Texans Begin Long Trip Home
Sunday September 25, 2005
Updated 6.50 PM PDT
More than 2.5 million Texans have begun the long journey home in the wake of Hurricane Rita, hopefully in a more staggered fashion than the departure (if residents follow government requests). In New Orleans, engineers predict it will take two weeks to remove Rita's waters from the 9th Ward. In southwestern Louisiana, rescue teams are still searching "isolated Cajun communities where a local form of French is still spoken."
The exodus from Houston, the nation's fourth largest city, starkly illustrated the futility of single-car evacuation plans for densely populated urban areas. USA Today:
Updated 10.30 PM PDT Saturday
At 10 PM CDT, Rita was located near Shreveport, LA and had been downgraded to a tropical depression. A coastal flood warning remains in place for southeastern Louisiana, including Jefferson and Orleans Parish (New Orleans area). New Orleans experienced its second straight day of Rita-related flooding.
Hurricane Rita killed power to 1 million Gulf customers and swamped coastal communities with a 15 foot storm surge. Yet when compared with Katrina, Rita almost appeared tame. Saturday evening, maximum sustained winds were down to 35 mph and dropping. Evacuees are advised not to attempt to return home until government officials can ascertain safety. See all maps; stormtracker (with satellite photos) ; current NOAA advisories.
Photo courtesy FEMA; post-Katrina flooding of New Orleans.
Hurricane Rita Weakens to Category 2
Updated 7.25 AM PDT Saturday
At 7 AM CDT, NOAA reports that Hurricane Rita has weakened to a Category 2 Hurricane as she moves across land. The center of the hurricane was located between Jasper and Beaumont, TX; hurricane force winds, up to 100 mph, can be felt 85 miles from the center. Rainfall of 10-15 inches is expected across East Texas and Western Louisiana.
The National Weather Service predicted gusts of 110-100 mph in the Galveston-Houston area. See all maps; stormtracker (with satellite photos) ; current NOAA advisories.
Rita Makes Landfall
Updated 12.25 AM PDT Saturday
Hurricane Rita hit the Louisiana-Texas coast early Saturday morning, packing winds of 125 mph (Category 3). The center (eye) of the storm hit approximately (2 AM CDT) ; hurricane force winds extend 85 miles from the center. Coastal storm surge flooding is projected at 15 feet above normal tide levels. The eyewall (a ring of high wind around the calm eye) reached from Sabine Pass, TX, to Cameron, LA.
The National Weather Service predicted gusts of 110-100 mph in the Galveston-Houston area. See all maps; stormtracker (with satellite photos) ; current NOAA advisories.
Updated 10.50 PM PDT Friday
Hurricane Rita has been downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, according to CNN. Houston has been evacuated but roads outside the area remain clogged. A bus carrying elderly evacuees has exploded near Dallas; 24 feared dead. New Orleans begins flooding again as waters breach the 9th Ward levee. Hurricane Rita has slowed to 135 mph winds; hurricane force winds extend 85 miles from the center of the storm. Rita is expected to come ashore as a Category 3 or possibly Category 4 hurricane. Swells will affect "most portions of the Gulf Coast," according to NOAA.
Updated 9.05 AM PDT Thursday -
Recent Coverage
Houston Mayor Bill White is now urging residents who do not live in flood prone areas to ride out the storm in order to relieve pressure on the highways. Up to 2.5 million people have jammed the highways and byways.
Thursday Morning Report
Corpus Christi, Houston and Galveston are being evacuated as part of the "largest mass evacuation in Texas history" in advance of Hurricane Rita as she bears down on the Gulf Coast.
However, the latest forecast (10 AM CDT) is a decided shift to the northeast. The projected path is now directed at the Texas-Louisiana border, not Galveston. This radical shift in path is similar to what happened with Katrina; the main difference is that Katrina was picking up steam at this point in time before landfall but Rita is becoming less intense.
A hurricane warning is now in effect from Port O'Conner, TX to Morgan City, LA. Landfall is still projected for Saturday morning.
On Wednesday, Rita, with 898 millibars of pressure, was ranked the third most intense Atlantic Basin hurricane on record. Number one is Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 (888 mb); the 1935 Labor Day hurricane (892 mb) comes in at number two. Over the course of about 30 hours, Rita grew from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane.
Forecasts are predictions, not statements of fact. For example, 2.5 days before Katrina made landfall (a comparable time period), her projected path took her to the panhandle of Florida, and her winds were only 80 mph. (Katrina - 11 AM EDT - Friday 26 August ...
Rita - 11 AM EDT - Wednesday 21 September)
From Wednesday's Report
Corpus Christi Mayor Garrett told CNN he ordered an evacuation at least a day before normal because of the devastation wrought by Katrina. On Wednesday, winds were reported at 175 mph (Category 5) and hurricane force winds extended 70 miles from the center of the storm. (Projected path: 10 PM CDT Wednesday)
The deadliest hurricane in American history hit Galveston in 1900, killing at least 6,000; this was before the seawall had been built. A Houston Chronicle list of Texas Gulf coast hurricanes reinforces the fact that dollar damage follows development. In other words, hurricanes are more costly today, than 50 years ago, because of intense development of high-risk land. Less powerful storms are more costly (property damage), but the risk to life-and-limb has actually decreased, no doubt in part to warning systems.
News reports suggest that both citizens and governments are taking this threat more seriously than normal, given the context of Hurricane Katrina. Galveston County (population 267,000) is under a mandatory evacuation order, as is Houston, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Alica (1983 - Category 3).
Also, as of noon Wednesday (CDT), Texas Governor Rick Perry has not issued an emergency declaration, nor has he publicly requested federal assistance. Nevertheless, the federal government has:
Technorati Tags:
Hurricane Rita, Politics, Texas
More than 2.5 million Texans have begun the long journey home in the wake of Hurricane Rita, hopefully in a more staggered fashion than the departure (if residents follow government requests). In New Orleans, engineers predict it will take two weeks to remove Rita's waters from the 9th Ward. In southwestern Louisiana, rescue teams are still searching "isolated Cajun communities where a local form of French is still spoken."
The exodus from Houston, the nation's fourth largest city, starkly illustrated the futility of single-car evacuation plans for densely populated urban areas. USA Today:
Monica Hackett spent two days convincing her mother, a cancer and emphysema patient on oxygen, to leave her waterfront home in Baytown, a suburb east of Houston. They left at 9 p.m. Wednesday and were trapped by gridlock. Thirteen hours later, they had barely crossed central Houston. Hackett's mother ran out of oxygen.Rita Floods New Orleans
They pulled over in northwest Houston, and an ambulance took her mother to a hospital. Monica Hackett rode out the storm at a Catholic church with 300 others, most of them stranded in the effort to evacuate. "I heard on the radio people saying, 'Everybody's being so nice on the road,' " she said. "They were not! They were flipping people off, cutting around you. I was so worn out."
Updated 10.30 PM PDT Saturday
At 10 PM CDT, Rita was located near Shreveport, LA and had been downgraded to a tropical depression. A coastal flood warning remains in place for southeastern Louisiana, including Jefferson and Orleans Parish (New Orleans area). New Orleans experienced its second straight day of Rita-related flooding.
Hurricane Rita killed power to 1 million Gulf customers and swamped coastal communities with a 15 foot storm surge. Yet when compared with Katrina, Rita almost appeared tame. Saturday evening, maximum sustained winds were down to 35 mph and dropping. Evacuees are advised not to attempt to return home until government officials can ascertain safety. See all maps; stormtracker (with satellite photos) ; current NOAA advisories.
Photo courtesy FEMA; post-Katrina flooding of New Orleans.
Hurricane Rita Weakens to Category 2
Updated 7.25 AM PDT Saturday
At 7 AM CDT, NOAA reports that Hurricane Rita has weakened to a Category 2 Hurricane as she moves across land. The center of the hurricane was located between Jasper and Beaumont, TX; hurricane force winds, up to 100 mph, can be felt 85 miles from the center. Rainfall of 10-15 inches is expected across East Texas and Western Louisiana.
The National Weather Service predicted gusts of 110-100 mph in the Galveston-Houston area. See all maps; stormtracker (with satellite photos) ; current NOAA advisories.
Rita Makes Landfall
Updated 12.25 AM PDT Saturday
Hurricane Rita hit the Louisiana-Texas coast early Saturday morning, packing winds of 125 mph (Category 3). The center (eye) of the storm hit approximately (2 AM CDT) ; hurricane force winds extend 85 miles from the center. Coastal storm surge flooding is projected at 15 feet above normal tide levels. The eyewall (a ring of high wind around the calm eye) reached from Sabine Pass, TX, to Cameron, LA.
The National Weather Service predicted gusts of 110-100 mph in the Galveston-Houston area. See all maps; stormtracker (with satellite photos) ; current NOAA advisories.
Updated 10.50 PM PDT Friday
Hurricane Rita has been downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, according to CNN. Houston has been evacuated but roads outside the area remain clogged. A bus carrying elderly evacuees has exploded near Dallas; 24 feared dead. New Orleans begins flooding again as waters breach the 9th Ward levee. Hurricane Rita has slowed to 135 mph winds; hurricane force winds extend 85 miles from the center of the storm. Rita is expected to come ashore as a Category 3 or possibly Category 4 hurricane. Swells will affect "most portions of the Gulf Coast," according to NOAA.
Updated 9.05 AM PDT Thursday -
Recent Coverage
Houston Mayor Bill White is now urging residents who do not live in flood prone areas to ride out the storm in order to relieve pressure on the highways. Up to 2.5 million people have jammed the highways and byways.
Thursday Morning Report
Corpus Christi, Houston and Galveston are being evacuated as part of the "largest mass evacuation in Texas history" in advance of Hurricane Rita as she bears down on the Gulf Coast.
However, the latest forecast (10 AM CDT) is a decided shift to the northeast. The projected path is now directed at the Texas-Louisiana border, not Galveston. This radical shift in path is similar to what happened with Katrina; the main difference is that Katrina was picking up steam at this point in time before landfall but Rita is becoming less intense.
A hurricane warning is now in effect from Port O'Conner, TX to Morgan City, LA. Landfall is still projected for Saturday morning.
On Wednesday, Rita, with 898 millibars of pressure, was ranked the third most intense Atlantic Basin hurricane on record. Number one is Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 (888 mb); the 1935 Labor Day hurricane (892 mb) comes in at number two. Over the course of about 30 hours, Rita grew from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane.
Forecasts are predictions, not statements of fact. For example, 2.5 days before Katrina made landfall (a comparable time period), her projected path took her to the panhandle of Florida, and her winds were only 80 mph. (Katrina - 11 AM EDT - Friday 26 August ...
Rita - 11 AM EDT - Wednesday 21 September)
From Wednesday's Report
Corpus Christi Mayor Garrett told CNN he ordered an evacuation at least a day before normal because of the devastation wrought by Katrina. On Wednesday, winds were reported at 175 mph (Category 5) and hurricane force winds extended 70 miles from the center of the storm. (Projected path: 10 PM CDT Wednesday)
The deadliest hurricane in American history hit Galveston in 1900, killing at least 6,000; this was before the seawall had been built. A Houston Chronicle list of Texas Gulf coast hurricanes reinforces the fact that dollar damage follows development. In other words, hurricanes are more costly today, than 50 years ago, because of intense development of high-risk land. Less powerful storms are more costly (property damage), but the risk to life-and-limb has actually decreased, no doubt in part to warning systems.
News reports suggest that both citizens and governments are taking this threat more seriously than normal, given the context of Hurricane Katrina. Galveston County (population 267,000) is under a mandatory evacuation order, as is Houston, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Alica (1983 - Category 3).
Also, as of noon Wednesday (CDT), Texas Governor Rick Perry has not issued an emergency declaration, nor has he publicly requested federal assistance. Nevertheless, the federal government has:
... rushed hundreds of truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals to the Gulf Coast and put rescue and medical teams on standby.Geographically, Gavleston differs significantly from New Orleans: it is a barrier island city, making it more akin to the Florida Keys than the Louisiana bayou. Google hybrid maps show the difference: Galveston v New Orleans. Louisiana's southern barrier islands have been destroyed. The major city in Texas in the path of the hurricane, Houston, is about 50 miles inland.
Technorati Tags:
Hurricane Rita, Politics, Texas