Hurricane Rita

[GT2000]

This has been quite a fucked up season, and it's still got a couple months to go...Rita is now a Cat 5 with 165mph winds, currently slated to hit somewhere between Galveston and Houston on Saturday.

They've already got the highways on the east coast of Texas packed, I don't blame them, they were quick to order evacuations for the FL keys after Katrina. I know Cody (thatsmypunk) plans on going to Dallas I guess, he's in Orange, my grandfather is in Beaumont which is right next to Orange, not sure of his plans.

With this, gas prices are about to start going up again, this after they just started dipping to more reasonable prices, they've been closing off rigs to prepare for the passing storm.

Kinda fucked up also, all the evacuees from Katrina that are now in Houston, might have another big one to deal with...however, they should have put them a little further from the Gulf Coast.

[johnny]

that's some pretty wild weather.

[GT2000]

Yeah...they say Cat 5s occur once every 4-5 years, so they aren't "THAT rare", wonder how often they've had two different Cat 5s in the Gulf (or any same area) within' a 3 week span.

[thecreeper]

its all global warming. we done broke the earth.

[johnny]

i don't really understand why these hurricanes are such big news every year, anyways. i mean, if you live in an area that has a hurricane season, you should expect your shit to get fucked up, pretty well annually. it's not a big surprise!

[raublekick]

yeah i always think that too, johnny.

anohter thing i was thinking is this: the fuell for a hurricane is the nice warm water of the ocean/gulf, right? well, the warm water is really only surface water, so to speak. so i propose we make pumps to jetison cold water to the surface, thus lowering the temperature of water avaialble to the hurricanes. it might kill the natural habitat of the waters, but fuck it!

[GT2000]

Yeah john boy, but, this year has been quite different, things are changing with weather patterns, the tsunami at the end of last year, these cat 5s so close together in terms of time, and location, generally the cat 5s that are recorded, never touch land anywhere.

Of course you have to deal with these things when you live by the water..I live on the Atlantic Ocean, I've had to deal with these types of storms, well, hurricanes, but I've never been forced to evacuate because of them.

This storm is now up to 175mph, and in terms of measured pressure, it's at 897mb, they said Katrina got down to 902, and the lowest they've ever gotten in the past 50 years was 888mb. So they say this is the 3rd most powerful storm on record in the Atlantic basin. I just hope it drops to at least a cat 4 before making landfall.

[sharkz]

I have a friend named Rita and so it's funny to read headlines right now.

[Stormy]

I had a friend named Katrina but someone in New Orleans ate her. :(

[GT2000]

Hmm, Beaumont and Orange didn't get it as bad as they could have, those still reports of refineries on fire in the area, wanna find out more on that. Just waiting to hear from my grandfather, his house is right on a river in Beaumont and occasionally has to deal with flooding, probably be a while before they even let him back.

[Mike]

Weather patterns follow a 20 year period of bad hurricane seasons and then mild hurricane seasons. It's caused by the speed of water in the Atlantic ocean when it follows the stream up and around Greenland ... the faster it goes, the warmer the water becomes (because it doesn't retain the cold water as well) when it's back south west of Africa... the latest trend began in 1994, so we still have another decade of particularly nasty hurricanes.

[GT2000]

That would make sense actually, Andrew was in '92 (i think), so that's only a couple years shy. Gulf coast keeps getting nailed like it is though, none of us will be able to afford driving anywhere.

[GT2000]

Well my grandfather's house isn't sooo bad off if I understand correctly..the river didn't overflow to the house like it has been known to do in the past, most of the trees are down, one leaning on the house, not sure of the damage that did.. Mom was looking through pictures a local radio station put up to see what she recognized from the Orange, TX area, that place got it good..

http://www.kogt.com

http://www.kogt.com/Rita%20pics.htm - pictures of the area

Site is slow as I'm sure it's getting hammered by residents who evacuated.

[Mike]

You can still get pretty nasty hurricanes in off-peak times, but most will happen within that period. This was the case with most bad recorded hurricane seasons. We are lucky enough where, in the 19th century, steamship operators began to chart the speed and temperature of the surface water, because that directly affected how much force the wheel could move at ... so these trends are recorded back into the 1850s, but it's expected that is gone on for quite some time, since the continents shifted the way that they did.

What this means, unfortunately, is that we can expect another 8 - 10 years of nasty hurricanes.

[thecreeper]

i wonder if theoneyouserve is ok...i know he's a TTTer in texas

[Liss]

i don't really understand why these hurricanes are such big news every year, anyways. i mean, if you live in an area that has a hurricane season, you should expect your shit to get fucked up, pretty well annually. it's not a big surprise!


It is, sometimes, actually. You need to understand that the past two years have seen an insane increase in storm activity.

Last year alone was a phenomenon. Florida was devastated by Charley, Frances, and Ivan, and smaller storms worsened the situation. This year, my area alone was affected by tropical storm Arlene, tropical storm Cindy, hurricane Dennis, hurricane Katrina, and hurricane Rita.

On the Alabama coast, we went 6 years without any major alert before Ivan hit in 2004. Before that, our only devastating storm was hurricane Danny in 1997. And before THAT... hurricane Frederick, in 1979! Since 1901 the Alabama coast has had about a dozen serious hits.

New Orleans has never been this seriously affected by tropical activity, and it's been 25 years since a storm really hurt them at all.

Mississippi hasn't been hit by a storm since hurricane Georges in 1998. Before that was hurricane Florence, a baby storm at 75 mph...10 years earlier in 1988.

Personally, I think we're entitled to surprise.

[johnny]

Personally, I think we're entitled to surprise.denied! :P

[Liss]

you...meanie...