Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part VI

NHC - NOAA ^ | 23 September 2005 | NHC - NOAA

[NautiNurse]

Dangerous Hurricane Rita is expected to make landfall in the northeast Gulf of Mexico within 24 hours. Tornados have spawned in Louisiana. Water is filling the Ninth Ward of New Orleans again. A bus carrying elderly evacuees was gutted by fire this morning outside Dallas, with multiple fatalities. Television crews have positioned their hurricane reporters throughout the region to attain maximum drama effects. Whoooooa.

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 Western Gulf of Mexico
Houston/Galveston/Beaumont/Lake Charles Wx Watches/Warnings
Jefferson Co TX NWS Weather
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Texas
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Louisiana
Hi Res Houston Flood Zone Map Slow load, great detail

Images:

Lake Charles Long Range Radar Still image, with loop link
Houston/Galveston Long Range Radar Still image, with loop link
Lake Charles Experimental Radar Outages and Delays May Occur

Storm Floater IR Loop
GOM WV Loop
GOM IR Still Image
Visible Storm Floater Still (only visible during daylight hours)
Color Enhanced Atlantic Loop

Streaming Video: (coverage may be intermittent)

KHOU-TV/DT Houston
KPRC-TV/DT Houston
KTRK-TV/DT Houston
KTRH-AM Houston
KPLC-TV/DT Lake Charles/Lafayette
KSLA-TV/DT Shreveport

Additional Resources:

FReeper Sign In Thread Check in to let us know whether you are staying, going, and when you get there
FReepers Offering Lodging To Rita Evacuees People and/or Pet Friendly FReepers Offering Shelter
KHOU Houston
KTRK ABC News Houston
KPLC Lake Charles Evac Routes, news
KFDM Beaumont/Port Arthur News, evac info
Hurricane City
Wxnation Houston
Galveston Webcams
Golden Triangle Weather Page Provides Galveston Weather, Warnings, Radar, etc.

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 V
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part IV
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part III
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part II
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part I
Tropical Storm Rita
Tropical Depression 18

[A Citizen Reporter]

I actually watched Paula Zahn one night this week, because O'Reilly is so bad. It was the night of the Jet Blue incident. Clearly she has trouble multi-tasking. She was doing OK with the Rita coverage and the Jet Blue incident, but when a tornado was reported in Minnesota.......WHOA NELLY! In all of her 30 years of broadcasting, she had never seen a night like that! GEESH.

[Spktyr]

Yeah, we keep declaring that it's looter season and never find any looters. :-P

[Robert A Cook PE]

Well, when you "post" you are starting a new thread.

I'd recommend you just continue to add comments here (in this thread, like you just did) rather than begin a (another!) new hurricane thread tonight.

[Ellesu]

A few, but may have to hunker down inside the hotel for a few days, we may get some rain etc. if this thing stalls. Plan to stay until Thursday. Thanks for these threads, keeping me informed.

[Miss Marple]

Great rant, and I support you 100%. I think I went over the edge today after hearing Blanco asking for money and then hearing about Mary Landrieu's obscene request from yesterday.

I will vigorously oppose any rebuilding of New Orleans below sea level. I will also vigorously oppose any levee construction if those boards are allowed to have the money.

In fact, at this point I would support a federal takeover of the entire state. It would be cheaper and maybe we could make Honore the Military Governor of the place.

That is how sick of them I am. (Not the citizens, just their entire political class from BOTH sides.)

[RDTF]

Hah! I was a little late to the rescue :-)

[cake_crumb]

"I hear ya - the money money money thing really gets me down - everytime an act of nature occurs they seem to see it as an opportunity for collecting more cash - of course I was listening to Rush today and he stirred me up on the money money money stuff."

I wound up missing Rush today, but am glad he's pointing out the cold, hard, greedy facts of the money mongering leftists. Come to think of it, Tony Snow has been too.

[Jalapeno]

Hey, look at this. Rita is doing something good!

A note to Chronicle readers: Delivery disrupted

We will have a less-misinformed populace tomorrow.

[ValerieUSA]

[LibertyRocks]

They are reporting now that there is an eye-wall replacement ongoing... This is per their radar which includes an "MRI like" view of the inside of the hurricane itself.

[BurbankKarl]

These guys are awesome!

[fishntex]

One of my nephews is anal about storm tracking; he's got this elaborate computer program, that he's feeding coordinates and all kinds of data from the NWC and TWC into

Well that sounds a better than zydeco. Us geeks are ok to have around sometimes.

[onyx]

Thanks anyway --- I really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

[steveegg]

KPLC - It's now too late to leave Lake Charles. Also, some sort of explosion on the other side of the lake from town.

[LA Woman3]

We have had rain and gusty wind all day. Our power is still on though. It did go out twice but was restored in less than a minute. There have been tornado warnings all around us, but I haven't heard of any damage.
Glad you are safe!

[Revel]

"Someone tell me when Wesley (The Weasel) Clark is off O'Reilly. I turn the TV off whenever he appears."


I turn it off whenever O'Reilly appears...LOL

[Frank_2001]

Those MSM bums won't give credit to anybody if it won't advance their lefty, Bush-hating agenda. Disgraceful!

[RDTF]

Karl what the heck do those signs on the table say?

[Sender]

CNN has a history of deliberate misinformation. Remember all the file footage of machine guns blazing as they discussed semi-auto rifles? And of course, their Iraq coverage. Roadside bombs blew up today, soldiers killed, growing insurgency, and absolutely nothing good was done for the people of Iraq today.