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

[ContemptofCourt]

It doesn't really matter....in a CAT 5, nothing survives unscathed.

[AliVeritas]

Click to read article at top of thread and scroll down... the link is there.

[carinafox5]

You know, that explanation just might work! Thanks for posting that ;) He only has ever once in 4 years ever admitted I was right lol

[Txsleuth]

Did you hear Gen. Honore "go off" yesterday, when the press asked him about the Mayor's remark about getting the buses and putting NO citizens back in the CONVENTION CENTER, again??

[txhurl]

please-hit-the-king-ranch-bump

[sissyjane]

I e-mailed that jacka**....

[disastercorps]

Disaster Corps, a volunteer nonprofit, needs supplies. We are currently helping the people of Hurricane Katrina, and are trying to expand to be on the ground once Hurricane Rita hits. We Need Supplies! We are volunteer driven. Please check out our website at:
www.disastercorps.org

We provide newsletters, photos after each relief mission.
Help us help others!

[burzum]

Which means, if the extrapolation is right, Rita may just have turned a corner (definitely not THE corner, but I can hope).

Highly unlikely. Rita hasn't reached the Gulf loop yet. At 89 W 26 N, we should see her hit her peak.

[jpsb]

New track is very bad news. Hoping for a shift west or south.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I think we have another day of this, or at least half a day. On the current pressure, Avila's the lead forecaster and he may be preferring to go with more conservative figures, because he is like that. It took him forever to admit to the higher winds.

Time to watch.

The NHC is predicting this storm is going over Lagrange! City of fable, song and one bad movie musical....

[sinkspur]

Since you're so intelligent, you tell everyone what will it take for the US to once again build new refineries short of total devastation from the current market we're in? $10 a gallon + may do it?

People are running for their lives, and you're hoping those who lose their homes also have to face $10 a gallon gasoline.

Go to DU or start your own thread. You're in the wrong place on this one.

[ContemptofCourt]

Dr. Simpson, in your opinion, since the Saffir/Simpson scale is an open ended scale, do you think that hurricane windspeeds could become a category 6 or 7?

RS: I think it's immaterial. Because when you get up into winds in excess of 155 miles per hour you have enough damage if that extreme wind sustains itself for as much as six seconds on a building it's going to cause rupturing damages that are serious no matter how well it's engineered. It may only blow the windows out, but on the other hand, it can actually rupture the stairwells, the elevator wells and twist them, and it's happened in many buildings so that you can't even use the elevators after they've experienced this. So I think that it's immaterial what will happen with winds stronger than 156 miles per hour. That's the reason why we didn't try to go any higher than that anyway.

-----

That's why there ain't no CAT 6...cause at 155 mph, it really doesn't matter anymore.....

http://www.novalynx.com/simpson-interview.html

[burzum]

Whoaaahhh! Am I reading this right? 72 hours out from now, puts the storm close to or over Dallas, according the models. The blue line indicates still a Cat 1 or just below. Our local newscaster on Fox4 was saying that it was going to be a Tropical Storm by the time it gets here. That is going to put a very large dent in the entire state of Texas.

As a hurricane weakens, the level of hurricane force winds decreases as well. Since the graph shows her coming down the the lower band of Cat 1, I wouldn't bet that Dallas will see hurricane force winds. But it's always a good idea to prepare. The big worry that I would fear for the Dallas area isn't the winds, but the possibility that Rita will stall out at that point and cause flash flooding.

[steveegg]

The NHC is predicting this storm is going over Lagrange! City of fable, song and one bad movie musical....

Just let me know if you want to go to the home out on the range. :-)

[hummingbird]

Thanks again...couldn't get in, must be high traffic, but I'll try again later!

[roses of sharon]

We were at Xpu-ha eco park for the week, when evac orders came we left about midnite for Cancun and stayed in the Sun Palace, thank god, for the park was completely destroyed.

It was so beautiful too.

We decided that we did not want to leave our luggage to go to a shelter, and thought that since the Xpu-ha resort was in the Riviera Maya, and was supposed to get a direct hit, we took a chance at a Cat 3 hotel.

It was the longest day, waiting for that storm, our room felt safe but we had to put our mattress up against the door to the deck, and go into the bathroom. The hotel had some damage, rooms had broken windows and water, but no one was hurt.

The noise of the storm was the worst, our room door being pulled back and forth as if someone was trying to get in, it grates on your nerves.

But they all took great care of us, and we got out 2 days later.

I will never do that again, next time I leave!

[CedarDave]

My wrong!
Somehow I missed that you are in a mobile home. Plus you have an infant with medical problems. By all means, you need to be someplace more secure and one that has power (or can have access to power like a nearby hospital) for the baby's needs. And you need to line up all these this afternoon and tomorrow and be ready to boggie on Friday if the weather deteriorates as it well may.
My apologies.

[RummyChick]

Judge N says you can't be forced out of your home without a warrant so mandatory evacuation is not really mandatory.

You have the right to stand in harms way. Self-determination even in the event of extreme danger.

[No Blue States]

I heard of Honore casing them for thinking with their feelings. lol
Did he get on them again? And who would be crazy enough to go to the CC again anyway?