Bye bye Houston.

[Tetrad]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9389157

Hurricane Rita strengthens to Category 5
Texas likely target; winds at 165 mph; 1.3 million on notice for evacuation

GALVESTON, Texas - Gaining strength with frightening speed, Hurricane Rita swirled toward the Gulf Coast as a Category 5, 165-mph monster Wednesday as more than 1.3 million people in Texas and Louisiana were sent packing on orders from authorities who learned a bitter lesson from Katrina.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MI ... 2351.shtml

...RITA BECOMES THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE ON RECORD...

DROPSONDE DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE
AIRCRAFT AT 623 PM CDT...2323Z...INDICATED THE CENTRAL PRESSURE HAS
FALLEN TO BELOW 899 MB...OR 26.55 INCHES. THE DROPSONDE INSTRUMENT
MEASURED 32 KT/35 MPH WINDS AT THE SURFACE...WHICH MEANS IT LIKELY
DID NOT RECORD THE LOWEST PRESSURE IN THE EYE OF RITA. THE CENTRAL
PRESSURE IS PROBABLY AT LEAST AS LOW AS 898 MB...AND PERHAPS EVEN
LOWER. FOR OFFICIAL PURPOSES... A PRESSURE OF 898 MB IS ASSUMED...
WHICH NOW MAKES RITA THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE IN TERMS OF
PRESSURE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN. SOME ADDITIONAL DEEPENING AND
INTENSIFICATION IS POSSIBLE FOR THE NEXT 12 HOURS OR SO.

RITA CURRENTLY RANKS BEHIND HURRICANE GILBERT IN 1988 WITH 888 MB
AND THE 1935 LABOR DAY HURRICANE WITH 892 MB.

[Iceman]

We have any members in Houston? If so good luck and get the he|| outta there ...

[Couver_]

God just off hand Wholly Cow goes/did go to school there.. Sfuzzi Roncli Rhino Vlider and a couple other who escape me right now are there... GL people!!

[Top Gun]

Good luck to any Texans, and if you're in its path, get the hell outta Dodge. From what I've heard, it's not expected to make landfall as a Cat. 5; when hurricanes get that intense, they start to burn themselves out after a short period of time. Still, whatever its rating, it's going to be a monster when it lands. I just hope that NO doesn't get hit too badly by the fringes, or we may be looking at three weeks of recovery gone to waste.

[SilverFJ]

It's about time Texas ceceeded from the union.

On an serious note though, good luck to all you down there.

[Top Wop]

You kinda wonder after this second hurricane that mayby God is a bit angry? An honest pondering.

[SilverFJ]

God hates old people.

[Vertigo 99]

i won't even respond to top's landmine, but i will wish luck to houston.

[Couver_]

I'm not trying to be "That Guy" but the wife thinks it will go right and hit New Orleans again.


I hope it does. Why waste another city? Let em rebuild X2 vice another whole set of problems... No matter what or where lets hope for the best...

[Kiran]

It's at 175 mph now. I'm getting quite concerned with my relatives in southwestern LA... they live within 20 miles from the Texas border.
The Knoxville conventions will be getting Texan evacuees so let me know if any of y'all are there.
Best of luck to all those involved in Rita's incoming wrath.

Edit: I'm getting concerned because the hurricane is shifting east.

[Flabby Chick]

"According to the hurricane center, Rita -- with 898 millibars of pressure -- ranks only behind Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 with 888 millibars and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane with 892 mb."

Do any of you clever people know if there is any limit to the strength of a hurricane? I mean, i know there's a scale 1-5 but is that because we aint never seen a six or a seven yet; or is there some sort of physical limitation to the speeds?

[roid]

until someone else gives a smaller one, i'll say 761mph (661knots, 1225kph) would be the ultimate limit. the speed of sound.*

edit: this may be handy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffir-Sim ... cane_Scale


edit:
* on 2nd thought, i can't even back that up with physics. since the speed of sound is completely relative to the AIR SPEED - it is useless as a measure of air speed itself.

[JMEaT]

Good luck people. Get out if you can.

[WarAdvocat]

I recently read a very interesting speculative fiction novel about hurricanes, and IIRC, there IS an inherent limit to the windspeed, or at least a point of diminishing returns. However, the wind speed limitation doesn't imply limitation of the energy that a hurricane can absorb...

The (heretofore unseen) manifestations of that additional energy are sure to be awe-inspiring and deadly...

[Kiran]

Heheh, don't say "bye" to Houston yet, guys. Rita has weakened to a Cat. 4 storm at 150 miles per hour. Hopefully it'll be weaker than this by the time it makes landfall.

[Tetrad]

I-45 north out of Houston is packed.

Of course saying I-45 north is sort of redundant now since Gov Perry made all of I-45 go north for a couple of hundred miles.

http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/cameras/camtext.aspx

[Top Wop]

i won't even respond to top's landmine, but i will wish luck to houston.

Landmine? Im not trying to start a religious debate. I was just merely pointing out how there are as of this date 2 strong hurricanes in the same region within a relatively short amount of time. No need to get on your high horse...

Best wishes goes out to the people in the area. I hope they recover fast.

[Flatlander]

I recently read a very interesting speculative fiction novel about hurricanes...

Ah yes, another of my favorite authors.

[Mobius]

You kinda wonder after this second hurricane that mayby God is a bit angry? An honest pondering.

You might wonder that, but educated and unsuperstitious people know hurricanes are due to steep, latitudinal deviations of the jet stream. Jet stream veering south causes it to accelerate dramatically due to the extra distance it must travel as it moves towards the equator. (Circumference at 45 degrees is far smaller than at 15 degrees)

This acceleration lowers the air pressure in the jetstream, causing vast amounts of air in the lower atmosphere to rise very quickly. If it happens quickly enough the rapidly inflowing air, if it has even a tiny rotational component, accelerates the rotational energy like a skater pulling in their arms to increase their rotation rate, in an axle-spin.

In answer to the inevitable query, the answer is, "coincidence".

[De Rigueur]

Mobius is languishing in a deeply entrenched naturalistic, mechanistic bias (from which I doubt he will recover.) He doesn't realize that a description of the effecient cause of a hurricane, no matter how detailed, says nothing about whether it has a final cause (or purpose).


As for those affected by this hurricane, I hope you're well prepared.

[Skyalmian]

I suppose the thread title can be changed to "Bye bye Louisiana", because it seems Earth is intent on making it become a part of the Gulf of Mexico.

[Iceman]

MSNBC is reporting that Rita has taken a sharp right turn. Maybe this thread should be titled "Good Bye New Orleans".

[Couver_]

Man I hope so..

Naw Oleans is done anyway. Natures urban redevelopment at work

[SilverFJ]

God's slowly amputating the French from the US.

[Kiran]

Been getting phone calls from my relatives from all over Sulfur and Lake Charles. Everyone's on the move now. One of my Uncles stayed behind to board up the house and help close down a plant. Yeah, all my relatives are in that area (my folks and I are originally from there).

Ever since I got word that Rita might be hitting south of Lake Charles, I'm worried for my family.

Best of luck to all the others down there...

[Vertigo 99]

houston? france? what?

and belief in god is only part of your tricky land mine, wop. on top of it, we'd have to talk about what god would be mad about...

Feel free to start a E&C.

[VaussBait]

Cow attends Rice University. He's told us BoTS that he's ok and he's in an area that was not required to evacuate so he was going to ride it out. More to follow.

-Vauss OUT

[SilverFJ]

France. New Orleans.

[Vertigo 99]

Houston. Not France.

[MD-2389]

God just off hand Wholly Cow goes/did go to school there.. Sfuzzi Roncli Rhino Vlider and a couple other who escape me right now are there... GL people!!

CajunAce lives down there too, unless he bugged out in the last five years. Haven't seen him on kali in ages, so I guess being a weatherman must keep him awefully busy.

[SilverFJ]

Houston. Not France.

MSNBC is reporting that Rita has taken a sharp right turn. Maybe this thread should be titled "Good Bye New Orleans".

They colonized four major areas in the Western Hemisphere: the North Atlantic maritime region, which became known as Acadia; the St.Lawrence River Valley and the Great Lakes, known as New France; the lower Mississippi river Valley and the Gulf Coast region, known as Louisiana; and various island holding in the Caribbean (the West Indies). In 1685, Henri Tonti established Poste des Arkansas on the Mississippi River; the French founded Natchitoches, Louisiana, in 1714, and New Orleans four years later.

How to the net people say it? "pwned"?

[Vertigo 99]

oh rly

[Tetrad]

Well it seems that Houson and New Orleans both were mostly spared. Galveston stuffered major damage but that was expected. All in all it seems like given the situation things turned out as good as they could possibly get.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9389157/

[Top Gun]

Actually, I just heard a report on the Weather Channel from a reporter in Galveston, and according to him, the city got off with only minor damage. Some areas in Texas and Louisiana did get whalloped, and there's going to be some major flooding in some places, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

[dissent]

God's slowly amputating the French from the US.

Nous sommes toujours ici!