Lovely Rita

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Apparently Rita will reach Oklahoma (as well as pass over Dallas) as a Category 1 storm.

But at least it has weakened a bit.

[gjramsey]

It is down to Cat 4 now. 150 mph winds. Very few folks in our neighborhood have left, and it would be impossible to get anywhere now. We are in NW Houston, and with the shift east, they are now saying we will have about 70 mph winds for the N and E when it blows on shore

Most gas stations on the evacuation routes are out of gas. TXDOT is trying to figure out how to get gas into the areas needed.

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by Agathon
Why do they choose such stupid names.

They should really have hooker names like Tiffany, or Brandi or Angel...

how about Hurricane Shaniqua ?

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride


how about Hurricane Shaniqua ?

I like aggies other idea of Hurricanne stacey since we all know what a bi*ch she can be

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by DanS
Here's a good list of Category 5 storms.

http://www.weathermatrix.net/tropical/cat5storms.htm

Interestingly, pairs of Category 5 storms came through in each of 1960 and 1961. In those years, the pairs were close together, much like this year.

Not that odd. Warm water = powerful hurricanes.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

I have been watching the news reports all day and i have a rolling tally of the amount of times the reporters out in the field have refered to rita as katrina, 13 times so far. wonder if that is good luck or bad??

[Mr. Harley]

Oh, and I just checked the tide tables. Rita will come inland just barely after high tide, just like Katrina. However, these are higher tides running between 1.7 and 3.6 feet in the areas of Texas near the projected impact point. So add that to the storm surge totals. Not as bad as Katrina, but still definitively not good. Or, if you wish, triple plus ungood.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Rita is still moved a bit east. The area has cancelled a lot of activties this weekend. Sa is expected to get the storms and possible tornadoes. The galveston area is already moving out and the refinneris are shut down if you havent filled uo ur tanks do it now the news and this might be hype say this storm is gonna force gas prices to close to 4.oo a gallon

[Mr. Harley]

Newest update reference those ocean surface temperatures. Rita hit a cooler spot, which is why she dropped to Cat 4. However, as she comes in tomorrow she is going to hit a warm spot. They are hoping that some added wind shear (hurricanes HATE standard air columns where you have substantially different winds at different altitudes - the lack of that is part of what is required to get a tropical cyclone) will offset the warmer water. My biggest question is - does God hate Louisiana? It's sort of like he missed half, so he's taking his second shot at the other side. Texas and Mississippi just happen to be collateral damage.

edited because I blanked on the word collateral

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Not necessarily. The two main factors on being the the NE side of the storm are because the speed of the storm is added to the windspeed, and that's where the storm surge piles up.

When Katrina hit us, it was South Dade that took the worst of it, and they were on the trailing edge. I was on the leading edge and we suffered little flooding.

Flooding is a more complicated issue than how much rain falls or surges. In any case, I said nothing about flooding. Onland, this will be a northward moving hurricane. The east side of the storm will have the majority of the rain, the thunderstorms, and the tornadoes. Just as NO avoided the worst effects of Katrina, since it was west of the eye, SA will be mostly hit by high winds.

[Richelieu]

CNN BREAKING NEWS - Rising water due to Hurricane Rita washes over levee in New Orleans hard-hit 9th Ward, Army Corps of Engineers says.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

I thought all you bush supporters would get a kick out of this breaking news report. Just reported on our locas news, the evacuees from houston and Baton rouge landed at kelly usa early today. You can see folks caryy kids and articles they could carry departing the airplane. Good news for tem as stated by the reporter is, They Might get to meet G W Bush. Like these folks have noting else on their minds but dressing to meet GW. Good lord All I can say is if it were me on that plane Id be like oh YYIIIPPEEE, yeah right, more like get out of my face dude

[Chemical Ollie]

My cousin lives in Dallas, married to an oil billionarie. I haven't met her in 25 years, but I meet her father every year or two and I like him very much. I hope she is safe.

A category 1 would still be worse than Gudrun, the storm that killed 20 people and flattened 100 million trees in my part of Sweden in January. I still have uncleared debris in my garden from that storm.

[chequita guevara]

I dunno if the storm's gonna turn.

[Chemical Ollie]

Just a few hours after the leeves broke the first time, I sent an E-mail to the owner of the fishing charter that brought me on a nice fishing trip when I was in New Orleans 2 years ago, wishing him well and regretting his loss. He replied last night, sending a few pictures. Looks like his property avoided the flooding but had a lot of wind damage. At least the boats look safe. I hope they survive Rita too. They are good folks.