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

[No Blue States]

"The looters were out.. 22 reports .. 16 arrested .. homes, Target store, check cashing stores .... HANG the vermin that do this to the diaster afflicted!"

[laz]

I guess Jeff Parish Pres will be crying on Timmy Russert's program tomorrow.

The parish can flood just from that fool's crying alone.

[Republican Red]

Judge Eckels was excellent on Fox interview. Who is this guy??? He has got to be Republican because he body slammed New Orleans and their local and state response.

Neil Cavuto interviewed Jack Welsh right before Eckels. He had an insight that was, imo, eye opening.

Cuvuto asked Welsh how the President was responding. Welsh said great, much better than with Katrina. Cavuto asked just what did the President do wrong with Katrina (that is a question I myself could not answer). Welsh responded that the President did not get out immediately and define himself. By not acting immediately, he allowed the media and the democrats to define him/the response. It was a false definition but because they got out first it stuck.

[texianyankee]

The Bryan/College Station area barely got any rain from my vantage point - at the most 1/10 of an inch.
We are getting a nice breeze - gusty at times. Clouds look menacing.

I was hoping we would get a good shower at least.

[GodBlessUSA]

I don't remember that. I put Fox on now because Neil is on. I get better info, on this thread than television. I was saying earlier, I'm tired of seeing reporters in rain telling us it's raining hard. Neil is covering this a bit better than that, ;)

Here ya go, LOL!

[luckystarmom]

There are so many trees in East Texas. I think I am more worried about trees going down and hitting houses.

I don't know if I should be worried about flooding. I don't remember there ever being any significant flooding in the area. Not sure how all the rain will affect that.

[GodBlessUSA]

Good point, you are right. They will always have an excuse.

[STARWISE]

And yet the crowd line is still "everyone knows FEMA didn't respond like they should." Makes me throw things .. Kondrake just said that again 2 nights ago, and NO ONE challenged him on the FNC panel. They just keep repeating it so that it's become accepted fact ......... ala the Rats .. but I'm not even hearing any Pubbies counteract that spin .. and it's infuriating.

Bastardi on with Cavuto now.

[cajungirl]

I am not going to get into a brawl with anyone here.

But I have to remind this forum, that while everyone is sick of hearing about NO,,there is another story.

Many decent, republican, conservative, democratic,,you name it,,are living through this disaster.

And we hate it like hell when we hear others screaming about incompetence when that is not the entire story.

And for those who say God did this to punish evil in NO, I say as loud as I can Go to Hell.

Some Louisianians, me included, are disgusted with the officials down here. But we voted against them. And we don't deserve the contempt of this forum.

And for those of you who think you don't have looters in your big cities, waiting for an opportunity to do what some did in NO, you are fooling yourselves. That kind of activity could happen in any big city.

And good Freeperes live here, we didn't hire or cause the problem in NO and many worked like hell to elect better people.

So watch where you tread.

This is not meant for you Howlin, but for every blasted hateful freeper who is spewing all over us down here, and I would like to slap every blasted one of them silly.

[texsean]

Eckels is Republican. I voted for him.

[laz]

To continue that analogy, if they continue to shout so loud, maybe people will become deaf in that ear and no longer hear anything coming from the left.

[milagro]

Great point. The underlying problem in NO was not Katrina, but corruption. More people died because of human stupidity and cupidity than died because of the power of nature.

But--of course--the MSM will not report this because it would make their beloved Dems look bad.

[RummyChick]

I saw the interview. It was interesting to note that he claimed that if he got blown away (or something to that effect) this would have been handled the same way. They have been practicing for it for years.

This was after Neil said people are saying he is the regional Rudy G.

[Howlin]

Hurricane Rita Freeper CHECK IN THREAD

[No Blue States]

Live feed:

Houston officials urging residents not to return yet.

House in Jasper floats off foundation with 7 people inside. :(

Houston LEO dies of heart attack on I-45.

[Zacs Mom]

I heard that exact statement made on one of the network shows last night.

What is getting to me is the way they keep saying with regard to Bush, or FEMA, "because they came under heavy criticism, they are now.....blah-blah-blah" The MSM created this so called heavy criticism ~ dammit! They made it point to only and always air as much criticism as possible!

[dixie sass]

The only thing I ask from my electric company is no cheating and to be honest. A thirty dollar a month jump for me hurts since I'm on a fixed income. If there is something wrong with their equipment then my bill should be adjusted. The meter is either broken or we are having a power drainage somewhere.

We have had power surges consistently. That isn't right. Nor are the brown outs.

[Howlin]

Can you post your information about MEG over here?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1490520/posts?page=4

[kenth]

What is it about the word "Management" that people don't understand? FEMA isn't supposed to be an operations group.

[laz]

Suffice it to say, I am SICK TO DEATH of hearing about NO and the citizens of that area who couldn't manage to hold it together for THREE DAMN DAYS.

I will never get the image out of my mind of that woman who was complaining about the MRE's. Instead of thanking God she had been rescued and thanking her rescuer, she was griping that her meal wasn't hot. If she had been served filet mignon, I'm certain she would have cried racism because it wasn't caviar.