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

[NCC-1701]

Copy that! :-)

[RDTF]

We have tens of thousands showing up for a pro troops weekend. I don't want Cindy to get coverage, but I'd hate for us to lose it too.

[nepdap]

Austin City Limits is filming in Austin this weekend, so even before Rita, hotel rooms there were hard to come by. We're headed there, but staying with friends.

[laz]

Isn't that what the 19something Galveston storm did, or close to it?

The 1900 Galveston hurricane hit as a Cat 4, but I don't know if it ever got up to 5.

[SouthTexas]

None.

[johnb838]

I just hope it's nice soaking rains and not flooding

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah.... I'm sorry, but that's really funny. Under normal conditions that's a perfectly reasonable thing to say but LOOK at that monster. It isn't going to give anybody a nice soaking anything.

[Rte66]

Just announced: Fort Bend County ISD has canceled classes for Thursday and Friday

[BoringGuy]

What's the bag limit for looters in Texas?

I believe they fall in the "nuisance" category...no bag limit.

[burzum]

It looks like a buzz saw blade.

I don't think so...yet. The buzz saw look is what an annular hurricane looks like. Hurricane Katrina was an annular hurricane. Hurricane Rita doesn't look like an annular hurricane yet (because it has definite up and down outflow bands), but it is definitely becoming more symmetric.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

And I bet Texas knows where most of their sex offenders are too!

Maybe they could be relocated onto Galveston Island for a hurricane party?!

[OB1kNOb]

Thanks. Found the surge map.

http://www.kfdm.com/hurricane_surgemap.shtml

Also found a great website with tons of info.

Golden Triangle Weather Page

http://www.ih2000.net/ira/bmt-wth.htm

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Have you seen this pic?

http://www.usawx.com/morningvisible745amritasept21y.jpg

[RDTF]

WOW!

[tx_eggman]

I'm probably bing dumb here but isn't the fact that the Levees broke the main reason it was so bad in LA? Didn't they say they were going to be ok and then when the levees broke they got flooded.

That's true. Mississippi bore the brunt of the wind/storm surge damage.

For a look at what that was, take a look at the link below. Click on any of the boxes and a new page will appear with a number of smaller boxes. Clicking on any of those displays "after" aerial photos. The Mississippi coast was devastated:

Katrina Destruction

[nevergore]

Look at Missisipi....

Complete structural failure of buildings 40-50 miles inland.....

Houston is only 40-50 miles inland from Galveston....Rita will be bigger/powerful than Katrina......

NeverGore :^(

[shield]

I don't know...but their not in Houston any longer...they took flights throughout the country...most went to Arkansas. Some griping their heads off about being an evacuee again...others were pretty civil...I thought what thankless bunch of people. There getting a free flight by a commerical airline at the governments expense [taypayer]...LOL..

[johnb838]

For quite a few years now here in Houston we've been knowing we're over due for a hurricane. Our average has been one every 8 years or so, not necessarily a bad one, but a hurricane in the neighborhood. Why did it have to be a storm of the century??? Why did there have to be poetic justice?

(Of course let us all remember the words of Algore: This is but the first sip, the first taste of the bitter cup that is being proffered to us by climate change which THIS administration has ignored by failing to sign the Kyoto accords.)

[T. P. Pole]

Bit of a thought here. Wouldn't it, in the long run, be a good thing if New Orleans got a decent rain out of this?

I've been picturing what I'd be doing if I had to clean up the place and I'd consider hooking up fire hoses to hydrants and just washing everything down to the pumps. A good rain might do the same thing. Or at least get a good start on the parts that are now above water.

[CajunConservative]

Look at the positive from the NO fiasco, everyone got a trial run on what not to do and also what to do. They also have most of the supplies in place because of taking in the evacuees. Texas also has more time to be skeered to action. Rita has bombed earlier than Katrina did. Not only that, Texas has a competent governor who just happens to be a republican and not a DUmmy.

It's not about politics but leadership. The dingbat gov was politicizing when she should have been leading. I think it will put put another nail in shrillary's presidential coffin. We can only pray that anyway. Who we vote for matters in situations like these. Can you just imagine how bad it would be with sKerry at the helm. :::major shutters:::

[RDTF]

have they identified exactly what caused the levees to break? I thought storm surge had a lot to do with it.