Update: Category 5 Hurricane Rita - Live Thread, Part II

NHC - NOAA ^ | 21 September 2005 | NHC - NOAA

[NautiNurse]

Category 3 Hurricane Rita became the fifth major hurricane of the 2005 season during the night. Hurricane Rita threaded the needle through the Florida Straits and moved into the Gulf of Mexico. Storm damage in the Florida Keys and South Florida Peninsula was light, with scattered power outages, scattered tornados, and mild to moderate flooding.

Mandatory evacuations are in effect for Galveston County TX and New Orleans. Additional evacuation orders in the Greater Houston Metropolitan Area are anticipated throughout the day.

Crude oil prices reacted as oil producers shut down and evacuated workers from platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

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 Eastern Gulf of Mexico
Buoy Data Western Gulf of Mexico
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Texas

Images:

Storm Floater IR Loop
GOM WV Loop
GOM IR Still Image
Visible Storm Floater Still (only visible during daylight hours)
Color Enhanced Atlantic Loop
Key West Long Range Radar Still Image

Streaming Video: (coverage may be intermittent)

KHOU-TV/DT Houston: mms://beloint.wm.llnwd.net/beloint_khou
WWLTV NOLA

Additional Resources:

Coastal TX Evacuation Maps
KHOU Houston
KTRK ABC News Houston
Hurricane City
Wxnation Houston

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 I
Tropical Storm Rita
Tropical Depression 18

[Lakeside]

Welcome to posting on FR. I, too, lurked for ages before registering. Ain't it fine?!

Many, many years ago I lived right next to Meyerland in Bellaire. I was there for Hurricane Carla which, although it wasn't a direct hit, was bad enough. I would suggest moving farther inland for this one. Houston, as you know is very prone to flooding. Are you near the bayou there in Meyerland?

I still have family in and around Houston and some who evacuated there from New Orleans. Needless to say, I am not a happy camper re Hurricane Rita.

[NautiNurse]

Last I heard, large numbers of Katrina evacs were being moved to Arkansas.

[Rte66]

More Houston supply news:

N Loop West near N Shepherd - Home Depot just opened and will have plywood, water and generators until about 7:30 or when sold out

[Rte66]

Yeah, all of our "Reliant City" remnants who didn't object got shipped off to Fort Chaffee and have already said "it's not as nice" as here, lol.

[ElisabethInCincy]

RebelBase thanks. Im not a good googler.. I looked for just this type of map

[Heatseeker]

Poor souls. If I were one of them, I'd ask to be flown to northern Minnesota (and considering my usual luck, I'd get off the plane and get run over by a tornado). ;)

[Ellesu]

I think she is already a 4!

http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/

[ken5050]

welcome, friend..and be safe in the days ahead..y'know, it occurs to me we need to come up with a new term of art..you can't really call someone who's lurked here for 7 years a "newbie"...you must be a very spiritual and tranquil personality..to resist the urge all these years to jump in and opine..I mean..to NOT say anything during the impeachment, the 2000 election, 9/11...wow.I'm beebed and stuned, both...

[Daniel Ramsey]

Rita sure looks like it may be stronger than Katrina, the discussion says it may even become a category 5 just before landfall.
I lived in Houston when Alicia came through and it was a category 3 just barely. We lost an estimated 15,00 miles of powerlines, yes thats miles as there was a major storm that saturated the ground a week before and basically 90% of all above ground utility poles were knocked down.
This is a killer storm if it hits Houston, especially the port since NO is still shut down.
And of course the big oil companies will raise the price of fuel again....

[NTegraT]

Re: the So. TX Nuclear Plant. I was looking at Google Earth and notice the huge reservoir just south of the plant. There's a large damn encircling the reservoir and the water level is about 69' but the land on the the southeast corner is from 4-10' and it would definitely be in line with a storm surge. If that damn is breached and the reservoir is drained, what effect does that have on operations and will it have to shut down. 28°48'N 96°02'W

[Rte66]

Yeah, I just moved a little farther from Bellaire, but used to share a bayou tributary in my backyard with the folks in Bellaire on the other side, for 10 years. I lived in Bellaire 6 years, too.

And, in fact, when I was a young'un, I also lived in Meyerland, across the street from where I lived recently, and we (my family and I) were transferred out the year before Carla, so missed it.

I'm near the bayou, but not *real* near it. I was on Beechnut (my last house) for TS Allison and didn't get any water in the house, after 36" of rain. That's why I'm feeling OK to stay here, since I'm not far from there.

Braes is several blocks away, but that same tributary (ditch, lol--"crick?") is across another street from me. I saw them in Oct '94 when they were splashing over the Braeswood bridges and they didn't get this far up.

[Michael Goldsberry]

"How much packing and prep do you have left?"

Quite a lot, actually. My dad is coming down this morning to help with the plywood, etc. Oddly, I also have a scheduled server maintenance ticket to handle for work. (Yes, work from home...)

After all that is done, I'm outta here.

[spectre]

Good morning,NN...all

AR FT. Chaffee has an expected 4,000 being flown in from Houston today. Flights resume today at 9:AM and are continued hourly till 7:PM. They'll be bused from there to Ft. Chaffee.

Yesterday we received 220.

sw

[tx_eggman]

If I were anywhere near shore, I would evac ASAP

Me and mine are out of here at about 2:00PM today, headed for either Austin or N.E. Louisiana.

Home is right under the "V" in Brookside Village at the top center of this map:

Just damn ...

[TheMom]

My family has a small place in Aransas (Ave. A / Hwy 35 area). If you are able can you keep me posted on any damage in the area?

[Rte66]

Ha ha! Wellllll, actually, I posted at a little out-of-the-way forum and quite a few of my posts were copied and quoted here, so my *words* have been here, I just wasn't!

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Your link, while nice, does not show the hundreds of unmanned platforms in the Gulf. It shows drilling rigs and manned platforms only.

[NautiNurse]

If you get a chance, let us know when you are ready to bug out. Hope you'll have internet access at your destination.

[spectre]

Ditto, Ken! Takes a very special person indeed :)

A big WELCOME and be safe, 66!

sw

[Rebelbase]

got a link?