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Thursday, September 22, 2005

Wrongsided By Rita

Those who have no experience with hurricanes often don't realize that the big ones disrupt weather hundreds of miles away. Unfortunately, New Orleans and the Mississippi coast are on the wrong side of Rita:
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The current forecast is that New Orleans may receive as much as 2 inches of rain tomorrow, and winds will begin to pick up to the 20-30 mile an hour range there. By Monday the Gulfport-Biloxi area has a 25% chance of getting tropical storm force winds and New Orleans is far more likely to experience that. Rita's effect on these damaged areas may be much greater than expected because of the damaged buildings and strain on services.

I'm sure that they are desperately working on the floodwalls and levees in New Orleans to try to limit Rita's impact. They don't have much time left. The storm track has been shifted a bit north from yesterday. At 4 AM tropical storm force winds extended outward for 185 miles of the center and hurricane force winds for 85 miles. That's smaller than Katrina, but not that much smaller. The tropical storm warning now extends to the Mississippi river. Maximum sustained winds of 175 miles were reported over night. Hopefully this storm will weaken a notch or two, but it's going to be bad. I am very worried about people left in the coastal areas of LA and MS.

As for Texas, the only thing they can do is get people away from the coast. This is going to be awful. What must it be like to be a Katrina refugee evacuating again in front of Rita?


Comments:
Look at the bright side. With hurricanes, you get a warning. With earthquakes, you don't.
 
This is true. You do have some time to run away. But earthquakes tend to be more localized, although that's absolutely no comfort if you are caught in the midst of a severe one.
 
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