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

[raygun]

Steveegg said:

"Motion since the previous eyewall fix at 6:03 pm - almost 4 hours ago) - 33 minutes north, 25 minutes west (326 degrees, 45.5 miles/39.6 nm, 11.5 mph/10.0 knots)"

Yeah, they're pretty much in agreement that my forecast is a bust. All they're interested in is salvaging some science out of this travesty. So they're dropping lots of dropsondes. Its because of how they use them is why they name them that way.

Just so you guys know: if you can plot RAOBs you can plot dropsonde data too (you need special graph paper though).

I don't have that.

[Armedanddangerous]

I gather that means hip..

What do I know? 8-)

[deport]

It's in the Strand District in Galveston.

[SMcDonnell]

Is it bad that I am making money from my oil holdings off this storm... I can't help but feel guilt sometimes...

Shaun

[RDTF]

Galveston

[BurbankKarl]

Tornado touched down in Lafayette....


Boil Water order for Lake Charles....

4 to 6 inches of water in some callers neighborhood on KPLC.....carports flying by

[Shortstop7]

Blanco: We help the evacuees from Texas come to Louisiana.

I about choked when I heard her say that......and bragging about the great effort they made during Katrina.

[mtbopfuyn]

Ok, looks like the fire CNN is showing is near the Moody Center. The Moody Center is the tall building sometimes in the background.

The second fire is the Holiday Inn which is right across the street from the prison hosptial portion of UTMB.

[sinkspur]

I think your daughter will be fine.

[Spktyr]

Try KHOU (www.khou.com) or TXCN on your local cable network (comes with all cable subscriptions in TX).

[Seattle Conservative]

She just said that their congresspeople and the ACOE have been requesting money to fix the levees, but it keeps getting denied - now they're going to have to pay big.
Perhaps if the local and/or state folks in LA didn't spend the money they rec'd for levees for casions, fountains, etc., etc. they'd be in better shape. Of course, she failed to mention they DID get a lot of $$s and what they chose to spend it on.

[Abigail Adams]

One lady taken to hospital with burns. Art gallery is what is burning in Galveston. (KHOU)

[BlueAngel]

Yes, it looks to have been an accident. Hopefully this thread will not turn into an illegal thread, as so many do.

[Flyer]

Yeah, and we may have a lot of rain to deal with yet.

[LikeLight]

The only way you can tell shots aren't live is if they don't have the word "live" up - but even then they go to a split screen and there's no way to know if all the screens are live or just one of them, even though the word "live" is up.

[mrsmel]

Fox has that Heifer Blank-o on now.What,is she some authority on hurricanes now,that they need to interview her? They could at least interview Jeb Bush or Haley Barbour,two governors who didn't screw up. Heifer Blank-O just praised their Rita evacuation effort,and threw in that it went well, just as the Katrina evac effort did-WTH?? I hope for the sake of people in Rita's path in LA,that this effort is totally opposite of the LA Katrina response was.

The hero of NO, Nagin,had at last report "reported for duty" in his city of New Orleans.He's probably preparing his "spontaneous" heartfelt curse-filled speech blaming President Bush for not announcing the exact landfall of Rita 10 days ago.

[glock rocks]

This is a different kind of wind.

Suppose that's what the Dallas poster was smell.... um ... nevermind.

[mware]

Good Lord Shep is now downwind of a metal sign that is about to rip apart.

[johnb838]

I believe it is still burning based on KHOU's coverage.

[AFPhys]

That vortex data of 0300Z seems to suggest to me, someone with almost no ability in this stuff, that there could be a greatly disorganized storm hitting the coast. Is that consistent with your take? Can this significantly weaken the sustained winds in time if so?