Hurricane!

Central Texas was spared the devastation of Hurricane Rita. The storm ran along the TX/LA border and is now a tropical storm raining down on the IL/OH/KY/TN quad-state area.

Okay, Hurricane Rita was a Category 3 hurricane when it hit the Texas and Louisiana border, yet the Corporate News Channels had non-stop coverage. To put this in perspective; Last year Hurricane Charley hit Florida at a Strong Category 4 storm, but the coverage was not as extensive as Rita’s.

We came home to no damage to our home. In the subdivision some trees were down and landed on fences, the electricity was out but overall we lucked out. We suffered through the heat until Sunday morning when the radios said it was going to hit 105F heat index. So we packed up the van again and were going to head back up to Kingwood to the hospital. We drove around and saw the utility company working on lines at the front of the subdivision and I stopped and talked to one of the guys. He said it would be back on in a few minutes. So we drove around, found a gas station with gas and filled up the van, then drove back home. Still no electric so we put on the sprinkler and filled up the baby pool. At around noon we heard all the AC’s turn on at the same time and were so happy to finally have electric again!!!!!

Looking back at the aftermath of Hurricane Charley in Florida offers a glimpse of what Katrina’s victims have in store. - PID

i am sitting here... waiting... wishing... damn hurricane just needs to come and get this over with. I saw some people around the new home construction site looting for wood and maybe some fixtures. All this reading about a reasonable prudent person under like circumstances is driving me insane! I relapse into a memory from hurricane Ivan... and think how cool zombies are! Wouldn't that be fucking awesome!?@! Hurricane Rita plows through Houston and unleashes a zerg of zombies. The end of the world... Boys and girls, grab your shotguns!!! Well, it sure beats reading about the reasonably prudent person.

The hurricane Rita thing is traumatizing. I feel like I should move back home to help, but don’t believe I’d be of any use. Wasn’t I in this position less than a month ago?

This woman has the nerve to call the Howard Stern show to advertise her ‘goods’ that her husband looted out of an electronics store during Hurricane Katrina. If anyone lives in Metairie, LA and knows this lady, please call the police. She needs to be jailed because her actions are simply disgusting.

A fact a classmate mentioned to me is that hurricanes are named in alphabetical order, alternating male and female names. So, since we were hit by Hurricane Katrina in August and are anticipating Hurricane Rita, what about L, M, N, O, P, and Q? That’s 6 other hurricanes. Well, first off was Hurricane Lee. Lee was pretty much a “dud” and was changed from a hurricane to a “tropical depression”, which means it didn’t pose much of a threat. Next came Hurricane Maria which traveled in the Atlantic moving north-northwest at 10 mph. Maria, a Category Three storm, saw winds as high as 115 mph. Forecasters said that Maria is only a threat to shippers. Next was Hurricane Nate, a Category One hurricane, with winds reaching 90 mph.

As I am watching the news, I am seeing what makes me love Houston the most…selflessness. People are out with their gas cans, filling up evacuees’ cars with what little gas they have stored up for lawnmowers and hurricane season.

It’s not easy being Chen Shui-bian. Hu Jintao doesn’t want to know who you are. No one in the States will talk to you. And Hurricane Rita holds you up for 14 hours. Good to see SOMEBODY giving him some love.

Because Katrina was unprecedented -- none of the disasters referenced resulted in so many thousands of people being displaced due to flooding -- the federal govenment's planning to deal with a situation like that was lacking. The job of FEMA and Homeland Security should be to prepare for the unprecedented and not just base its performance on past disasters.

Lawrence Simon has the Hurricane Rita roundup. He and his family may decide to evacuate tonight.

Question: We know Bushitler-Rove sent hurricane Katrina into New Orleans because they don’t like black people. But why are they attacking their home state of Texas now, sending hurricane Rita in there? What’s the angle? Anyone?

HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.

Stewart is in fine form as he moves into “day two and a half” of his telling the tale of covering Hurricane Ophelia.

Actually, the remarkable thing, which is why I am writing this at all, is that it is raining HERE because of HURRICANE RITA.

Wassup, yo!? Keep your hurricane weather away from California! We live here for a reason!

If that should happen, Mr. Bush will be facing the following tough dilemmas: Can his government afford to commit to rebuilding 2 cities (keep in mind that the hurricane season won't be over for another 10 weeks!), can he rebuild one city but not the second (in his own home state of all places), will he be accused of favouritism in allocation of disaster relief, will he be forced to leave Iraq (which would be the most wonderful propaganda gift that Allah could ever bestow on Islamic terrorism - not unlike leaving Saigon in the 70s), would isolationism take hold as a result, would all the troops coming home at once precipitate a recession and possible social unrest due to lack of job opportunities which are being permanently lost overseas, would the destruction of a second city in one month provoke serious discussion about the merits of establishing a 'no-build' zone along the Gulf of Mexico?

I confess to having hurricane fatigue, however, things appear to be going from very bad to much worse on the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Rita has just been upgraded to Cat-3 and is bearing down on Texas. Hopefully, it will make landfall in an unpopulated area. I have no doubt that the evacuation orders will be complied with, due to the recent lessons learned in Katrina, so I’m thinking loss of life will probably be minimal.

Daily Show coverage of Hurricane Rita with Daily Show Senior Meteorologist Rob Corddry:

Here’s the National Hurricane Center’s track, which has the storm hitting the Matagorda Bay area early Saturday morning. With the storm just entering the Gulf, the NHC’s cone of uncertainty is VERY wide, encompassing the entire Texas coast, as well as portions of Mexico and Louisiana.

Everyone has heard about the devastating impact that Hurricane Katrina has had on Mississippi, Louisiana, and the rest of the Gulf Coast. I feel extremely bad and have so much compassion for those who had to go through the hurricane. I have seen first hand the devastation caused by a hurricane, I went through Hurricane Charley a little over a year ago. It was a hard time for me and my family with both of my grandmothers houses being uninhabitable, and many other family members house extremely damaged. It is so wonderful to see how the country is pulling together to help those who have been effected by this horrific event.

There’s an interesting tidbit buried in this CNN.com article. Apparently doctors are concerned that they won’t be able to handle the increase of accidental injuries that will occur as people return to New Orleans and try to clean up.

According to an article by U.S.A. Today, one South Florida businessman thinks he has a winning idea — flying a Boeing 747 into the monster storm, where it would hit it with tons of super absorbent powder, literally sucking it dry and breaking it apart. Only a test will determine if it is a flight of fantasy, and there are no plans to try the process on the approaching Hurricane Ivan. But businessman Peter Cordani, chief operating officer of Dyn-O-Mat, a company that sells environmental absorbent products, thinks he can knock down a storm by one or two categories. He claims to have caused a thunderstorm to disappear in a test off Palm Beach, and he's assembled a team including two former astronauts to work on the plan. "We have a lot of confidence in it," said Scott Mac Leod, one of the astronauts who tested the lunar module.

My mom e-mailed me today that she and her husband are planning to evacuate should this new Hurricane Rita hit Galveston. They live in Richmond, which is southwest of Houston and about 100 miles from Galveston I guess.

Katrina, Ophelia, now Rita… what is going on.. are oil prices being artificially inflated because of these storms ? Are these storms being artificially induced to inflate oil prices ?

The reason it’s so dry and hot? Thank both Hurriance Katrina and Hurricane Ophelia. Katrina sapped the moisture in the region as she headed for Louisiana and then Ophelia formed and not only absorbed moisture but blew dry winds from the Carolinas right over Florida…

As Ophelia tap-dances in the Atlantic Ocean approximately two hundred miles from land without a clear destination, the most common sentiment expressed is she is a typical woman. Why? Ophelia has been a difficult hurricane to forecast, because of current weather trends. Originally, forecasters thought she would make a small loop in the Atlantic before making landfall between Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC. While Charleston is not out of danger at this moment, our level of danger has progressively decreased - for now at least. The main issue with hurricanes is they are forces of nature we cannot control; we can only prepare, respond, and if needed move out of the way.

Nielsen/NetRatings reports online traffic to redcross.org and NOAA showed significant increases during and with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Here is the Nielsen chart:

But the story about the flight to Atlanta is another example of a pretty relaxed attitude by the people at the top of the FEMA food chain. Bush stays on his political campaigning vacation, and Chertoff flies off to Atlanta, leaving everything up to the clearly incapable Brown in New Orleans. It’s obvious from the reporting of the 2004 hurricane season that Brown was managed quite closely by the White House to prevent any embarrassments in the election run-up, so this was his first time on his own.

We are spending tonight on the very end of the Cape Cod peninsula, Massachussets, in a very pretty town called Provincetown. We hope to get some photos tomorrow morning. We came through here in some very heavy rain today, apparently the tail end of hurricane Ophelia. Crazy thing was as we drove along the freeway earlier in the day was seeing all the cars and trucks that were parked on the side of the road because of the heavy rain. We couldn't quite work out what was happening to start with as the rain was no heavier than we get in most of the storms at home. However once the rain eased up a bit the traffic rejoined the road.

Last year she had moved to Pensacola Florida, two weeks later Hurricane Ivan struck.

She moved to Tennessee, a month later, they had a big ice storm.

She moved down here two months ago, you know what happened, Hurricane Katrina.

First off I wanted to post what REALLY is going on in this city. Please don't get this thread locked people. The news stations are only showing a minuscule of reality. This post may offend some people but I will post what I saw, like it or not it is REALITY.

Way cool. I was curious about shipping conditions in the lower Mississippi following Katrina, and stumbled across this by following my mouse. It will make a good subject for a post for next week’s CoHR.

3 to 7 days. On your own. With NO assistance. This is the NORM! I live in Florida, I’ve dealt with hurricanes. During Hurricane Charley, we lost power for three days (at least!)…and we didn’t even have damage. What did we do? We SURVIVED. We used our gas grill…we had plenty of water stockpiled…we KNEW there was a storm coming. We prepared…and we didn’t expect someone to come save us…at least not immediately.

Word from Florida suggests that much of the damage wreaked by Hurricane Ivan last year has not yet been repaired. I will be very surprised if New Orleans is restored to normality within the next decade. The only good thing is that Bush and Cheney will be long retired by then. Maybe their successors will realise that they must take the initiative when a disaster occurs but before the drama becomes a tragedy.

This article is so scary. It was written in November of 2004 and talks about what Hurricane Ivan, a category 4 storm, would have done to New Orleans. Well, they nailed it right on. Read this and it will make you cringe.

It’s been touching, if a bit humbling, to hear about the offers of aid from around the world which have been pouring in to this country in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

There have been many voices, including that of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, saying that New Orleans isn’t worth rebuilding, that the region is too disaster-prone to be worth the usual investment in disaster relief from the federal government. That’s balderdash. It is true that New Orleans is mostly below sea level and kept above water by levies. However, only three truly major storms have hit New Orleans in the past 60 years — the ‘47 hurricane, Hurricane Betsy in ‘65, and Hurricane Katrina in ‘05. That’s not a track record which shows an extreme predisposition to catastrophy. Southern California and Florida are far, far more expensive in terms of disaster relief (probably even on a per-capita basis). New Orleans simply isn’t the albatross around America’s neck that some people want to portray it as.

I’ve been half joking for the past week that New Orleans is the new Venice. But I don’t think its such a bad idea at all. New Orleans has always been a niche city anyway. Why not rebuild with water in mind? Build up everything, and then intentionally flood the city. No need for tricky levees. No need to worry about when the next big one will hit. There would never be a great flood again. We can have Mardi Gras on the water. A city of canals would give even more character to a metropolis filled with it already.

Meanwhile Tom Delay has blamed Democrats at the local level. Preisident Bush had the chutzpah of announcing that HE will lead an investigation into what happened. And what if he finds he’s to blame? Unlikely. Meanwhile with the costs of the catastrophe not estimated at l00 BILLION and growing, the NY Times reports: “Hurricane Katrina is about to blow a hole in the federal budget, and it is already jeopardizing President Bush's plans for tax cuts and reducing the deficit.”

This message was noticed three days ago by Scott Stanfield, on the latest NOAA imagery released on the web on September 1, and posted by Jeff Atwood in his blog.

I have two lessons: Leave the area, make the damn hurricane preparedness kit with weeks of supplies, donate money to the Red Cross (links to donation form) or charity of your choice (you may need the same help some day!)

A 500-year flood hit New Orleans. Its emergency stations (hospitals, schools) were underwater. How the hell do you plan for that? Incredibly, 44 percent blame Bush. Even more incredibly, this is reported under the headline, "Hurricane Preparedness Is Faulted; Fewer Blame Bush for Problems." We accept that 44 percent blame Bush for everything all the time. When do we get back to being united?

Hurricane Katrina may be the deadliest hurricane in the United States since the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed around 8,000 (possibly up to 12,000) people. As of 7 PM CDT September 1, 2005, more than 20,000 are still reported missing. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin stated on August 31 that the death toll of Katrina may be “in the thousands”, an estimate also provided through a statement by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco on September 1. Accurate numbers are not known. Damage was reported in at least 12 states. Hurricane Katrina will be remembered for its vast devastation of the Gulf Coast regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The hurricane will also be remembered for the ineffective pre-planning for hurricane preparedness in New Orleans, as well as the slow response on the part of federal, state and local governments to provide effective search and rescue and safe refuge for the storm’s victims. It will not be remembered for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who pitched in with their own money to send water, food, diapers and other necessities to the region. It will not be remembered for the children who emptied their entire life’s savings in coins to help either. It will not be remembered for the brave military units called up from around the country during a time of war and an already stretched deployment schedule. They will also find that when there’s a REAL emergency (which doesn’t include talking to certain people camped outside his ranch), the President will end his vacation early and get back to work.

In the past, Cuba has refused U.S. offers of aid, the most recent following Hurricane Dennis. That storm killed more than 10 people in the Caribbean island nation in July.

There was a large difference in the amount of time that it took President Bush to reach the area that was destoryed by Katrina when you put it in perspective to Hurricane Ivan that went through florida last year that damaged areas close to Jeb Bush (Governor of Florida and President Bush’s brother). It took President Bush ONE day to tour the area hit by Hurricane Ivan (which caused 92 deaths) and it took him almost an entire week to visit the areas affected by Katrina (which has caused more than 246 deaths as of Monday September 5th). As of September 1st there were more than 20,000 people reported missing.

I’m starting to feel as though I’m being selfish with my blessings…I pray at nite to ask for strength to make it through my days, but sometimes I need to pray for others…give others my strength make sure they have the extra power “they” need to make their blessings grow. Katrina (a hurricane that has wiped out New Orleans and parts of Mississippi) has just gave America a reality check. I can honestly say…we [America] were ready for a terriorist attack, but we were not ready for a hurricane to come and level out a city so bad, that the government has declared a total evacuation. Which means that everyone who used to live in the area have to start over in different cities, because they estimate that New Orleans will not be fit to live in for another year or more.

Last year, Brown also faced heat when it was discovered FEMA paid out $31 million in aid in Miami-Dade County after Hurricane Frances, though the storm hit 100 miles to the north and the county never felt sustained winds of hurricane strength.

President Bush on Friday was quick to defend Brown, saying he thought Brown was “doing a heck of a job.”

One of the best members on Warner’s team is William H. Leighty Jr., his chief of staff. As is the case with key staff members, citizens rarely hear much about them unless something goes wrong. That is not the case with Leighty. In fact, he is in high demand.

Governor Mark R. Warner announced today that the short-term outlook for Virginia’s gasoline supplies has improved dramatically. The Plantation pipeline, which carries gasoline from the Gulf Coast to the Commonwealth, returned to 95% capacity today, and the Colonial pipeline is operating at about 66% capacity and expects to reach 85% capacity late this weekend. An interruption in electrical service due to Hurricane Katrina briefly shut down both pipelines earlier this week, which provide 75 to 80% of Virginia’s gasoline supplies. “I would urge motorists to drive smart this holiday weekend, conserving when they can and sticking to normal fuel purchasing habits,” Governor Warner said. “There have been some isolated shortages in some Virginia communities, but the situation is improving and should get better over the holiday weekend.” Concern about the supply of gas has resulted in rumors, but Virginia has ordered no limits on gasoline sales. Law enforcement personnel and inspectors from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs will be on the job this holiday weekend to investigate reports of gasoline price gouging. In 2004, Virginia adopted an anti-price gouging law in the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel the year before.

I figured it was just a matter of time before the religious wingnuts came out. The organization, Repent America, implies that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to destroy New Orleans before its Southern Decadence festival. I’m guessing Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are still reeling from the Chavez comments. It hasn’t been long enough for them to forget themselves and say something asinine, but I don’t expect that to last.

It seems some are intent, gleeful even, on the end of us. And so I join the masses in saluting a man of conscience in a time of cowardice:

Some really good information here on Katrina's effect on agriculture in Louisiana. Another story of interest is here.

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It’s Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

And I have heard the statement made that we reacted much more quickly to the events of September 11th. It has been said that New York Mayor Giuliani guided his citizens through the disaster whereas New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been ineffective. First of all, we knew Hurricane Katrina was coming. (Although there is certainly plenty of evidence to suggest that someone in the government knew about the impending events of September 11th as well.) But it is especially damning to think that hurricane preparedness drills were conducted by FEMA and then when the real thing happens, we are caught with our pants down. Secondly, in defense of Mayor Nagin, there is a difference between having a building or two fall down and having your city wiped out.

And as physical needs slowly get met, spiritual needs will need to be met too. Several news stories have picked up on the cry for people needing Bibles. A few things are getting rolling on that front, like how American Bible Society is responding to the need for Bibles in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. [full disclosure: I’m an employee of the American Bible Society; and 100% of donations go to ministry, no administrative overhead]

The complaints showed how the Hurricane Katrina disaster is prompting the same recriminations that surround nearly all subjects in the capital’s current angry mood.

The situations are so totally, completely, fundamentally different that I’m finding myself intensely angry every time I hear the mayors compared, and the mayor of New Orleands come up wanting. Yes, he may not be as competent, in the end, as Giuliani. Maybe Giuliani is better connected and better able to get the Feds to respond with a larger response - I don’t know that. But you can’t just line up the two situations. I don’t know what Rudi would have been able to do differently before Katrina hit, and I’m not sure just how much of a difference he might have been able to make afterwards. But the challenges of 9/11 and Katrina seem VERY different, to me.

The stories MAY have more impact on me than many. I have two cousins in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, both in their early 40’s who are armed and hoping to avoid trouble by showing their presence, as well as their arms, in their homes. I fear for their safety. I pray that they won’t have to live through this horrible experience and then have to stand trial for murder. I regret that I feel if they killed someone in protecting home and hearth that it should be ruled justified and they be given a medal.

The DOD response is well ahead of the 1992 Hurricane Andrew timetable. Back then, the support request took nine days to crawl through the bureaucracy. The reaction this time was less than three days officially, and DOD had been pre-staging assets in anticipation of the aid request from the moment Katrina hit.....

It is as simple as that. If I am selling something then I should not be artificially limited by government to simply recouping my costs plus a non-market determined profit. I should be able to sell anything I want for any amount I can get for it. If you don't want to buy it then don't. If you can find someone down the street sellling for less then take your business there.

With memories of Hurricane Isabel in September 2003 behind him. Bob Pascal, owner of St. Michaels Harbour Inn, Marina & Spa, announced recently , “We will be donating proceeds from the hotel to the American Red Cross Hurricane Disaster Fund".

Even as Katrina strengthened to a category 3 storm with a path that had it coming right at New Orleans, I still planned to stay home for it. I was even discussing drinking strategy with my friend Larry the Saturday night before she hit. My reasoning was this: If the storm came and destroyed my home, I would be miserable whether I was there to witness it or not. A few days stuck in evacuation traffic would only add to my misery.

But even lower are those partisans in the MSM and elsewhere who are joyfully using this horrible disaster to try and score points against the President. I thought I had seen the worst kinds of behaviour possible from these idiots, but they’ve clearly sunk to a new low, publishing some articles blaming the disaster on President Bush BEFORE the hurricane had even struck!

I understand President Bush said something like, “No one could have predicted what happened in New Orleans.” Well, that’s certainly not true. The city has been trying to boost its hurricane preparedness for years, but the Bush administration has been cutting funds for that purpose since 2001. And, thanks to the National Guard’s strength being lowered because of the war on Iraq, things in the city are chaos and anarchy.