds as they foolishly describe blowing rain, swaying trees, and crashing waves through rain splattered camera lenses. It's a hurricane. We know these things already.

An 18 wheeler rig reportedly overturned on an I-10 bridge. The fate of the truck driver is unknown at this time. Reports of widespread power outages in Lake Charles. KPLC-TV Lake Charles local news has remarkably improvised their reporting from a remote location. They are taking calls from residents, NWS, and public utility representatives, and alerting residents to local conditions.

On the flip side, CNN announced to the world that law enforcement officers had evacuated from Port Arthur TX with the rest of the population. Engraved looter invitations would have been more elegant.

Godspeed to all those in the path of this storm.

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 VI
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

[luckystarmom]

I have family in the Woodville area north of Beaumont. I'm wondering how they are doing there.

So far, everything looks much better than I expected.

[Howlin]

I'd LOVE to run outside and see some rain; we are very close to a drought.

[don-o]

NO has at least two levees letting in water. There was council woman on babbling about getting her peeps back home asap.

What is the matter with that picture?

Plenty. It seems to me that as battered as the system is, it won't even take a hurricane to reflood the city. If federal money is going to be poured into reconstruction (as W. promised it will be) we must demand that the corrupt machine never gets it hands on a dime of it.

[DJtex]

Rick Perry is an R, as is every other State elected official in Texas. When George W. came in as only the 2nd Republican Texas Governor, every State office was Democrat--and had been since Reconstruction. When W left, every State elected official was Republican.

[jeffers]

That was the dry season.

The whole dry season.

[Rightly Biased]

From Nita

---

Thank you. Wind has died down somewhat and getting light outside. Devastation just unbelievable. This house used to have solid woods in back behind lot... now looks like it's been clearcut by timber company. Huge trees everywhere either down by their roots or split in half and hanging onto themselves like broken toothpicks. Someone here works for electric company and heard them mumble, "We'll be weeks before we get power back." Ugh.

Signing off to save battery. Wind kicking up again. Please continue praying. We feel it and thank you very much.

2,259 posted on 09/24/2005 7:11:41 AM CDT by Nita Nupress (Kountze/Lumberton)

[luckystarmom]

Are you serious or not? Is White a decent mayor? He certainly seems better than Nagin.

[Crawdad]

Mayor McCheese is better than Nagin.

[Cboldt]

can anyone tell me exactly where the eye came ashore this morning?

Real good map by jeffers at ...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1490378/posts?page=2232#2232
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/jeffers_mz/Rita/o4landfallmap.jpg

[johniegrad]

The electric company and I are fighting right now. My electric bill jumped thirty dollars over last years bill. There is a problem on their part as their is nothing wrong with the AC or the hot water heater. They say it's my fault and not theirs and I say just the opposite

I had the same problem a couple of years ago. However, I am an anal compulsive record keeper and had electric bills saved from the past 5 years. I was able to plot out on a spreadsheet, all the electrical bills and usage from 3 separate accounts including the one in question. I explained there was nothing that had changed in my electrical usage or behavior at home during that time and that their current bill was 1000% higher than any of the others. I showed them the graphs. They said they would "look into it". I explained to them that they could look into it if they wanted but that regardless of whatever explanation they came up with this bill would not be paid because I had proof they were wrong. They called me back two weeks later to explain they had placed new meters on all their accounts and had taken the final reading from someone else's old meter for my account. I thanked them for the explanation and paid them what I thought the bill should be.

[luckystarmom]

I have family in Woodville which is a little north of Jasper. Ahh. Hope that area is okay.

[TheMom]

Be careful making sense regarding the evac procedure. I dared do the same thing last night and was called an idiot by several people.

[milagro]

Am so happy for you DG! I just now got up here on the left coast and have not read through all the posts yet, but turned the news on and am rejoicing and prasing God this morning for answering our prayers.

Rita was a MONSTER--it could have killed so many and destroyed so much. But I believe--and call me nuts I don't care--there were MIGHTY angels riding that whirlwind to a place where it would do the least harm. And the back side--the outer eyewall--pretty much disintegrated. To some that my be a stroke of luck; to me it is the power of prayer!

HALLELUJAH!

[Strategerist]

So did people in Houston just outpray the people of Lake Charles? Doesn't seem like a fair fight really, given Houston's population advantage, but it must work by quantity, I guess.

[McGavin999]

I think that's because it's all concentrated in LA. Whew, that place is going to be waterlogged for a long time.

[laz]

Fox Reporter-Rette: [holding up large piece of broken street lamp the size of her head] "This must be from a broken lamp"

I saw that. They really shouldn't keep going back to her, because honestly, nothing much happened where she is. It's like TWC going back to Stephanie Abrams at Fort Walton Beach all the time during Katrina while the real action was in Biloxi and Gulfport. (Of course, you didn't hear me complaining too much because it was Stephanie. :) )

[bwteim]

Here's forecast for Tyler County.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/forecasts/TXZ180.php?zo=1

Try not to imagine the worst, it may just power and phone outage. There will always be neighbors there, too, right?

[JimSEA]

Have to Laugh, when I was growing up in Superior, AZ and the rain would begin, the whole family would go out on the screen porch to smell and watch. Of course, the wind and rain would get pretty violent on occasion but nothing like what these folks are experiencing.

[Howlin]

Let's face it, what we had last night is a "regular" hurricane -- done by the book, to the best of their ability -- and I mean everybodys, i.e., government, the public, businesses.

This is the way it is done every single year all over the coastal communities of this country, whether it's a CAT 1, 5, or a tropical storm.

To me, that says VOLUMES about Louisiana.

[McGavin999]

Has anyone started the check-in thread yet?