Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part VII

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

[NautiNurse]

Hurricane Rita landfall is anticipated within the next few hours. Strong winds and heavy rains are battering southern Louisiana and southeastern Texas.

MSM news crews are shouting over the howling winds as they foolishly describe blowing rain, swaying trees, and crashing waves through rain splattered camera lenses. It's a hurricane. We know these things already.

An 18 wheeler rig reportedly overturned on an I-10 bridge. The fate of the truck driver is unknown at this time. Reports of widespread power outages in Lake Charles. KPLC-TV Lake Charles local news has remarkably improvised their reporting from a remote location. They are taking calls from residents, NWS, and public utility representatives, and alerting residents to local conditions.

On the flip side, CNN announced to the world that law enforcement officers had evacuated from Port Arthur TX with the rest of the population. Engraved looter invitations would have been more elegant.

Godspeed to all those in the path of this storm.

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 VI
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

[Revel]

Yes and not long ago I saw video on Fox of lake charles and the dang street lights were still on. Amazing.

[nwctwx]

Well, you would think they would be more discretionary... considering a 50k image will take about 10 seconds to load on dial up anyway. ;-) An extra second or two in the middle of the night won't hurt anyone. Heh, I got a post pulled as Katrina was hitting about Tsunami like surge because I excerpted wrong! Oh well..

GOES 12 blackout ends:

http://ianlivingston.com/weather/images/2005/rita/24sept_0645z_120mph.jpg

Here's a newer one:

http://ianlivingston.com/weather/images/2005/rita/24sept_0645z_120mph.jpg

[BurbankKarl]

[bd476]

KPLC News Director says that there are trees on top of houses.

It was a window which blew out of the conference room at the hospital, not the roof.

Transmitter is still working for KPLC.

[glock rocks]

Amen and amen.

Matt 18:20

[conservative in nyc]

The lights are only on in the parking lot where Rick Leventhal and his crew are parked. The rest of the city is pretty much without power.

[nwctwx]

Accidentally copied the same link twice:

http://ianlivingston.com/weather/images/2005/rita/24sept_0715z_120mph.jpg

[gab1279]

Our house is less than 1 minute from Geraldo Rivera, who's at our Holiday Inn. Please post any information about any reporting from him as to winds and storm surge there!!

We're in Mansfield, LA, 20 min from Shreveport. No cable, ONE TV station! And I'm a news junkie!

Who does MSNBC have out reporting and from what locations?

We did get to see Shep Smith over dinner making a big show over at Entergy, hilarious. Totally surreal to see Beaumont and Port Arthur, TX all over the national news.

We're very worried. But you FReepers are the best source of news there is.

These Lake Charles developments are scary. We have elderly relatives in Deridder, just north. I pray for them.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Those images took about a second to load on my dialup. :)

[steveegg]

Where's the screen with FR on it in that pic? :-)

[bd476]

Heh, it's a regional quality. :-)

[Arizona Carolyn]

Well, you know, they can take the girl out of Texas, but can't take Texas out of the girl!

[nwctwx]

I run them through PS to make them more bandwidth friendly. It's hard to get them below 50k though. It's been a while since I used dialup, but I try. ;-)

[Revel]

If you can figure them out then you are doing better than me. Thanks for the images of the eyewall comming on shore. Has this thing really slowed down in forward speed? It seems to be taking forever to come on shore.

[BurbankKarl]

We should do Freeper coverage of a disaster one time....oneline feed, etc

[LibertyRocks]

"These Lake Charles developments are scary. We have elderly relatives in Deridder, just north. I pray for them."

I'll say a prayer for them too! Stay safe!

[BigSkyFreeper]

I'll maybe e-mail his mom and dad, they know his exact home address.

[Uncle Ike]

Good morning everybody.

I'm trying to catch up after being away for 4 hours (sleep). Whatever happened to Shep and Geraldo?? Been watching Fox for 45 minutes, now, and the absence of melodrama is remarkable.

[GOPyouth]

Wind has picked up here in Tyler, Texas. I went outside to let my labs out and to see if it was raining. No rain yet. I suspect that will start before too long. The wind has been kicking probably 15-20 mph for the last 4-5 hours.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Did I dream that someone said this was going to loop around and emerge back into the Gulf? There was a NOAA link, but I couldn't open it.

Official, just made landfall... 3:40a.m.