Posted on 09/24/2005 9:58:36 AM PDT by 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
You reminded me of something I saw after Hurricane Dennis.
Like Houston, mass evacuation out of Mobile...then he didn't hit here.
I tried to return the next day but the interstate was a parking lot.
Right there in the logjam with us were dozens of power trucks from Michigan (love those guys!). I wondered why their caravan wasn't given a police escort the moment they crossed the state line? I would happily move over to the shoulder to let the power trucks through...much rather think they were down there getting the power going while I sat in traffic.
I'm sorry, but your speculation is way off, you are jumping to very wrong conclusions. Take off the tinfoil, there is no conspiracy.
You claim to have 2 sources that storm surge in NOLA is 20'. Since almost all the tops of the levee walls are below 20', that would have meant massive overtopping of every levee bowl. In actuality, Lake Pontchartrain is at an 8' surge, nowhere close to 20'. Normal level for Lake P. is sea level, but the Miss. River is normally higher than that by NOLA, hence the locks at the west end of the industrial canal.
Take off the tinfoil, there is no conspiracy. You've just built a logical house of cards based on false information/conclusions.
Sigh. Coming up on Fox. Geraldo. Two hours.
they floated into texas
just kidding.
For a really nice change of pace in hurricane cover take a look at this I just posted on seperate thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1490764/posts
Have you noticed something odd about the coverage?
Where are the shelters full of evacuees? Normally they have reporters going from shelter to shelter interviewing families with inane questions. But I don't think I've seen a single "shelter report" related to Rita. Have any of you?
News reports out of Lafayette say a gas station in the Jennings area (about 10 miles West of Crowley) had pumps ripped away by the tornado. This was not the eyewall, as this about 30 miles East of Lake Charles (about 60 miles from the Louisiana/Texas border).
There was a tornado warning in this area last night (Vermillion/Acadia parish warning around 11 PM CDT last night).
I believe there are 300,000 Entergy customers out of power from this storm (Rita) in Louisian, as well as another 200,000 that still have not had power restored from Katrina.
There are 80,000 SLEMCO customers in the Lafayette area without power.
Finally, the Cajun Dome (college basketball arena in Lafayette) was damaged and is leaking water. Hopefully the Astro Dome faired better...
Coastal areas South of Louisiana had flooding in sugar cane fields.
Finally, a lock broke loose on the Intracoastal waterway (somewhere in Southern Louisiana) and there is fear of flooding from that...
The Lafayette newspaper and one of the TV stations had differents parts of this information...
Just read the article you linked to -- the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is, well, the "anti-Jesse" -- I wonder if he secretly posts on FR?
That may be the only part of the speech that's explainable. I'm appalled that, four weeks after the flood of NO, her solution to the problem is a proposal to hire hundreds of new civil servants to explain to the residents how to tap every possible penny from the taxpayers, and have US pay their salaries. Liberalism... the gift that keeps on.... taking.
Same footage over and over and over and over (add some more overs here) again. I get thoroughly sick of it.......
I love it.
Everything is fine here...
Unfortunately I saw the local weather forecast at 6:00...and SUMMER is returning...
We are going back up to the high 90's tommorrow and all next week...no rain. gack..
But, I was watching Janice Dean this afternoon, and she was saying that Rita could be curving around through your neck of the woods, and back out to the Gulf....wow, now that would be just be about right for this weird hurricane season.
Ok, I'm not getting very far with this. Trying to check elevation data across multiple software programs doesn't give me anything because all the map programs use essentially the same dataset, the SRTM data from shuttle mission STS-99.
We have the report that the water topped the Jefferson Parish levees near Gretna, but the tops of those range from 5 to 9 feet and that doesn't tell us much.
We have some confirmation from gpapa's link showing river water at 13.1 feet above normal at Lafayette, but that still doesn't give us normal.
A transit and a known good benchmark would do the trick, but that's a little far away and it's kind of wet there, so for now, I'm going to retract the 20 foot surge claim south of NO and chalk the anomalies up to funneling effects until I hear otherwise.
That leaves us with dam wrecking winds inland and buildings down there too, while buildings on the coast are mostly just missing shingles.
Maybe they were old masonry buildings and the dam was poorly built.
There is always a risk in trying to construct a big picture from isolated anecdotal reports. If this is a case of that, I apologize for getting anyone upset.
On the bright side, the truth will come out over time, it always does. I'll try to be more patient until then.
I haven't been able to watch the coverage...it is so repetitive...but, alas, they scheduled all of those reporters, and 24/7 coverage...with not much of a mess to show!!!
But, just like we cannot fault the evacuees for evacuating, we really can't fault the news channels for scheduling the way they did...but they have do darn much time to fill.
Look at it this way....Fox COULD have shown the ANTI-AMERICAN, ANTI--MILITARY march on Washington instead!!!
Priorities eh?
I'm so SICK of summer. I just heard a really strange noise --- loud --- like a train whistle.
I ran outside (dumb, huh?) to hear it louder. Still don't know what it was or is. Wind is gusting a little more forcefully now too. We'd better not lose power.
From what I can tell from our local news, (I can't get tv reception right now) Rita is supposed to hang around here thru Monday just like you've heard.
I don't know... I am going to the antique auction tomorrow and the hell with anything else...lol.
Where are the shelters full of evacuees? Normally they have reporters going from shelter to shelter interviewing families with inane questions. But I don't think I've seen a single "shelter report" related to Rita. Have any of you?
Great point...I hadn't noticed it until you mentioned it. Wonder why?
Like a hurricane coming:')
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