Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part VIII

www.freerepublic.com | September 24, 2005

[Howlin]

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:

Hurricane Rita Freeper CHECK IN THREAD

FReeper Sign In Thread (LOCKED) 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 VII
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

[YaYa123]

The over-riding concern of Louisiana politicians is losing voters. In a Wall Street Journal column yesterday, Governor Huckabee is quoted as saying half the people who evacuated there will stay, and I bet that's typical. I know evacuees here in the Atlanta area have been on tv saying they don't want to go back.

Louisiana politicians know they are going to lose House seats because of the decline in population. Besides that, their New Orleans herd of sheep just might wake up and say NO MORE DEMOCRATS!

Mayor Nagin is on now...He looks almost smug, doesn't he, like he read that New York Times piece, praising him.

[jeffers]

It's not silent now.

If you have a map, draw a line from Beaumont Texas to Nacadoch...oh heck....gimme a few...I'll post it.

[RDTF]

something about rumors?

[Sunnyflorida]

Good chart. Answers the question. Mississippi average is 14 feet above sea level, Mississippi levees are at 21.4, Lake surface is 1, Lake leeves 14.5, Bourbon street is high ground at 2.5. So even if the Lake goes up to match the River the city is still protect by SIX INCHES. If the River is in Flood or the Lake has storm surge pressure - whoops. Or if you have weakened levees - whoops.

Your good post raises another question. Who in their right mind would think you CAN fix a levee without building coffer dams? It is going to take months to make NO "safe" as it was and that was not-very. They really need to rethink this and use a Dutch system of concentric rings with nothing of value 'cept cows in between. I do not understand the rush to pump.

This Fox guy Hemmer is all aggitated about water flowing back into the ninth ward. Give him back to CNN. Time to write off the ninth ward.

[janetjanet998]

he was damn lucky..the area just west of the city got over a foot of rain..30 miles more east that would of been over the city

[RoseofTexas]

OH MY He just slapped some military dude about misinformation! What pompous idiot!

[Miss Marple]

Nagin says they are still looking at sarting the re-entry process.

Personally, I want to know if the FBI has obtained a search warrant for all city records. Especially those of the levee boards.

[conservative in nyc]

Thanks for the surge assessment.

The last reading at the Lake Charles gage was at 12:00 Noon. Water was at 8.61 feet above sea level. Still rising, but leveling off. Here's the graph:



As far as I know, there's no flooding in Houma proper, just parts of Terrebone Parish south of Houma. At least, there's nothing about Houma flooding on Houma Today's hurricane blog.

[BlessedByLiberty]

"Interested in learning in more about those areas near the state line."

Me too! Yet the media focus is on the two losers, Nagin and BlancTears. Learning more on FR than anywhere else.

Nagin has nerve telling others not to hand out misinformation.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I had heard an emergency warning on the Houston radio station I am listening to, and they announced that, and then I had to go fix hubby lunch.

[CedarDave]

Nagin "Rita just delayed re-entry process for three to five days."

[CFC__VRWC]

Ok...trying to get folks here to see the scope of this...basically everything on a line from Lake Charles to Houma is underwater. Not slow flooding like we saw in New Orleans, but surge, like we saw from Slidell to Mobile.

I hope to God they got those areas evacuated, but seeing as we're talking about Blank-o, I'm not optimistic. Listened to her deliver the Dim talking points just a couple of minutes ago, and it sounds like they're more interested in ensuring the goobermint squeeze keeps flowing than they are in making sure the folks in the low lying areas are okay. Of course, they're saving them to bash Bush with.

[Rumierules]

This Fox guy Hemmer is all aggitated about water flowing back into the ninth ward. Give him back to CNN. Time to write off the ninth ward.
__________________________________________________

Exactly

[not_apathetic_anymore]

Perhaps General Honore's admonition to the MSM stiffened the spines of other federal officials.

I wish every press conference had had one person with the courage to say "Joe Blow, from the NYT, you are stuck on stupid! Sue Smith from ABC just asked that question." "Sue, what was my answer? Could you share that with your friend Joe over here so we can quit wasting time. Now Joe do you have a question I haven't already answered?"

If they're gonna act like 2 year olds then they need to be addressed like 2 year olds.

[RoseofTexas]

Was it my imagination or did he say Major somebody giving out misinformation...didn't catch the name!

[Miss Marple]

Didn't that just frost you? Nagin has been handing out disinformation since Day One!

I still say federalize the entire state, arrest all the crooks, and make Honore acting Military Governor.

I will bet you something else: those New Orleans evacuees who are in Houston will be resettled, helped on their feet, and have JOBS within a few weeks, while Blanco and her crew have every one of THEIR evacuees living in tent slums and waiting on government handouts.

[conservative in nyc]

Lake Charles news from the American Press blog:

Saturday, September 24, 2005
Jennings: Gas pumps gone; tree debris
A Jennings resident who's back in his home today says some of the gas stations along La. 26 "just blew apart" from wind, with their gas pumps snapped off near the base. There is tree debris everywhere, he said, but "not a lot of damage to houses." He also said advertising billboards along Interstate 10 in the Jennings are down -- some of them, pole and all.
Staff reports

posted by American Press at 2:12 PM 0 comments

Mayor on CNN
In a brief telephone interview with CNN minutes ago, Mayor Randy Roach said Lake Charles, though battered and flooded, appears to have escaped “catastrophic damage” from Hurricane Rita.

However, Roach said the city has “extensive wind damage and some very, very extensive flooding.”

Roach said even though flooding was still a problem in places, the city was preparing to dispatch public works employees, firefighters and police officers to search for any survivors.

The city is also imposing a 7 a.m.-6 p.m. curfew.

Jeremy Harper
Staff Writer


posted by American Press at 10:53 AM 10 comments

Mayor: Don't come back just yet
Lake Charles Mayor Randy Roach said Saturday that no one should return to the city for at least the next two days while government officials assessed damage left by Hurricane Rita. Roach made the comments on KPLC-TV, which has been broadcasting from Christus/St. Patrick Hospital.

"I want to emphasize that now is not the time to come back," he said. "I will tell you in the next 48 hours after we do an extensive assessment of damage throughout the city."

Roach said he had done a preliminary survey of the damage by driving around the city this morning. He said many roadways were blocked.

"There is pretty extensive wind damage. We are fortunate that the storm didn't come in as a category 4 or 5. There are broken telephone poles and downed trees," he said.

Roach said so far there have been no reports of loss of life.

Asked about flooding, he said the water was over the boardwalk along the lakefront. Pumps at the Kayouchee Coulee pump station were overwhelmed because of high water.

"It will take a while for water to drain, " he said.

Roach said the Civic center "seemed to come through pretty well" with only a few broken windows. He said the Hibernia Tower had some first story windows out. "Every street is impassible. We don't want anyone coming back until we are able to do a more extensive survey." Roach added that the damage to LC is "nothing like you saw in Mississippi."

"The damage here is consistent with a category 2 hurricane, " he said. He said its going to take a long time to restore power. "We won't be able to restore power in a couple of days. I haven't seen anything we cannot recover from.

Roach said residents who remain in the city should not drink the water until they have boiled it.

The Lake Charles Police Department and Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Department are providing security throughout the city, he said. Both departments have been in contact with military police.

"There is no power. There is no gas. There are no restaurants open," he said.

"If we do this right, we will recover quicker. We cannot have people coming back into town. There are downed power lines throughout the city."

Roach said he plans to have his staff shoot digital photos of the storm damage and post them on the city's Web site.

Hector San Miguel
City Editor


posted by American Press at 10:51 AM 2 comments

[CedarDave]

I'm informationally challenged.

So is Blanco, and she has all sorts of advisors!

[CFC__VRWC]

Nagin "Rita just delayed re-entry process for three to five days."

Unreal - all that matters to them is rounding up the slaves and getting them back on the plantation. Not one bit of concern from him or Blank-o for the people outside of New Orleans who are suffering from this storm.

[RoseofTexas]

Yeah, what's up with Hemmer? Is he running for the DRAMA QUEEN trophy!