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Posted on 09/21/2005 1:36:24 AM PDT by 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
I like how you think :~D
Other hosp workers have pets too.... let 'dog gone' be the pet watcher, somewhere safe in the hospital.
I have a friend who lives in The Woodlands. She was wondering how to prepare her swimming pool for the hurricane....
accuweather guy - not bastardi- says it will likely strengthen in the next report but it probably won't be a cat 5 when it hits land. 50-60 miles south of galveston.
storm surge higher than sea wall.
downtown houston will be devastated if this changes just a bit in the track.
I pray it doesnt hold true. To be honest its hard to even post knowing how serious this is. I might say something wrong.
That's OK. I'm hardly an expert - I just trust accuweather and I've been following Bastardi for years. He's usually right on with snow storms too. I just pray that everyone takes this seriously and leaves. My son's godparents moved to Spring TX a few years ago - I fell in love with Texas when I went down to visit them.
Throw lawn furniture into the pool. Safest place for it. Do not drain the pool. Best to turn off the pump the day the weather starts getting bad until the end of the storm.
Weee! This is gonna be better than that wooden roller coaster at Astroworld.
18Z GFDL has followed the NGP and GFS North; NGP and GFDL both landfall in the precise location of the 1900 storm, GFS a tad more N directly up Galveston Bay.
You are breaking my heart!
I know..I know.
I appreciate it, blam, but it's too late. We're mandatorily evacuating about 1.5 million people. I'd guess that another million are leaving, too. Just among my friends and co-workers it's about 80% leaving, but I doubt it's anywhere that high for the folks in the poorer neighborhoods.
I'm not even counting the coastal communities that would be hit the hardest and are probably the most motivated to leave.
I don't think I could get to work if I wanted to tomorrow. I'd have to cross a major evacuation route. Fortunately, my company sent me home at noon today with some phone numbers to find out when the office will re-open. Cell phones are already worthless in Houston and the storm won't be here in earnest for 48 hours.
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