Katrina

[lagilman]

UPDATE: NEW ORLEANS HAS BEEN PLACED UNDER MANDATORY EVACUATION ORDERS.
It's going to be too late for a lot of people -- the traffic is going to be hellish, and if you didn't buy gas beforehand, forget about filling your tank now. They've opened up shelters -- if you know anyone caught in the city, plead with them to get to one of those. Even if it's not any safer, they'll be closer to medical and emergency services -- and someone will know where they are! If you/they have pets they/you can't evacuate -- leave them fresh food and water, and pray for the best. Animals have a better chance of surviving than people do; their instincts tell them to go low and hide, not panic/stormwatch.




for those of you who may be wondering what the fuss is about, this from weatherchannel.com might claify things a bit:

"Hurricane Katrina is an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Maximum sustained winds have now been greatly increased to 160 mph. Katrina continues not only grow stronger, but it continues to grow larger. Hurricane force winds extend 75 miles from the center in all but the southwest quadrant of the system. The center of Katrina was 275 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River at 4am CDT, but the hurricane force winds are only 200 miles from the coast.

Everyone along the northern Gulf of Mexico needs to take this hurricane very seriously and put action plans into play now. Hurricane warnings have now been hoisted from Morgan City, La., to the Florida-Alabama border. This includes the city of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. A tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch have been issued from the Alabama-Florida border eastward to Destin, Florida and from west of Morgan City to Intracoastal City, Louisiana....

Effects from Katrina will not be confined to coastal areas. Once Hurricane Katrina makes landfall, it will progress inland Monday into Tuesday with a trail of flooding rains and damaging winds across Mississippi and Alabama and then into Tennessee. Torrential, flooding rainfall is possible with the remnants of Katrina well inland, possibly into the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes and the Northeast later this week."

Still not sure what Cat 5 means? Check this out.

If you're reading this, and are in Katrina's estimated path? Shut down the computer. Pack up. Go!

And I say this as an avowed lifetime storm-fan. She is one seriously pissed-off dame, and you do NOT want to be anywhere near her ire.

'k?

Comments

[deannahoak.livejournal.com]

Poppy Brite is apparently staying through it. :-( I'm watching her blog at docbrite and hoping she and her family and pets stay safe.

[lagilman]

New Orleans has always been a problem. If hit directly with a Cat 5 -- well, the phrase 'Wrath of God' comes to mind, but there's simply no way to evaculate that many people even in the time given for modern storms. And many people are citing reasons (cash, pets, etc) they won't go.

[deannahoak.livejournal.com]

I know. I've developed an almost obsessive interest in hurricanes since moving to the coast of Florida, and what a Cat 5 would do to New Orleans honestly makes me ill. I'm stunned there wasn't an earlier mandatory evacuation.

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

Last year, when Hurricane Ivan was trying to make up its mind where, exactly, it was going to hit, CNN had an interview with the mayor of New Orleans, where he talked about what would happen to the city if a storm of Ivan's magnitude hit directly since the city lies below sea level. He described how much of the city would be under water and how it would take weeks to drain the millions of gallons of water; how rampant disease would run because of all the standing water and the fact that, let's face it, N'Awlins is just a step up the food chain from a swamp and this is serious bug/mosquito season.

Let's keep in mind too, he was making these assertions based on Ivan's strength. Ivan came ashore as a Cat 3.

I'm with you in encouraging people-- if you live in the area-- go. Now.

[debg.livejournal.com]

Marlene's in Naples. I got out of NOLA the day before Camille hit, way back when, and was really frickin' glad I did.

Gods. This one's a monster. Winds now sustained at 175, gusting 225. They're evacuating NOLA.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

While I am breathing a sigh of relief that Katrina has moved far enough west that my area is only getting brushed with the outer bands, I am extremely worried for a friend of mine who lives directly in the storm's projected path. She loves severe weather, and is determined to stay put and ride it out.

That was when the storm was still at Cat 3, mind. I haven't spoken with her since Katrina was upgraded to Cat 5. I'm hoping that will shock her into common sense and she'll bug out to higher ground.

[david-chunn.livejournal.com]

My parents lost a number of trees and two barns to Ivan. They are still repairing some damage to the house, damage which was relatively light. (Houses often suffer more damage from hurricanes than is immediately apparent. You'd be amazed how many parts of a house end up with mold six months later. Water blasted at 130 mph tends to infiltrate everything.)

They live 100 miles from the coast in Alabama. I feel sorry for anyone in this thing's path and living near the coast. Surviving those first few days is just the beginning of a long nightmare.

Many people have absorbed the info about increased storm frequency for the next few decades. They are not getting that these storms are also going to be stronger.

[deedop.livejournal.com]

A terrifying bit of perspective: Hurricane Camille's minimum central pressure at landfall was measured at 909 mb. Lowest ever recorded at US landfall was 892 mb back in 1935.

Katrina's is now at 907 mb and still dropping...

[rantmaster.livejournal.com]

Man. Katrina's part is projected inland...they're talking about hitting tennesee, for god's sake!

This is starting to be scary.

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

If there's flooding there's a real danger from critters. Snakes have to get to high ground too, and it's any port in a storm. They'll be found all sorts of places they normally keep clear of.

[liuseth.livejournal.com]

That's some scary stuff!

Kada - prefers the poisonous criters to thd natural disasters ANY day.