Hurricane Rita ( Bad News For Gulf )

Mostly just wind out here. I'm on the other side of the lake from NOLA but high enough to avoid flooding. The rain comes and goes. 9th Ward in NOLA about 6 feet under water.

I've been having Ivan flashbacks also. We'll just have to wait and see.

Well time for the me to go ten toes up, since my eyeballs
are starting to float from too much monitor viewing time.



Take care folks and hoping there are no casualties...

Thanx Harry55

I am glad to be back, and also glad that your family is ok now too.


While checking one of the links that Regenmacher last posted ( home.houston.rr.com... ) It says "Current as of: 12:10am ET on 9/24/05 - Updates every 2½ mins." at the top. Makes me wonder if they are being hit hard right now. I am sure the power is out.

Glad to see you are doing good Darkelf. I was just thinking about the Ivan scenario, and I mentioned it a couple of posts back. Now that would be something wouldnt it?!

(goodnight Regenmacher. )

Regenmacher, I know how you feel. Thanks for your help.

None of us will know what to expect when we wake up tomorrow when the sun comes up. But lets all hope for the best.

ok 2:10 had our strongest gusts around 60mph sustained winds of 35mph, went out and saw some of it, was able to walk around because it is largely a wind event, on the west side of the city there is no rain. i have sat out in it for 10 mins and came in and my shirt is pretty much dry. right now i'm sitting on my patio with the laptop listening to the wind. very little debris have had a few brownouts but nothing longer than a second, water still runs TV still going, Anderson Cooper is still reporting.

UPDATE FROM ACCU WEATHER

Today's Discussion Posted: September 24, 2005 3:15 a.m.



Hurricane force winds spreading into the western Louisiana coast


As of 2:00 A.M. CDT Saturday, Rita was centered near 29.6 north and 93.7 west, or 10 miles south-southeast of Sabine Pass near the Louisiana/Texas border. The minimum central pressure was 937 millibars (27.67 inches of mercury). Rita is moving to the northwest at 12 mph. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 85 miles, and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 205 miles from the center of circulation. The center of the hurricane will make landfall as a dangerous Category 3 storm around 3 A.M. CDT. Tropical storm-force winds in rain squalls continue to spread inland across southern Louisiana along the northern side of Rita, and wind gusts to near hurricane force are arriving along the upper Texas and southwest and south-central Louisiana coasts. Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana reported a wind gust of 112 mph between Midnight and 1 A.M. CDT. During the past hour an automated station at Sea Rim State Park, Texas reported sustained winds of 78 mph with a gust to 101 mph.

3 AM UPDATE NOAA

AT 2 AM CDT...0700Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE RITA WAS LOCATED
NEAR LATITUDE 29.6 NORTH... LONGITUDE 93.7 WEST OR ABOUT 10 MILES
SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF SABINE PASS ALONG THE GULF COAST AT THE
TEXAS/LOUISIANA BORDER.

RITA IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 12 MPH. THIS MOTION SHOULD
BRING THE CENTER OF RITA ONTO THE COAST NEAR SABINE PASS IN THE
NEXT HOUR OR TWO. AFTER LANDFALL...A GRADUAL TURN TOWARD THE
NORTH-NORTHWEST IS EXPECTED LATER TODAY.

REPORTS FROM AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT INDICATE
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS REMAIN NEAR 120 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS.
RITA IS A DANGEROUS CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON
SCALE. LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS EXPECTED PRIOR TO LANDFALL.
GRADUAL WEAKENING IS EXPECTED AFTER RITA MOVES INLAND.
THE MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE JUST REPORTED BY THE HURRICANE HUNTERS
IS 937 MB...27.67 INCHES.

Rita officially made landfall (the eye center) just east of Sabine Pass, TX at 3:40 AM EDT.

edit:

I guess it's 3:30 AM EDT:

NOAA

THE CENTER OF RITA MADE LANDFALL AT 230 AM CDT ON THE EXTREME
SOUTHWEST COAST OF LOUISIANA BETWEEN SABINE PASS AND JOHNSON'S
BAYOU.

[edit on 9/24/2005 by djohnsto77]

Latest Satelite Imagery 315 am est from Accu Weather




Its official Rita just made landfall 3:40 AM EST

djohnsto77, We got that one at the same time. We are both wittneses to this historical event.

I have to disagree to some extent with the annoucement that Rita has made landfall. The eyewall may have just made landfall but the storm has been pounding TX and LA for hours. The 17th Street Levee in NO was breeched this morning.

By the way, according to WeatherUnderground, New Orleans got less than an inch of rain yesterday. Ironic, huh?

WeatherUnderground History

fire in south east houston, and since this is more of a wind rather than rain event in houston the flames could be fanned.

GradyPhilpott, just one question then I have got to go to bed according to wifes instruction if you know what I mean ? Did you take into consideration for water rise or storm surge ? I have not checked on rainfall amounts but I will.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
I have to disagree to some extent with the annoucement that Rita has made landfall.

A hurricane officially makes landfall when the center of the eye, the area of lowest pressure, crosses onto land. But obviously a hurricane is not a single point and has been affecting land for quite some time before this.

this thing is completely pounding Louisana at this point. I saw transformers blowing out but the worst sustained speeds in Texas are 61 mph with gusts of 92 mph in beaumont.

Originally posted by Harry55
GradyPhilpott, just one question then I have got to go to bed according to wifes instruction if you know what I mean ? Did you take into consideration for water rise or storm surge ? I have not checked on rainfall amounts but I will.

This is what I wrote last night:

...it will not take a direct hit on New Olreans to cause further catastrophic damage. The counter-clockwise winds that appear to be ready to hit the area in a few hours could drive water from the Gulf into Lakes Borgne and Ponchartrain and cause severe flooding in the river parishes and place catastrophic pressure on the damaged levees in NO. If the storm hits around the Port Sulpher/Lake Charles area, New Orleans could be hit even worse. It does not look good for the Big Easy, no matter where Rita goes at this time.

www.belowtopsecret.com...

[edit on 2005/9/24 by GradyPhilpott]

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott

Originally posted by Harry55
GradyPhilpott, just one question then I have got to go to bed according to wifes instruction if you know what I mean ? Did you take into consideration for water rise or storm surge ? I have not checked on rainfall amounts but I will.

This is what I wrote last night:

...it will not take a direct hit on New Olreans to cause further catastrophic damage. The counter-clockwise winds that appear to be ready to hit the area in a few hours could drive water from the Gulf into Lakes Borgne and Ponchartrain and cause severe flooding in the river parishes and place catastrophic pressure on the damaged levees in NO. If the storm hits around the Port Sulpher/Lake Charles area, New Orleans could be hit even worse. It does not look good for the Big Easy, no matter where Rita goes at this time.

www.belowtopsecret.com...

[edit on 2005/9/24 by GradyPhilpott]

Let me sleep on this before I give my opinion. Right now I am very tired.

The main thing I am going to bed with is that I just hope that everyone in Ritas path is ok.

They are saying as we speak that there is a chance of 24 inches of rainfall after Rita stalls. I just hope that everyone understands the scope of Rita. Peace...

We've had reports from Beaumont (anyone with Sky News may have seen my friend Stu earlier this morning ) that there have been explosions in the direct of Port Arthur - sounds like some of the oil refineries may have gone

Edit to correct smiley

[edit on 24-9-2005 by Essan]

Port Arthur Texas (map).

This could be a huge mess, the report of explosions does not sound good at all.

Here is a really interesting read...

PDF file

Without knowing how much damage there is from Rita, It is hard to specualte, however this could be very bad.. the cost for clean up? Environmental damage? ... a man made mess caused by Rita?

All we can do is hope it is not as bad in the Port Arthur area as some are reporting and predicting.