RITA & KATRINA: 1st evers: 2 Cat.5, in one season, in Gulf, on same path;1.3M+ leave TX/LA
author: various
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Hurricane Rita...zipped from tropical storm to Category 5 hurricane in 30 hours--storm equivalent of racecar going 0 to 100 in nothing flat. --- first time ever in one hurricane season, two Cat 5's cross Gulf of Mexico on nearly identical paths. --- AIR FORCE HAS POWER TO 'ZAP' STORM, DEMOTE IT, THOUGH THEY DON'T, THEY JUST 'ZAP' PICTURE EVIDENCE OF STORM STEERING. "President Bush, in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, told residents, "listen carefully to the instructions provided by [your terrorist lackeys in the] state and local authorities, and follow them." 'Cause when we finally get a more complete cleanout unlike Katrina, then we can really take over your homes for corporate development purposes, shut down media, start martial law, confiscate guns illegally, have wet ops destroy infrastructure, shoot witnesses, test microwave crowd control devices, build FEMA camps, starve you out, import private paramilitary from Iraq, and bring in more international troops to destroy you. We did that in Katrina. And it worked. That, America, is my "response". Thank you for being such a nation of fools. God bless America. God bless FEMA. Let her rip, Mayfield and Chertoff. Power up that mother. Let's roll.'
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Hurricane Rita: 898 mb on Wed., 3rd most intense hurricane ever, stronger than Katrina. --- FINISHING OFF NEW ORLEANS ALIBI IN THE MAKING: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continued to repair the city's breached levees ahead of the new storm, temporarily shoring up the system...Even if New Orleans doesn't sustain a direct strike, a heavy rain or a storm surge might [be used as an excuse to] set back the recovery effort. "Our levee systems are beat down," New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said. "Some sections, they're 5 feet, 7 feet, 10 feet. Any significant storm surge would flood the city significantly." And 1.3M+ leave Texas coast relying on "individual self-reliance" (quote, Houston Mayor White)
--- HAARP'ers have wish: more real-time data for storm evaluation/adjustment, FIRST SUCCESSFUL UNMANNED AIRCRAFT HURRICANE OBSERVATION occurred September 16, 2005. And NOAA buoys & thermometers waiting for action. --- TEXAS: More than 1 million evacuate --- GALVESTON: tests out mandatory evacuation starting 6 p.m. Wed. with jury-rigged closed inbound lanes regardless...FEMA/mayor to top of WWII military bunker.... --- HOUSTON: Mayor White & Harris Co. Judge Eckels 'requested' evacuation along Galveston Bay--first on list for mandatory evacuation 6 a.m. Thur. Houston Mayor White: "individual self-reliance" required, no provisions of public vehicles/faciliates to take care of poor. Mayor White: "We want you to voluntarily evacuate [without providing any help],...Make your plans to voluntarily evacuate now." Displaced Superdome/Katrina people in the Houston/Astrodome now ordered out of Houston as well. They don't know it the structure would survive.
WHO IS GOING TO INVADE WHOM? HURRICANE RITA HEADED FOR THE BORDER AREAS, CORPUS CRISTI, BROWNSVILLE/MATAMOROS at the tip of the Texas Panhandle. Expect excuses for international NORTHCOM troops to be used to occupy the territory--and to attempt to justify staying and waiting for "the next one." Forecasters feared Rita could further intensify in the Gulf and the storm's most likely destination by week's end was Texas, although Louisiana and northern Mexico were possibilities. So who gets to invade whom? THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR THE NORTHEAST COAST OF MEXICO FROM RIO SAN FERNANDO NORTHWARD. A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA...GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS. A TROPICAL STORM WATCH MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA...GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS.
"Military Governor" Lt. Gen. Russel Honore in New Orleans: "With a Category 5 storm you're going to lose the first quarter," [?] he said. "You're stuff is going to get messed up. The storm is going to win." {However chipper and happy Honore is and spreading fatalism and military power, New Orleans, from Wed. predictions, is estimated to have only about a 10% concern of hit by Saturday. [see below] Don't let him manipulate you.) However, 'normal ties' may be 3-4 feet higher.
New Orleans was jarringly vacant Wednesday. Forecasters said it appeared New Orleans would be spared a direct strike by Rita, which was welcome news to the emergency workers who continued the grim task of looking for bodies in neighborhoods across the city. The overall death toll from Hurricane Katrina passed 1,000 Wednesday in the Gulf Coast region, including 799 in Louisiana.
Jano Gibson reports: When the hurricane hits the US mainland it could leave a devastating trail of destruction, a US National Hurricane Warning Centre spokeswoman said. "It could be catastrophic - a storm surge anywhere between 20 to 30 feet in some areas. We could see devastation of most buildings. Trees will be down, power will be out. It could be catastrophic," spokeswoman Jennifer Pralgo told the ABC this morning. About a million people in the Houston-Galveston area were told to get out by dawn tomorrow, said a spokesman for Bill White, the mayor of Houston. Galveston County, with a population of 267,000, was ordered to be evacuated, along with low-lying, flood-prone areas of Houston, which at its lowest point is just 6ft above sea level.
More illegal broken posse commutatus: FEMA ASKED PENTAGON to assemble teams capable of handling 2,500 patients and field kitchens capable of feeding half a million displaced. "The most important thing that we're doing is working with the Department of Defense to use their assets...." said Acting FEMA Director R. David Paulison.
1.
...RITA BECOMES THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE ON RECORD... 21.Sep.2005 18:13
000 link
wtnt63 knhc 212351
tcuat3
hurricane rita tropical cyclone update
nws tpc/national hurricane center miami fl
650 pm cdt wed sep 21 2005
...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.
forecaster stewart
$$
 link to www.nhc.noaa.gov
2.
NOAA AND PARTNERS CONDUCT FIRST SUCCESSFUL UNMANNED AIRCRAFT HURRICANE OBSERVATION BY FLYING THROUGH OPHELIA
Iimage of the Aerosonde unmanned aerial vehicle being released from its transport vehicle on the runway at the NASA Wallops flight Facility, in Wallops Island, Va., to fly into and take measurements of Tropical Storm Ophelia on Sept. 16, 2005.Sept. 16, 2005 — Hurricane researchers at the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, Fla., marked a new milestone in hurricane observation as the first unmanned aircraft touched down after a 10-hour mission into Tropical Storm Ophelia, which lost its hurricane strength Thursday night. The aircraft, known as an Aerosonde, provided the first-ever detailed observations of the near-surface, high wind hurricane environment, an area often too dangerous for NOAA and U.S. Air Force Reserve manned aircraft to observe directly. (Click image for larger view of the Aerosonde unmanned aerial vehicle being released from its transport vehicle on the runway at the NASA Wallops flight Facility, in Wallops Island, Va., to fly into and take measurements of Tropical Storm Ophelia on Sept. 16, 2005. Click here for high resolution version. Photo courtesy of NASA.)
"It's been a long road to get to this point, but it was well worth the wait," said Joe Cione, NOAA hurricane researcher at AOML and the lead scientist on this project. "If we want to improve future forecasts of hurricane intensity change we will need to get continuous low-level observations near the air-sea interface on a regular basis, but manned flights near the surface of the ocean are risky. Remote unmanned aircraft such as the Aerosonde are the only way. Today we saw what hopefully will become 'routine' in the very near future."
NOAA satellite image of Tropical Storm Ophelia taken on Sept. 16, 2005, at 9:15 a.m. EDT, as the storm made its way into the Atlantic after battering the southeastern United States as a Category One hurricane. It was downgraded Thursday night.NOAA's partners in this effort include the Aerosonde company, which designed and operates the aircraft, and NASA Goddard's Wallops Flight Facility, located on Virginia's Eastern Shore, which houses the U.S. base for Aerosonde North America and served as the departure and landing location for this historic flight. The Aerosonde hurricane project is funded by NASA and NOAA Research in order to test this promising new observational tool. (Click NOAA satellite image for larger view of Tropical Storm Ophelia taken on Sept. 16, 2005, at 9:15 a.m. EDT, as the storm made its way into the Atlantic after battering the southeastern United States as a Category One hurricane. It was downgraded Thursday night. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit "NOAA.")
"The concept of the Aerosonde as a small, robust unmanned autonomous vehicle, or AUV, arose directly from our need for observations in dangerous areas such as the hurricane surface layer," said Greg Holland, president of Aerosonde North America and one of the Aerosonde originators. "I am particularly grateful to the hard work by Aerosonde staff and the support of NOAA and NASA that has now made this possible."
The Aerosond was launched at about 7:30 a.m. EDT on Friday and returned at about 5:30 p.m. "in pristine condition," according to Aerosonde North America.
While the successful use of NOAA's WP-3D Orion, its Gulfstream-IV aircraft and the U.S. Air Force Reserve's WC-130H aircraft have been important tools in the arsenal to understand tropical cyclones, detailed observations of the near-surface hurricane environment have been elusive because of the severe safety risks associated with low level manned flight missions. The main objective of the Aerosonde project addresses this significant observational shortcoming by using the unique long endurance and low-flying attributes of the unmanned Aerosonde observing platform, flying at altitudes as low as 500 feet. Tropical Storm Ophelia provided the perfect test case for using Aerosondes as it was a minimal hurricane within flight range of the Wallops Flight Facility.
The Aerosonde platform that flew into Ophelia was specially outfitted with sophisticated instruments used in traditional hurricane observation, including instruments such as mounted Global Position System (GPS) dropwindsondes and a satellite communications system that relayed information on temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speed every half second in real-time. The Aerosonde also carried a downward positioned infrared sensor that was used to estimate the underlying sea surface temperature. All available data were transmitted in near-real time to the NOAA National Hurricane Center and AOML, where the NOAA Hurricane Research Division is located.
The environment where the atmosphere meets the sea is critically important in hurricanes as it is where the ocean's warm water energy is directly transferred to the atmosphere just above it. The hurricane/ocean interface also is important because it is where the strongest winds in a hurricane are found and is the level at which most citizens live. Observing and ultimately better understanding this region of the storm is crucial to improve forecasts of hurricane intensity and structure. Enhancing this predictive capability would not only save the U.S. economy billions of dollars, but more important, it could save many lives.
Accomplishments from this first flight include detailed documentation of an unsampled region of the hurricane while simultaneously providing the NOAA National Hurricane Center with real-time near surface wind and thermodynamic data from within Tropical Storm Ophelia. In addition, detailed comparisons between in-situ and satellite-derived observations also will be possible. It is also envisioned that this unique data could ultimately be used to help initialize and verify both operational and research-oriented numerical simulations.
NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce,...
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2508.htm
3.
Posted on Wed, Sep. 21, 2005
Click to learn more...
M O R E N E W S F R O M topix.net
• US News
• Hurricane
More than 1 million evacuate as Rita bears down on Texas
BY BRUCE NICHOLS
The Dallas Morning News
HOUSTON - (KRT) - More than 1 million people took to the highways and booked every available room inland, as Hurricane Rita - one of the most powerful storms ever to threaten the state - continued on a collision course with the Texas coastline.
Gas stations were running out of gas as roads filled with outbound traffic Wednesday. Estimates were as many as a million people, a fifth of the Houston metro area, were headed for higher ground.
They were heeding warnings and pleas to get out from Gov. Rick Perry and local officials all along the Texas coast, from Brownsville to Beaumont.
"The time to leave is now," Perry said at an Austin news conference. "It quite likely will be a devastating storm."
Rita was elevated to a Category 5 hurricane early Wednesday afternoon, and experts said it was the fifth most powerful storm recorded in the Atlantic Basin.
The storm was packing 165 mph winds about 700 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi. Landfall was projected late Friday or early Saturday near Matagorda, but officials warned there were no guarantees.
Wherever the storm hits, major impacts were expected up and down the coast and as far as 100 miles inland.
President Bush, in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, urged residents "to listen carefully to the instructions provided by state and local authorities, and follow them."
"We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm," he said, "but we got to be ready for the worst."
Early indications were that evacuations were going smoothly. In Galveston, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said that about 1,500 people without personal transportation were bused from the Island Community Center on Wednesday morning.
"It went extremely well," Thomas said. "We're standing by with more buses for people who suddenly decide they want to leave."
There were glitches. Thomas said buses hired by the Galveston Mental Health Mental Retardation Center didn't show up, so the city is providing transportation to move about 200 people inland.
But Thomas praised Galvestonians for their response. "People are very committed to getting their families and themselves off the island," she said. "Everybody, I think, has been extremely calm."
Galveston officials announced a mandatory evacuation starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday and said the inbound lanes of the Interstate 45 bridge would be closed to all but emergency traffic.
Galveston emergency officials, including the mayor, planned to move to the San Luis Hotel, 37 feet above low tide atop two World War II military bunkers.
"I would not recommend it to citizens in general, but that to me is the best place for city staff to be," Thomas said.
In Houston, Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels requested evacuation of low-lying areas and mobile home parks Wednesday and said areas along Galveston Bay would be first on the list for mandatory evacuation at 6 a.m. Thursday.
"Use your common sense," White told a news briefing. "If you're in a structure that you don't think can withstand wind damage - and I can tell you if it's a mobile home, it won't - please make your plans and leave.
"We are still well out from when the hurricane is expected to hit ... but people need to be making plans now so we're not dealing with freeway congestion."
The Johnson Space Center, located in the low-lying Clear Lake area, was closed except for a skeleton crew at noon Wednesday.
Several school districts, including Houston ISD, said they would close Thursday and Friday. "We don't know at this point when we're going to resume classes," HISD spokesman Terry Abbott said. "There's no way for us to know."
Tom Kornegay, executive director of the Port of Houston, said the last loads were being put on ships Wednesday as vessels headed out to sea to escape the storm. "We're battening down the hatches, getting the last loads out ... not letting more ships in," Kornegay said. "We are not receiving any more cargo at this time.
"Generally speaking, ships do not want to be in harbor when a storm comes through," Kornegay said. "They want to be at sea so they can basically run from the storm. ... The only ships we think we'll have after about midnight tonight are a couple of the MARAD ships." MARAD ships are the U.S. Ready Reserve Fleet, cargo ships kept ready in various ports in case of national emergency.
Hospitals were also getting ready, and, where necessary, evacuating patients.
The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston said all except the sickest patients were being moved inland, staff backed by generators on the third-floor could handle them, officials said.
A spokesman for the Harris County Hospital District in Houston said they were making sure emergency facilities are stocked and ready for patients after the storm.
Ben Taub Hospital, the district's main facility, has stayed open in past storms and hopes to continue that tradition, spokesman John Martinez said. "We're preparing for the worst and hoping for the best," he said.
Rice University and the University of Houston announced they were was closing classes Thursday and Friday, and the Museum of Fine Arts and other arts institutions in Houston were making similar plans.
Downtown, skyscraper operators were checking their emergency plans and warning tenants that buildings might be shut down.
White said a lot depends on individual self-reliance because he said there aren't enough public vehicles and facilities to take care of everyone.
"We want you to voluntarily evacuate," Houston's mayor said. "Make your plans to voluntarily evacuate now."
Authorities in coastal communities in Victoria, Matagorda, Refugio and Jackson counties took no chances Wednesday, issuing mandatory evacuation orders for residents to head inland by Thursday evening.
"We're using every known method of communication that we have to alert the citizens that they need to leave," said Jackson County Sheriff Andy Louderback.
In Corpus Christi, Mayor Henry Garrett said full evacuation of the city is very likely as Rita strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane. "We're just trying to come up with a time," he said.
Nueces County had already issued an order for people on Matagorda Island, Padre Island and the Flour Bluff area south of Corpus Christi to relocate `high profile' vehicles - motor homes, RVs and travel trailers - inland. Once a full evacuation order is given, such vehicles won't be allowed on the roads.
The state's ability to cope with Rita is stressed already by the thousands of evacuees Texas brought in from Hurricane Rita's rampage in Louisiana and Mississippi. But Texas appears to be prepared, said David McEntire, assistant professor of emergency administration and planning at the University of North Texas.
"This is a big storm and the emergency management system in Texas is already burdened by Katrina," McEntire said. "But Texas is well-prepared for this event."
Texas has already begun repositioning disaster relief supplies around the state, evacuating residents from likely affected areas where Rita may strike, identified shelter locations inland and recalled National Guard forces from Louisiana.
Shelters statewide had already begun moving Katrina evacuees to new homes out of state or in local communities, which will open space for Rita evacuees fleeing inland. Some of those new evacuees will be people who had already fled Katrina's destruction.
"The potential for damage by this storm is significant and the risk of flooding and tornadoes exists after the hurricane has begun to dissipate," McEntire said. "... Texas has learned from Louisiana's example. No one wants to repeat those mistakes."
---
(Dallas Morning News correspondent David McLemore contributed to this report.)
---
link to www.centredaily.com
4,
America braces for Rita's fury
From: Reuters
By Mark Babineck in Galveston, Texas
September 22, 2005
Hurricane Rita / AFP
Tempting fate ... residents in Key West, Florida /AFP
HURRICANE Rita grew into a monster Category 5 storm today and took aim at Texas as authorities began to evacuate more than a million people from most of the coast and parts of Houston.
"We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we've got to be ready for the worst," said US President George W. Bush, who was heavily criticised for an ill-prepared federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
This morning, he ordered a state of emergency in both Texas and Louisiana as they braced for the onslaught.
The measure will open up special federal funds for the southern states.
The US National Hurricane Centre said Rita's winds had increased to 265km/h) as it moved over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico after lashing the Florida Keys.
The storm did little damage to the vulnerable Florida islands.
Advertisement:
But today's upgrade made Rita stronger than Hurricane Katrina was when it hit land as a Category 4 storm with 233km/h winds.
At its peak over water, Katrina was also a Category 5 storm with 281km/h winds. The storm devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama last month and killed at least 1037 people.
Markets reacted immediately as Rita gained strength, with the prospect of more destruction and oil-supply interruptions affecting everything from US stocks and the US dollar to oil prices.
Rita might weaken slightly as it continued west, the National Hurricane Centre said, but it is still expected to make landfall within the next 48 hours "as a major hurricane ... at least Category 3".
Rita would most likely hit the Texas coast southwest of Galveston, where in 1900 at least 8000 people died in the deadliest US hurricane recorded.
Galveston, on a barrier island, began evacuating residents overnight, while about 80km inland, Houston Mayor Bill White ordered an evacuation of residents in areas prone to storm surges or major floods.
As many as 1.2 million people were expected to begin leaving Houston, officials said.
Katrina displaced about 1 million people, including nearly all of New Orleans's 450,000 residents.
Stores in Houston, America's fourth most populous city, quickly ran out of emergency supplies, plywood and food.
Texas Governor Rick Perry urged Texans along a 483km stretch comprising most of the state's coastline, to leave.
"If you're on the coast between Beaumont and Corpus Christi, now's the time to leave," he said. He said nursing home residents already were being evacuated.
On the coast, Maria Stephens helped fellow residents of Galveston Island board evacuation buses and then prepared to drive inland with her husband and their three children.
"Everyone's scared, that's why we're all leaving," she said, recalling television images of Katrina's devastation.
"I saw the people at the shelters and the bodies floating in the water. I don't want that to be my family."
Stephen Travis was driven out of Biloxi, Mississippi, by Katrina and today was leaving a waterfront Galveston hotel.
"It definitely feels like they're chasing us everywhere," he said of the hurricanes.
Meanwhile, NASA prepared to evacuate its Johnson Space Centre in Houston and turn over control of the International Space Station to its Russian partners.
Taking lessons from problems after Katrina hit, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said authorities had positioned supplies and were checking on communications systems.
The Government sent Coast Guard Rear Admiral Larry Hereth to Texas to co-ordinate the response.
"I hope that by doing what the state officials and mayors are doing now ... getting people who are invalids out of the way, encouraging people to leave early, that when the storm hits, there will be property damage but hopefully there won't be a lot of people to rescue," Mr Chertoff told MSNBC.
Houston mayor Mr White urged people with their own transportation to use it because there were not enough government vehicles to get everyone out.
New Orleans, flooded by Katrina and considered vulnerable to Rita, was taking no chances. Mayor Ray Nagin said two busloads of people had been evacuated so far and 500 other buses were ready.
"We're a lot smarter this time around," he said. "We've learned a lot of hard lessons."
About 1100 Katrina evacuees still in Houston's two mass shelters were being sent to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.
In the Gulf, oil companies that were just starting to recover from Katrina evacuated oil rigs as Rita moved closer.
US authorities said more than 70 per cent of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico had been shut down.
Nerves over the new threat to world supplies pushed up crude prices. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, rose 60 US cents to close at $US66.80 a barrel.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16683094-2,00.html
5.
[Note that this is NOT NEWS, it is mass mobilized interpretation]
Rita, Katrina hit deep, warm spots that fueled hurricanes
BY SETH BORENSTEIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Hurricane Rita, following in Katrina's wake, zipped from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in 30 hours - the storm equivalent of a racecar going 0 to 100 in nothing flat.
That's because Rita and Katrina both found the perfect hurricane fuel - ultra-deep, super-warm water - and then lingered there, [which ones?] storm researchers said.
The result: For the first time in one hurricane season, two Category 5 hurricanes powered across the Gulf of Mexico toward the U.S. coast.
Both storms hit what scientists call the Loop Current, an annual 100-mile swath of 82-degree water between the Florida Keys and the mouth of the Mississippi River that's 300 feet deep, said Frank Marks, the director of the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Normally, warm water is about 125 feet deep.
That deep pool of warm water "is enough to make a really nasty hurricane," said Hugh Willoughby, senior hurricane scientist at Florida International University.
Most of the time, hurricanes cross the loop, intensify somewhat, then get back to cooler waters where they weaken.
But both Katrina and Rita "are going straight down the slot like a barrel of a shotgun," Marks said.
Adding to the storms' intensity is the absence of high altitude winds, which would have weakened them.
The effect of the warm Gulf waters was predictable. But Katrina left a mystery in its wake.
As Katrina passed over an eddy of the Loop Current in late August, it should have cooled the water by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit. It didn't and that surprised scientists.
Rita is predicted to hit the same eddy on Thursday afternoon.
NOAA's buoys and thermometers are waiting.
link to www.mercurynews.com
6.
Posted on Wed, Sep. 21, 2005
M O R E N E W S F R O M topix.net
• Hurricane
Texas authorities order mandatory evacuations as Rita gains steam
BY OFELIA CASILLAS AND BILL GLAUBER
Chicago Tribune
GALVESTON, Texas - (KRT) - In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, more than 1.3 million people from Texas to Louisiana were ordered Wednesday to race away from Hurricane Rita, a similar, massive Category 5 storm that packed winds of 165 mph as it roared toward the Gulf Coast.
The hurricane is projected to make landfall in Texas by Saturday. But the enormous shape and furious intensity of the hurricane had authorities ordering mandatory evacuations from Galveston to low-lying parts of Corpus Cristi and Houston, as well as storm-ravaged and eerily empty New Orleans.
Only three Category 5 hurricanes have hit the U.S. mainland: an unnamed 1935 storm, Camille in 1966 and Andrew in 1992. If Rita hits with such force, it will be the largest hurricane to batter Texas.
"We are getting ready for the big one," said Marty Tilts, 54, as he boarded up what he called the oldest drug store in Texas, the Star Drug Store. Tilts said he hoped to rehab the store and open in December.
Federal authorities, stung [aw, they're hurt, don't you feel sorry for them?] by criticism of their sluggish response following last month's Hurricane Katrina, pulled out all the stops to prepare for Rita.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would pre-position urban rescue teams and scores of truckloads of food, water and ice at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. And the agency asked the military to assemble medical teams capable of handling 2,500 patients and field kitchens capable of feeding half a million displaced people, agency officials said.
"The most important thing that we're doing is working with the Department of Defense to use their assets up front before the storm instead of waiting until after the storm lands," said Acting FEMA Director R. David Paulison in a briefing for reporters.
The agency also asked the military for 26 helicopters to move rescue personnel into isolated areas, five two-person communication teams and temporary bridging equipment in case key routes are washed out.
"We are comfortable that Texas is going to be ready for this storm," Paulison said. "It's not going to be fun. It's a big storm. But we're comfortable that we're doing all that we can do to be prepared to take care of the residents of Texas as this storm moves into the Gulf area."
In Texas, people quickly heeded the evacuation order of Gov. Rick Perry. From Galveston all the way north to Dallas, Highway 45 was bumper to bumper with cars, forcing law enforcement officers to shut entrances to maintain the flow of traffic.
In Houston, all schools, public and private were closed and will remain so through Sunday. That was a double-whammy for Loyola University New Orleans School of Law students, who just relocated for their fall semester at the University of Houston.
Bottled water quickly disappeared from store shelves and there were lines at gas stations.
"I can buy new material things. I can't buy a new life," said Abi Tim, 48, who prepared to leave Houston with his wife, 10-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter.
In Galveston, site of the 1900 hurricane that killed thousands, people quickly evacuated. And special attention was paid to moving 200 patients from the city's hospital and 200 elderly residents from a retirement community.
Playgrounds sat empty. Homes were boarded up. By afternoon, most residents had left the city, leaving behind a few dogs.
But city officials warned late Wednesday that the city was nearly out of buses, the Associated Press reported. Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said anyone left on the island would have to find their own way off or face riding out a storm that is "big enough to destroy part of the island, if not a great part of the county."
Resident Rene Guerra, 45, rode through previous hurricanes but not this one, especially after seeing the damage Katrina caused the Gulf Coast.
"We don't want to risk our lives," he said. "We are living."
Barbara Brown, 52, has lived in Galveston all her life but was taking no chances with Rita. She was afraid and bound for Dallas.
"We can't change God's work," she said. "Anything the Lord says, we have to follow that. We know we need to get out of here."
Down in the historic district, Tilts and his son-in-law David Monsrud, boarded up the drug store, which they said had been there since 1906. They hoped for the best but feared they might lose the most precious possession at the site: the drug store's sign.
"It's the oldest neon, porcelain Coca-Cola sign left in existence," Tilts said. "I just want to preserve the history."
The city of New Orleans was jarringly vacant Wednesday. Forecasters said it appeared New Orleans would be spared a direct strike by Rita, which was welcome news to the emergency workers who continued the grim task of looking for bodies in neighborhoods across the city. The overall death toll from Hurricane Katrina passed 1,000 Wednesday in the Gulf Coast region, including 799 in Louisiana.
Block by block in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, officers from the Miami-Date Urban Search and Rescue squad searched homes for yet more victims of Katrina. On Wednesday afternoon, they broke into a Baptist church. Although they declined to speak with a reporter about what they had found inside that or any of the other buildings, one searcher was saying to his supervisor, "We've got 13 here."
The city provided buses to get people out of town. But only around 20 showed up to take the ride. Most people had already left the city after the last storm.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continued to repair the city's breached levees ahead of the new storm, temporarily shoring up the system that is used to protect the city. Even if New Orleans doesn't sustain a direct strike, a heavy rain or a storm surge might set back the recovery effort.
"Our levee systems are beat down," New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said. "Some sections, they're 5 feet, 7 feet, 10 feet. Any significant storm surge would flood the city significantly."
Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who headed military operations in the recovery from Katrina, sounded upbeat when he spoke with reporters about progress made in New Orleans.
But he worried about the new hurricane.
"With a Category 5 storm you're going to lose the first quarter," he said. "You're stuff is going to get messed up. The storm is going to win."
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(Brought to you by Rove-connected people who outed Valerie Plame and who still syndicate his close friend Robert Novak--at the Chicago Tribune, via correspondents Jeff Zeleny, Kirsten Scharnberg, and Mike Dorning who contributed to this report.)
7.
ZCZC MIASPFAT3 ALL
TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM
HURRICANE RITA PROBABILITIES NUMBER 17
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
4 PM CDT WED SEP 21 2005
PROBABILITIES FOR GUIDANCE IN HURRICANE PROTECTION
PLANNING BY GOVERNMENT AND DISASTER OFFICIALS
AT 4 PM CDT...2100Z...THE CENTER OF RITA WAS LOCATED NEAR
LATITUDE 24.4 NORTH...LONGITUDE 86.8 WEST
CHANCES OF CENTER OF THE HURRICANE PASSING WITHIN 65 NAUTICAL MILES
OF LISTED LOCATIONS THROUGH 1PM CDT SAT SEP 24 2005
LOCATION__________A__B___C__D__E
25.2N__90.6W______42 X X X 42
26.0N__92.7W______17 13 X X 30
27.0N__94.5W______1 8 4 1 24
MMSO 238N 982W____X X 3 3 6
MMTM 222N 979W____X X 1 1 2
PENSACOLA FL______X X X 3 3
MOBILE AL_________X X 1 3 4
GULFPORT MS_______X X 2 4 6
BURAS LA__________X 2 4 3 9
NEW ORLEANS LA____X 1 4 5 10
NEW IBERIA LA_____X 1 7 5 13
PORT ARTHUR TX____X 1 8 6 15
GALVESTON TX______X 2 11 5 18
FREEPORT TX_______X 2 12 4 18
PORT O CONNOR TX__X 2 12 4 18
CORPUSCHRISTI TX__X 1 11 5 17
BROWNSVILLE TX____X 4 8 3 15
GULF 29N 87W______X X 1 2 3
GULF 28N 89W______4 6 1 1 12
GULF 28N 91W______5 11 2 1 19
GULF 28N 93W______1 16 3 2 22
GULF 28N 95W______X 9 9 3 21
GULF 27N 96W______X 9 9 2 20
GULF 25N 96W______X 10 5 1 16
COLUMN DEFINITION PROBABILITIES IN PERCENT
A IS PROBABILITY FROM NOW TO 1PM THU
FOLLOWING ARE ADDITIONAL PROBABILITIES
B FROM 1PM THU TO 1AM FRI
C FROM 1AM FRI TO 1PM FRI
D FROM 1PM FRI TO 1PM SAT
E IS TOTAL PROBABILITY FROM NOW TO 1PM SAT
X MEANS LESS THAN ONE PERCENT
FORECASTER AVILA
----------
ZCZC MIATCPAT3 ALL
TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM
BULLETIN
HURRICANE RITA INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 17A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
7 PM CDT WED SEP 21 2005
...CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE RITA CONTINUING TO DEEPEN...
...NOW THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN
ON RECORD...
A HURRICANE WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR GULF OF MEXICO COAST FROM PORT
MANSFIELD TEXAS TO CAMERON LOUISIANA.
A TROPICAL STORM WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR EAST OF CAMERON TO GRAND
ISLE LOUISIANA AND FROM SOUTH OF PORT
MANSFIELD TO BROWNSVILLE.
THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR THE
NORTHEAST COAST OF MEXICO FROM RIO SAN FERNANDO NORTHWARD.
A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE
WITHIN THE WATCH AREA...GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS. A TROPICAL STORM
WATCH MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE
WATCH AREA...GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS.
INTERESTS IN THE NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO SHOULD MONITOR THE
PROGRESS OF DANGEROUS HURRICANE RITA.
FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE
INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.
AT 7 PM CDT...0000Z...THE EYE OF HURRICANE RITA WAS LOCATED NEAR
LATITUDE 24.5 NORTH...LONGITUDE 86.8 WEST OR ABOUT 580 MILES
EAST-SOUTHEAST OF GALVESTON TEXAS AND ABOUT 680 MILES EAST-SOUTHEAST
OF CORPUS CHRISTI TEXAS.
RITA IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 13 MPH AND THIS MOTION IS
EXPECTED TO CONTINUE DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 165 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. RITA
IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON THE
SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN INTENSITY ARE LIKELY
DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.
HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 70 MILES FROM THE
CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 175
MILES.
PRESSURE HAS BEEN FALLING RAPIDLY DURING THE DAY AND THE LATEST
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE RECENTLY REPORTED BY AN AIR FORCE
RECONNAISSANCE PLANE WAS 898 MB...26.55 INCHES. THIS MAKES RITA THE
THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE IN TERMS OF PRESSURE IN THE ATLANTIC
BASIN.
TIDES ARE CURRENTLY RUNNING NEAR NORMAL ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI AND
LOUISIANA COASTS IN THE AREAS AFFECTED BY KATRINA. TIDES IN THOSE
AREAS WILL INCREASE UP TO 3 TO 4 FEET OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS WITH
LARGE WAVES ON TOP AND RESIDENTS THERE COULD EXPERIENCE FLOODING.
REPEATING THE 7 PM CDT POSITION...24.5 N... 86.8 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD...WEST NEAR 13 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...165 MPH.
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...898 MB.
THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER
AT 10 PM CDT.
FORECASTER STEWART/LANDSEA
link to www.nhc.noaa.gov
Gridlock as Katrina victims escape Rita
September 22, 2005 - 12:01PM [date is Australia time]
Bumper to bumper traffic heads out of Galveston.
Bumper to bumper traffic heads out of Galveston.
Photo: Reuters
...
Katrina forced Alicia Baxter and her family into the Superdome stadium in New Orleans, then the Astrodome in Houston, and they had arrived in Galveston last week.
"I'm about to go kill myself," she said as relatives packed up behind her. "This is unbelievable."
Several thousand people in Katrina emergency shelters in Houston were also told to leave again.
About 1,000 Katrina refugees pushed their possessions, many in shopping trolleys, from Houston stadiums and other shelters. Some were given one-way plane or bus tickets to Arkansas, where more shelters have been set up.
About 976 people were still living at the Houston Astrodome yesterday. Officials told them: "Everyone must go".
The George R Brown Convention Centre was also cleared of the 147 men, women and children living there.
With Rita now a maximum strength category five storm and officials said the sports stadium and convention centre might not withstand such a storm. Other shelters have been opened but many of the New Orleans refugees chose to get out of town.
At the peak of the post-Katrina chaos, 27,000 people were living in Houston's Astrodome and convention centre. - AFP
Jano Gibson reports: When the hurricane hits the US mainland it could leave a devastating trail of destruction, a US National Hurricane Warning Centre spokeswoman said.
"It could be catastrophic - a storm surge anywhere between 20 to 30 feet in some areas. We could see devastation of most buildings. Trees will be down, power will be out. It could be catastrophic," spokeswoman Jennifer Pralgo told the ABC this morning.
But while many Houston residents living in low lying areas are already evacuating the city, one Australian woman said she would ride out the storm at a local hostel.
Min Cox, 59, who has been travelling in the US for the past two months, said her Houston hostel was not in the danger zone.
"I don't think the actual area here in Houston is being evacuated. Most people here are staying put. I have been told it's higher ground here," the Adelaide woman said.
A desk clerk at the Houston International Hostel said the place would remain open so no one was caught outdoors when Rita strikes.
"We're just going to batten down the hatches and stay put," Gordon Boone said.
"(People) need a place. We'll stay open all the way through this."
But two locals heeding the warnings to evacuate were US peace activist Scott Parkin, who was deported from Australia last week, and his flatmate, Maureen Haver.
Ms Haver said emotions were running high amongst residents in the low-lying suburb where she lives.
"I'd say it's a little bit of organised panic. People are definitely at the stores purchasing things. Emotions are running high primarily because (Hurricane) Katrina.
She said there had been little time to prepare for the evacuation.
"We haven't been able to make a lot of preparations. Anything of value we are going to try to take with us. We have a dog and two cats, so they get priority," she said.
link to www.smh.com.au
rita/2005/09/22/1126982160106.html
THEY HIDE THE HAARP STORM STEERING SATTELLITE PICTURE EVIDENCE WITH INTENTIONALLY LOW RESOLUTIONS that come sweeping in from the right and a completely blurred out middle of the storm. The above middle picture shows the telltale treaces of storm steering wavelets on the northern side of the storm--then they bring in the wipe from the right of the screen and reduce everything after that to very low pixels, though only for the middle of the storm while the rest of the image is maintained in the same high pixels.
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