From Anderson Cooper on Larry King:
"Larry, what happened in Vermillion is, it wasn't during the storm that this flooding took place, it's
when most people thought the storm was over. The surge still continued, they had this second surge that
came. A lot of these regions are pasture land and normally don't flood at all. A lot of people there you
know, have lived there their entire lives, 60, 70 years, can't remember anytime there has been flooding like
this."
"Let's go to Rob Marciano in Lake Charles, what's the situation there Rob?
MARCIANO: Water is receding just a little bit but as they do, you know, damage is strewn about
everywhere. Evacuees are ordered not to come back because it's still very dangerous.
I drove from Beaumont into Lake Charles today. I used to -- I used to live and work here for a few years,
so a bit of a nightmare nostalgia to come around and try to get through neighborhoods where I lived, where
friends lived. It's a little bit -- it's a little bit tough to see. Huge trees down, I mean I've never seen so many
big trees completely uprooted, at least here in Lake Charles.
Then we took a drive down south. Everybody is talking about Vermilion Parish and Cameron Parish. Well,
we went down in Cameron Parish and went down to Grand Lake. I've got a friend who lives down there. I
figured his house would be flooded, managed to catch up with him. Sure enough his house was flooded.
I suppose the thing that's really bad, Larry, and that's been the ongoing theme the last couple nights is that
the waters here, they actually came -- they came in after the storm made landfall when really people were
thinking maybe I can go back to my home now and they're really, really slow to recede.
We have this persistent southeast wind. The waters are so dreadfully slow to recede. People are getting
anxious to check out the damage in their homes but there is still plenty of water down there in Cameron
Parish."
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/25/lkl.01.html
When I peeled off to take a nap around 9pm Friday night, the storm was forecast to come ashore at 0330, but when I returned at 0300, landfall had already taken place.
I'm starting to wonder if the storm accelerated and left the surge dome behind, which was then pushed by the west to east winds behind the storm's core east into Louisiana.
At least others are noticing the odd behavior of the surge, so I know I'm not going crazy.
:-)
Now that you mention it, it does seem to me that on final approach, Rita moved faster and landfall came quicker than originally thought. And the eye did intensify just as Rita came in.
Landfall was around 0230, thereabouts. If I remember correctly, 0238. An hour earlier than anticipated.