Katrina

[sabreman]

Hope everyone down in NO and surrounding Gulf Coast areas have safely evacuated. This thing is a monster.

http://www.stormtracker.noaa.gov/sto...er-katrina.htm

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

000
WTNT32 KNHC 282041
TCPAT2
BULLETIN
HURRICANE KATRINA ADVISORY NUMBER 24
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
4 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA HEADED FOR THE
NORTHERN GULF COAST...

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTH CENTRAL GULF COAST
FROM MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA EASTWARD TO THE ALABAMA/FLORIDA
BORDER...INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN.
PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE COMPLETED THIS
EVENING.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING AND A HURRICANE WATCH ARE IN EFFECT FROM
EAST OF THE ALABAMA/FLORIDA BORDER TO DESTIN FLORIDA...AND FROM
WEST OF MORGAN CITY TO INTRACOASTAL CITY LOUISIANA.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS ALSO IN EFFECT FROM DESTIN FLORIDA
EASTWARD TO INDIAN PASS FLORIDA...AND FROM INTRACOASTAL CITY
LOUISIANA WESTWARD TO CAMERON LOUISIANA.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE
INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 4 PM CDT...2100Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE KATRINA WAS LOCATED
NEAR LATITUDE 26.9 NORTH... LONGITUDE 89.0 WEST OR ABOUT 150 MILES
SOUTH OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

KATRINA IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 13 MPH...AND A GRADUAL
TURN TO THE NORTH IS EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ON THIS
TRACK THE CENTER OF THE HURRICANE WILL BE NEAR THE NORTHERN GULF
COAST EARLY MONDAY. HOWEVER...CONDITIONS ARE ALREADY BEGINNING TO
DETERIORATE ALONG PORTIONS OF THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF
COAST...AND WILL CONTINUE TO WORSEN THROUGH THE NIGHT.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 165 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS.
KATRINA IS A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON
THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN STRENGTH ARE LIKELY
UNTIL LANDFALL. KATRINA IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL AT CATEGORY
FOUR OR FIVE INTENSITY. WINDS AFFECTING THE UPPER FLOORS OF
HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN THOSE NEAR
GROUND LEVEL.

KATRINA IS A LARGE HURRICANE. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD
UP TO 105 MILES FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS
EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 230 MILES. SUSTAINED TROPICAL STORM FORCE
WINDS ARE OCCURRING OVER THE SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA COAST. SOUTHWEST
PASS...NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER...RECENTLY REPORTED
SUSTAINED WINDS OF 48 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 53 MPH.

A NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER PLANE REPORTED A MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE OF
902 MB...26.64 INCHES.

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 18 TO 22 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE
LEVELS...LOCALLY AS HIGH AS 28 FEET...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS
BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE
CENTER MAKES LANDFALL. SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA
COULD BE OVERTOPPED. SIGNIFICANT STORM SURGE FLOODING WILL OCCUR
ELSEWHERE ALONG THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO COAST.

RAINFALL TOTALS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF
15 INCHES...ARE POSSIBLE ALONG THE PATH OF KATRINA ACROSS THE GULF
COAST AND THE TENNESSEE VALLEY. RAINFALL TOTALS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES
ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE OHIO VALLEY INTO THE EASTERN GREAT LAKES
REGION TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY.

ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL BE POSSIBLE BEGINNING THIS EVENING OVER
SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF LOUISIANA...MISSISSIPPI...AND ALABAMA...AND
OVER THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE.

REPEATING THE 4 PM CDT POSITION...26.9 N... 89.0 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD...NORTHWEST NEAR 13 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...165 MPH.
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE... 902 MB.

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE
CENTER AT 7 PM CDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 10 PM
CDT.

FORECASTER PASCH

$$

[ThatReallyHurt]

Good post, Sabreman. I hope everyone either gets out of the way or stays safe by some other method...

[edew]

You know the storm is really bad when the advisory is printed in ALL CAPS.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

No doubt the forecaster was having to "shout" over the high winds!

[KD5MDK]

Actually, I think that's a NOAA standard. That said, I'm afraid there won't be a Crescent City Open this season. Possibly, a New Orleans at all.

[JHutch]

i didn't even think about the Crescent City open....

yeah it sounds pretty bad. i'm reading fencing.net while working at the office of emergency preparedness in baton rouge, la. i'll be stuck in this office during the storm........

[Gav]

This is really a Water Cooler thread.

All the same good luck to everyone stuck in New Orleans...

[Larrison]

Actually, I think that's a NOAA standard. That said, I'm afraid there won't be a Crescent City Open this season. Possibly, a New Orleans at all.

Yep. From what I understand, its a combination of the messages being compatible with the old (50 year old?) teletype system still used in some places for weather alerts, and some very low bandwidth systems. Those old teletype machines didn't have lower case, so everything was upper case. Since this is very low bandwidth (less than 50 characters) there have been a couple of new systems I've heard of that use very low bandwidth in order to get emergency messages out by piggybacking on other signals -- so the teletype format has stayed around.

[Inquartata]

Hopefully things will not turn out as bad as they could have. The latest reports I'm reading have "only" a 15 ft. storm surge, instead of the 28 ft. they were expecting, and a "mere" 40,000 homes damaged, rather than the up to 80% of ALL homes in NOLA destroyed by wind that some had forecast...

There, optimism from Inquartata. What a concept.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for everyone in the storm path and all with family and friends thereabouts. Good luck and be safe...

[counter riposte]

Anyone hear from R. Exnicious? He's from there....

[VELISARIOS]

I wish good luck to the people of New Orlean.

[R. Exnicios]

Greetings:

I wanted to touch base with the board. My family and I made it out of New Orleans. 16 Hrs in the car to get to Atlanta to higher ground. We got out with just what fits in the car. Me, the wife, the baby, the cat, dog and fish.

New Orleans is in real bad shape. Some parts of the city were spared but that is changing now.

6:41 P.M. - Efforts to stop the levee break at the 17th Street Canal have ended unsuccessfully and the water is expected to soon overwhelm the pumps in that area, allowing water to pour into the east bank of Metairie and Orleans to an expected height of 12-15 feet.

There is almost no news of the city or points south. I think we all have lost our houses, cars and more. I know my office is gone but my house may be at least standing, wet but standing.

If you are religous, pray for us. If you are not just wish us well.

Later I will be posting a thread about how to dry out scoring machines etc.

[Mergs]

Rich, thank God you guys are alright. I hope you managed to save some of your fencing gear!

Have you heard from anyone else? Eugene? Al and Mary? Dwight? Craig? Irv?

You know you guys could have come to Houston, too. Take care and our prayers are with you, Nancy and Rex.

[counter riposte]

Rich,

Thank God you're OK. My prayers are with you and your family.

CHA

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Glad you're ok, RX. Same thing to anyone else out there. This is really ****ty.

[The Mormegil]

Glad everyone loves me. I'm ok down here in BR. but new orleans is in a pickle. i'm with the national guard, buthave yet to be called up. can't get in touch with my unit. this is a terrible event in history of the US. if you can help out any way you can, i would appretiate it, the people of LA, MS, AL will appreciate it. everyone take care, don't know when i'll be able to get back on.

cisco

[LUDICROUS]

I hear its getting pretty vigilante in New Orleans?

SWAT patrolling the streets n' all.

Glad to hear forum goer's didn't get hurt!

[L.O.A.S.]

I came across this quote:

"There's no America out there except America to respond to it. We've got to do it ourselves."

Time to step up (myself included).

[Gav]

The techys amongst us are probably already aware of this blogg, but it seems that one of the ISPs is [somewhat heroically] trying to maintan a level of service. You can read their exploits here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/

I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the pics (wow!) and the entry by a guy called Bigfoot.

Three days ago, police and national guard troops told citizens to head toward the Crescent City Connection Bridge to await transportation out of the area. The citizens trekked over to the Convention Center and waited for the buses which they were told would take them to Houston or Alabama or somewhere else, out of this area.

It's been 3 days, and the buses have yet to appear.

Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.

There are many infants and elderly people among them, as well as many people who were injured jumping out of windows to escape flood water and the like -- all of them in dire straights.

Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.

The people are so desperate that they're doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

The buses never stop.

Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area -- Saulet Condos -- once they tried to get cars from there... well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.

He reports that the conditions are horrendous. Heat, mosquitoes and utter misery. The smell, he says, is "horrific."

He says it's the slowest mandatory evacuation ever, and he wants to know why they were told to go to the Convention Center area in the first place; furthermore, he reports that many of them with cell phones have contacts willing to come rescue them, but people are not being allowed through to pick them up.

It seems the lawlessness is borne of desperation and the police are not helping. I hope things get better for the people in the area soon - although that seems unlikely at present.

[VELISARIOS]

Greetings:

I wanted to touch base with the board. My family and I made it out of New Orleans. 16 Hrs in the car to get to Atlanta to higher ground. We got out with just what fits in the car. Me, the wife, the baby, the cat, dog and fish.

New Orleans is in real bad shape. Some parts of the city were spared but that is changing now.

6:41 P.M. - Efforts to stop the levee break at the 17th Street Canal have ended unsuccessfully and the water is expected to soon overwhelm the pumps in that area, allowing water to pour into the east bank of Metairie and Orleans to an expected height of 12-15 feet.

There is almost no news of the city or points south. I think we all have lost our houses, cars and more. I know my office is gone but my house may be at least standing, wet but standing.

If you are religous, pray for us. If you are not just wish us well.

Later I will be posting a thread about how to dry out scoring machines etc.

Thanks God you are ok. My prayers are with you and to the people of N. Orlean.
May God help you.