Hurricane Rita - Please Not Again

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Well....it looks like the worst scenario is becoming increasingly more probable. Hurricane Rita is now about to strike the Keys, then is projected to move into the Gulf, where they expect it to grow to a Cat 4 Hurricane, making landfall somewhere between Houston and New Orleans. Just saw the news and they're saying at this point, it could veer more north and strike NO, or stay a bit west and hit Houston. Here's a link of the projected path

Also here's weather.com's perspective.

 

Oh dear. That's not good. What does that mean for the long term future of the region. This is certainly not going to be the last hurricane to hit that area.

 

Dear God, not again...

The Age has reported that the Florida Keys are being evacuated, that oil rigs in the Gulf are being evacuated, and that Mayor Nagin is not allowing people back into New Orleans as a preventive measure. It's not (currently) an F-5 hurricane, and hopefully some of its energy diminishes so that it downgrades back to being a tropical storm. From what I've read, that seems unlikely, since (from my thankfully-ignorant-about-hurricanes perspective, at least) the Gulf of Mexico appears to act as a powerful booster for the intensity of a storm.

If there is any silver lining on this, perhaps it's that there seems to be comparatively little left to destroy in New Orleans - unless the hurricane hits it directly. It could still render the restoration efforts of the last couple of weeks useless if the levees are damaged again. I shudder to think what might happen if a category 4 or 5 storm hits Houston more or less directly. Let's hope it doesn't, and that the people in charge have learned the lesson of Katrina and are getting prepared for the worst now.

 

Texas and Florida are the two states most frequently hit by hurricanes, and have the best storm plans. Still, they do depend on private transport, I'm really hoping there'll be research on how to get those without private transportation out of threatened cities after this hurricane season.

I am so glad I live inland in north Florida, I rarely have to deal with these things. (as long as I ignore last year)

PS here the link for the National Weather Service, this is where everyone else gets their info... http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

 

Katrina cought both south florida and NO by suprise, most people here didn't prepare neither (of course it was cat 1 when it hit, nothing like what happened in NO). The weather channel says it's unpredictable as to where the storm might hit once it reaches the gulf coast. Seems like an other Katrina. Hopefully people have learned to prepare this time.

 

It appears the levees may completely collapse, should they have to bear the brunt of Rita. One of the engineers said that the entire system is so weakened already, a heavy rain could cause the stop gap measures to fail...nevermind another storm like Katrina.

 

Houston should be OK. Galveston has a huge man-made sea wall that bears the brunt of the storms. In 1983 we had a cat 3 that came ashore (Alisha) at Galveston and came right up I-45 into the center of Houston. We lost power for most of the next day and it tore up the city with a lot of broken glass and uprotted trees, but we did pretty well. Actually, tropical storm Allison, just a few years back, played more havoc on the city than the last cat 3 hurricane did.

My main concern is the old trees that surround our home. A good wind usually blows off some large branches, and the last one, just a few weeks ago, landed in the middle of my patio table, which was made of tempered glass and took half-a-day to clean up all the broken shards from off the deck. Flooding should not be a problem here on the north side, but flying trees and their limbs could be some trouble for us.

 

I guess the biggest thing is to get people out of there. With all the damages from Katrina, there may be little protection from Rita...

 

My parents live far inland enough that they should be ok (in Houston), but I'm still pretty worried about them. I hope everything turns out alright, for everyone. I may not like Houston as a city, but I have enough family and good friends there still (Chandos being one of them) that I hope it passes through an area with a minimal population. Luckily, Texas has quite a few of them, though admittedly less near the Gulf.

 

All the best to everyone in Houston, or with friends or family there.

Now I'm thinking of all the floods I experienced in Houston: wading home to bail water out of my car in 95, or driving on 10 in 98 and seeing a whole line of parked cars on the on-ramp from 610 disappearing into flood waters. Houston weather always seemed a bit surreal to me. Here's hoping this one isn't as bad as people seem to think...

And with yet another threat to US oil refineries, already guys are in the news arguing how this *proves* we need to drill the Alaskan wildlife reserves...

@DR- You really didn't like living in Houston, did you? There must be a few times (say, November to March) you regret moving to Chicago...

 

Galveston also holds the record for most deaths from a hurricnae.
12,000 in 1900

 

Rita is now a Cat 5. Over 300 miles across, with winds in excess of 155 mph. :sigh:

 

Cat 5? NZ news must be slow because it's only Cat 4 according to our news. Scary stuff though.

 

Thanks, everyone. After tomorrow I will probably be off-line for a few days at least. Power will probably be out after sometime Friday night. The city is a mess right now with thousands of cars on I-45 headed north from Galveston. Everyone is fleeing the South Texas coastline.

Today the shelves of every store selling supplies are empty (batteries, flashlights, plywood, canned goods, water, etc). I went late last night and stocked up on supplies for the next week, and managed to fill my car with gas. Most stations have run out of gas today, and many who are on the freeways are finding none along the way - they are just running out of gas where they are on the road.

I am packing up the family, boarding up the house and staying with other family here in Houston for the duration of the storm. But I'm sure the entire city will loose power for sometime. Late Saturday, after the storm passes, and if the roads are passable, I will come back here to check for damage to our home. Hopefully, it won't be too bad this far north. But if the winds are over 90 Mph by the time the storm gets here, many of the trees will probably have fallen over. But hopefully the house will still be in one piece when we return.

 

CNN reported that it was just upgraded about 10 minutes ago. Wind speed is now 165 mph....and building. What a nightmare.

Looks like weather.com updates their site really quickly.

Chandos -- our thoughts are with you. PLEASE...be safe.

 

Chandos - why are you going to stay with some other family in the same city? Is their house sturdier than yours? Why not just leave the city completely?

 

HB - Well, we just wanted to have the family together, and my in-laws have a very large house, so it made sense for everyone to meet there. Plus, they are very well stocked with supplies and have a power generator. We will spend the day drinking beer and playing poker. And the girls will get to see their grandparents.

As for leaving - we are on the nothern reaches of the city, so we are about 70 miles inland. Besides, you just can't get anywhere in the city right now, let alone out of it. Power will be the big problem, at least that's how I see it. The city will flood in some areas, but we won't be in one of those areas. We had 43 inches of rain in one day during a storm a few years back. 43 inches! That's probably the storm that Bion was thinking of in his post. But thanks everyone for the good wishes. They are appreciated.

 

Just make sure that generator isn't in the basement. I hear that's how they lost power in the NO hospitals (by having the generators where they'd get water-logged right away ).

 

I was hit by hurricane Isabel two years ago and it sucked, power was out for a week on my street while the next street had power recconected in two days. I wish all those in Rita's path well and good luck and hf.