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

[dixie sass]

Morning X's

[Alia]

Maybe not. But consider how many men have wised up to how the cards are stacked against them, legislatively, unless they are liberal? Good men may disappear for periods of time, but ya just can't keep a good man down! yeknew? :)

I think Stanley would have dumped Stella and her wispy sister. I don't think he'd a gone gay or metro. I think he'd a gone fishing and become a bubba.

[Major_Risktaker]

How many caps did
Shep lose last night?

[AliVeritas]

Here's a pic for all those in Texas who made it through:

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/1573/im:/050923/photos_us_rank_afp/050923201347_o9ph7eqx_photo0;_ylt=ArkZ.XLd89dJIbMPx5cwdDtiWscF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3dmhrOGVvBHNlYwNzc20-


Thank God.

P.S. Could someone send me the link to HTML for image posting again, I can never seem to figure out the hosting site to get images up.

[CindyDawg]

Just checking on yall and saw your post about trees. I lost a pecan and an almond tree last year from a tropical storm. My husband had griped about having to go around "my trees" every time he mowed. The pecan tree almost died once. It got too much fertilizer and kind of had a stroke. One side died. It couldn't survive the storm though and broke in two. We dug up the roots and planted an oak. This summer the pecan tree is back. It's almost taller than the oak and looks like a graft. One has to go. My husband, a "toughie" ,shocked me though. He's replanting the oak. He says it's because the *^%$ pecan tree is just going to keep grow back again but I hear the pride in his voice about "his" pecan tree now:')

[Pirogue Captain]

Just woke up here... can anyone tell me exactly where the eye came ashore this morning?


Thanks

[ErnBatavia]

Shreveport is a beautiful city, if my 40-year memory of having been there is correct. I had an elderly female relative there, and a visit to her stately old home was made when I was a teenager.

I still remember tons of huge trees and the area being extremely green (which always impresses a southern Californian).

[deport]

Hey DG, glad all seems okay over your way...... Can you make any guesses on the Spring area maybe just a little west of I-45 off 2920? I have a daughter up there but haven't been able to contact this morning mostly because of cell phone problems... I'm sure the area didn't get it too bad based upon what I'm seeing on the nat'l news. I sure hate it when you can't get local stations live.

[laz]

There are still tropical storm winds and downed power lines which will prevent many SWLA from returning to their homes.

I suspect some no longer have homes to return to.

[laz]

Oh no! Not the dentist analogy on FNC again! ARRGGHH!

[bwteim]

"Pray for Brit Hume's continued good health! LOL He and Tony Snow are all we have."
I'll second that.

[toomanygrasshoppers]

Mornin' Dog. I'm glad to see that all is well in your neck of the woods. :>)

[CindyDawg]

Glad you are ok.

[truthandlife]

Pretty amazing night for Houston. My power flickered on and off a couple of times too but have power this morning and I am really surprised that there is no big branches or trees down.

It will be a tough couple of days with cabin fever because who knows when we will have gas and the stores will open.

There are going to be a lot people all over the news complaining about leaving when they did not have to and not having gas. It will be interesting on the news but I am not going to watch it anymore.

Praise the Lord for He is so good to spare Houston!!!

[laz]

Sulphur Fire Department reports no damage. Still waiting until winds drop below Tropical Storm strength to begin patrols/

They'll find damage alright when they begin patrols. Sulphur was in the eyewall for some time.

[tomkat]

that was one of the plagues   

[abb]

Saturday, September 24, 2005
Authorities await chance to view damage
Here is an early-morning summary of what the Associated Press is carrying about Hurricane Rita's impact in Southwest Louisiana, much of it reported by the AP's Brett Martel out of Lake Charles:

Rita made landfall at 2:30 a.m. CDT as a Category 3 storm just east of Sabine Pass, on the Texas-Louisiana line, bringing a 20-foot storm surge and up to 25 inches of rain, the National Hurricane Center said. Within four hours it had weakened to a Category 2 storm, with top winds of 100 mph, as it moved further inland between Beaumont and Jasper, Texas.

Residents in hard-hit western Louisiana called police early Saturday to report roofs being ripped off and downed trees. Rescuers were forced to wait until the winds outside died down to safe levels.

"We can't even get out to check yet," said Sgt. Wendell Carroll of Louisiana's Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office. "All we can hear is the wind a-howling."

The storm spun off tornadoes as it churned northwest at 12 mph with winds that topped 120 mph, causing transformers to explode in the pre- dawn darkness.

Rita's heaviest rains - up to 3 to 4 inches an hour -- fell in Lake Charles, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Omundson said. The town had 8 inches of rain more than two hours before the storm's landfall. Near the coastal town of Cameron, the weather service recorded a wind gust of 112 mph as the storm's center approached.

In Vinton, west of Lake Charles, police could see several building fires from their station and took calls from residents reporting others at homes and businesses throughout town, Lt. Arthur Phillips said.

"It's tore up pretty good," he said. "We've taken quite a beating."

The roof of the town's recreation center was completely torn off, and residents reported businesses destroyed by winds and homes damaged by fallen trees, Phillips said.

In the days before the storm's arrival, hundreds of thousands of residents of Texas and Louisiana fled their homes in a mass exodus of 2.8 million people that produced gridlock and heartbreak.

Late Friday, southwestern Louisiana was soaked by driving rain and coastal flooding. Sugarcane fields, ranches and marshlands were already under water at dusk in coastal Cameron Parish.

The sparsely populated region was almost completely evacuated, but authorities rushed to the aid of a man who had decided to ride out the storm in a house near the Gulf of Mexico after one of man's friends called for help. They were turned back by flooded roads.

Empty coastal highways and small towns were blasted with wind-swept rain. A metal hurricane evacuation route sign along one road wagged violently in the wind, and clumps of cattle huddled in fields.

Steve Rinard, a meteorologist in Lake Charles, said he could not keep count of the tornado warnings across southern Louisiana. "They were just popping up like firecrackers," he said.

In Lake Charles, home to the nation's 12th-largest seaport and refineries run by ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Citgo and Shell, nearly all 70,000 residents had evacuated. Several riverboat casinos that mostly serve tourists from Texas also closed ahead of the storm.

"We see these storms a little differently after Katrina," said city administrator Paul Rainwater. "We all realize that no matter how safe you feel ... you have to take it seriously, you have to plan."

posted by American Press at 8:17am

[Zechariah_8_13]

thx.

[No Blue States]

Im glad yall in the Houston area seem have have fared better than expected. Radio said high gust was 61mph at Bush airport with an inch of rain so far.

I hope the landfall area isnt too bad.

[SVTCobra03]

"One of the local stations (Charleston) had an interview with a SCANA representative yesterday evening - very bluntly said that people need to save as much money as they can now because the heating bills for those using natural gas could triple this winter."

Here in Oklahoma City the gas company has a program whereby you can lock in a rate of $8.39/dth for 12 months. I expect the price to be $14.00/dth by the end of the year.