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

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Here's a link to a map of the area likely to be the landfall area...

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?city=Freeport&state=TX&zoom=4

Lots of little communities there that need to be evacuated. I hope my stupid niece in Alvin gets her butt to my grandma's or out west to my dad in West Texas. I can't even call her cause she doesn't have a phone. She's been in a phase where she doesn't like to talk to her parents. And she's got two little kids in tow, too...

I am scared for her....

[RDTF]

I know, darn idiots. I keep wondering how all the poor whites there feel about that!

[NCC-1701]

Excellent!

[pamlet]

Thanks for the inland wind link! Looks like we're in the yellow from what I can tell... sheesh - never thought I'd be thinking about a hurricane up here...

[RDTF]

I thought Move forward has been successful rallying folks around the country. I am planning on being there Sunday - still not sure about Sat.

[WestCoastGal]

I heard the same story from another person that lives in Houston. She said there was almost no water in the store and the canned food was almost gone. I don't know if that's just a localized problem or not. I do know there were gas lines here yesterday already. I didn't go to the store because I am always prepared anyway with water and canned food etc.

I will probably go get one of those weather radio thingys since the sat dish will probably go out and I don't want to rely on just a regular portable radio.

[Eaker]

I am set on .50BMG, .40s&w & .223, but I am short on 12ga 00buck.

Gonna pick some up at lunch today.

[Strategerist]

My husband asked a question today and I don't know the answer. Is it possible for a plane of some kind to drop something in a hurricane when it's out in the ocean that would break it up before it turns into a dangerous hurricane? I think he's talking about some kind of weapon to drop down and go off in such a way as to scatter it.

the NHC has gotten several thousand letters per year, every year, for decades suggesting this.

Short answer is that it would have no effect other than to turn the rain from the storm radioactive. A hurricane would laugh at even the largest nukes.

The only plausible means of human modification is to spread a vast slick of an oil-like subtance over tens of thousands of square miles of ocean that would prevent evaporation, in the path of a storm.

[bwteim]

NN and other contributors

Thank you again, NN, (shuffling through the Katrina Chronicles...) for all you do in posting these threads

And thanks to the admin mods (noticably quiet and well fed) and to JR and tech staff for keeping the servers up and humming.

[SE Mom]

Here's a link on Hurricane Carla- Port Lavaca September 1961- important reading for our Texas friends without hurricane experience.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/crp/docs/research/hurrhistory/Carla/carla.html

[Knitting A Conundrum]

There are some levees by some bodies of water, but mostly Texas is above sea level. There are low spots. Almost 1/3 of Harris county is in what they call the 100 year flood plain...and the way the winds will be blowing, the rainwater will probably back up and flood some or all of those areas until the winds die down and the bay calms down. But it's not like New Orleans.

[tx_eggman]

Look at the positive from the NO fiasco, everyone got a trial run on what not to do and also what to do.

We already knew what to do and certainly didn't need to watch the assclowns government "leaders" in Red Stick and New Orleans to learn what not to do.

Crying, flapping our arms, and bumping into walls has never been part of Texas' emergency plan

[Hoodlum91]

I hope they've been very successful!

I'll cover for you on Sat. if you cover me on Sunday! Still not sure if I can make that one...

[CedarDave]

Suggest you include the Golden Triangle link in #471 with your next update thread.

[RDTF]

Makes for a good movie of the week, though. I can see it now - the voodoo high priestess made a mistake with one of her evil spells, and sent the hurricane to NO. Bruce Willis volunteers for the suicide mission to save the gulf.

[NautiNurse]

That is a very generous offer. Let's see what the storm does.

[11th_VA]

I was going to start a thread about "Best Radio' to have but maybe this is a better place to do it. I picked up this Sony ICF-36 radio last year and it is incredible for reception. I can even pick up KMOX (St Louis) from DC in the evenings. So if you're in need of a good radio, you might want to try this:

[steveegg]

Sounds like you're close to set. Stay safe.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

They tried some of that in the 60s...Hurricane Betsy was seeded...and some thought it didn't help at all, and maybe that's why it was so bad...I don't know...but they don't know enough to really dissipate these storms. And who's going to take the chance of making a bad storm worse?

[Republican Red]

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

I thought the same thing until I heard the Army Corps of Engineers state that it would only take 3" on rain to endanger the levees again.