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

[sheikdetailfeather]

GE SUPER RADIO III is a great to pick up AM channels at a distance.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/B00000J061/all/ref=dp_pb_a/103-4850276-9333465?s=electronics

[laz]

I love Psalm 18:24-41, ESPECIALLY verse 41!!

I have come to the conclusion that the only requirement necessary for such people to believe something is that it not be true. They are inimmical to truth. Tell them a million lies, each more preposterous than the last, and they'll readily believe them. But tell them one single, simple truth, and they'll reject it categorically.

Changing the subject, I looked outside just now, and the sun is finally coming out here in Cutler Ridge, halfway between Miami and Homestead. Rita is finally far enough away that I'm no longer under her outer bands, at least not completely. Prayers for all those who will be under them soon.

[silentknight]

Source?

[SE Mom]

HOUSTON MAYOR on giving press conf now- discussing evacs

[smartin]

Excellent point! That's how that lady, Collita, was able to call Fox News during Katrina and get them to send over Geraldo

[JFC]

Anyone know what the political party Hoston Mayor Bill White is with?

[Jrabbit]

I wouldn't have thought about them either....maybe Sears?

[Katlyn]

He's a Dem put fairly good.

[dirtboy]

If I were living between Freeport and Corpus, I would be very, very nervous, packing and leaving

My parents live in Rockport and are currently planning on staying put. I could scream. Their house is a mile inland and built to withstand a Cat 4 and they are on the left side of the forecast track, but even that side could give them some surge from the bay behind Rockport. They are in their early seventies, and my dad is in no shape to cope with such a situation the way he used to be.

Cripes!

[Zechariah_8_13]

For TX inlanders, this is from the NOAA site:

The strongest winds usually occur in the right side of the eyewall of the hurricane. Wind speed usually decreases significantly within 12 hours after landfall. Nonetheless, winds can stay above hurricane strength well inland. Hurricane Hugo (1989), for example, battered Charlotte, North Carolina (which is 175 miles inland) with gusts to nearly 100 mph.

[Al B.]

White is a Democrat, but he's an adult.

[CindyDawg]

Our electricity goes out all the time around here. I have oil lamps in each room. There are really pretty at night when lit. You just don't want to use them during a storm .

[NautiNurse]

Houston mayor asking for voluntary evac of 100 year flood plain areas in the county and city, coastal areas, and mobile homes.

Asking private citizens to assist those who may need help getting out of the storm surge areas.

[Ron H.]

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?

I seem to recall the govt. experimenting with cloud seeding back in the 60's without very much favorable results. In fact I seem to recall at least once the seeding caused some extreme flooding in either Arizona or Nevada somewhere. Something about that area of dessert getting only 4-6" of rain annually and in a down burst they received well over 10" in that one storm in a real short span of time that was blamed directly on the cloud seeding program. Maybe someone else has better memory or details. The program was stopped along about that time I seem to recall.

[CindyDawg]

I would get them out of there.

[Jrabbit]

I'm shocked that Sheila Jackson Lee isn't front and center on this.....she's the one that said we don't need weather satellites because we have the weather channel! LOL

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I keep a basic $9.99 Big Button Trim Phone model on at least one of the extension jacks in our home for each of the two lines (home and in-home business) we have here, for that very reason. When we had a bad wind shear here in the northern suburbs of Chicago a few years back, we didn't have power for nearly 3 days with all the trees knocked down. Having that land line available and a gas cooktop in the house kept us going during that time.

[bwteim]

You could probably pick up a cheap phone for around $10. But better buy two** and test them both before packing them away.

** One of two I bought at a big box store did not work.

[OrangeDaisy]

Someone last night posted that she bought the wind up radio at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Just get the Professor to make one of those radios powered by Gilligan's pedaling.

[Orlando]

I like this Mayor. He is on top of the situation(s).