Forecast models converging on New Orleans area. However, Katrina has been delaying the anticipated turn.
Forecast models converging on New Orleans area. However, Katrina has been delaying the anticipated turn.
Goodnight bump.
According to another forum with a person who has friends in the oil industry, they are already shutting down lots of rigs, and this thing is headed right toward them.
If it is as bad as it looks like it will be, and it goes close to the platforms, gas may shoot up to 3 bucks.
Sincere thanks!
Hurricanes are not so bad.
Warch For Snakes Bump
Katrina Threatens Fla. With Encore Visit
By JOHN PAIN, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050827/ap_on_re_us/tropical_weather
MIAMI, Fla. - Utility crews scrambled to restore power to more than 1 million customers Friday as Hurricane Katrina, blamed for seven deaths and miles of flooded streets in South Florida, threatened the state with an encore visit.
Katrina was churning in the Gulf of Mexico and on a path to make landfall anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana as early as Monday, possibly as a Category 4 storm.
"I'm so sick of this," said Pat Jackson, an interior decorator in Homestead. Her apartment building was flooded with several inches of water during Katrina's first pass across the state.
"It seems like every other week or month another one comes," she said.
Scenes of Katrina's impact were everywhere Friday — work crews sawing trees crippled by the winds; people canoeing through inundated streets; a 727 cargo plane pushed along a runway fence; sailboats resting askew on a sandy shore.
Florida has been hit by six hurricanes since last August, and the Panhandle was slammed by Hurricane Ivan last year, and then again by Hurricane Dennis this year, both Category 3 storms. Katrina was a Category 1 with 80 mph winds when it hit Florida on Thursday.
On Friday, Gov. Jeb Bush urged residents in many of the same Panhandle areas to monitor the storm and make necessary preparations. If Katrina hit at Category 4 strength, as forecasters say it could, it would mean sustained winds topping 130 mph.
Bush said he had asked for federal disaster assistance for Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where some residents said they were caught off guard by the gathering storm.
"Maybe we can get rid of the phrase minimal hurricane," state meteorologist Ben Nelson said Friday. "There is no such thing as a minimal hurricane."
The death toll grew to seven, including four people killed by falling trees and two boaters who tried to ride out the storm in their crafts.
Risk modeling company AIR Worldwide estimated insured losses from Katrina's first landfall could approach $600 million.
Katrina, the second hurricane to hit Florida this year, grew from a disorganized 50-mph tropical storm to one with 92-mph wind gusts in a few hours Thursday.
It pummeled South Florida with blankets of rain and howling winds. Darkened skies lit up with popping power transformers, trees flew across streets and rain swamped some neighborhoods with water up to waist high.
"We had wind coming from two directions. It sounded like a super wind tunnel," said Scott Resnick, who rode out the storm in Hallandale Beach.
As it moved out into the Gulf on Friday, Katrina became a Category 2 hurricane and lashed the Florida Keys with strong outer bands that could dump up from 15 to 20 inches over the island chain.
At 2 a.m. EDT, the eye of the hurricane was located about 135 miles west of Key West. It was moving toward the west-southwest near 8 mph.
The National Hurricane Center said Katrina was expected to strengthen significantly over warm Gulf waters and warned residents from Florida to southeast Louisiana to be ready.
Hardware stores in the Panhandle reported increased sales of gasoline containers, lanterns, batteries and tarps. Joe Crews at Meredith and Sons Lumber in Gulf Breeze said a steady stream of people came in to buy plywood Thursday.
"They're not anxious, but they are cautious," he said. "A lot of them haven't gotten repaired since the last storms, and they want to try to take the steps to save what they've got left."
Katrina's first swipe across Florida left about 50 homes flooded in Homestead and 40 mobile homes damaged in Broward County.
At a 12-unit apartment complex in Davie, Beverly Johnson, 41, and her 7-year-old son used pots to hold all the dripping water after their roof caved in during the storm.
"Water came in and then the ceiling collapsed," she said. "We were really shaken up last night."
Street flooding and debris strewn on the roads made many streets impassable, a situation made worse by power outages that affected street lights.
An overpass under construction in Miami-Dade County collapsed onto a highway. No injuries were reported, but the freeway — a main east-west thoroughfare — was closed for 20 blocks.
David Carter rode out the storm in his Coconut Grove home, listening as avocados were torn off branches and hitting the structure.
"It sounded like tiny bowling balls hitting the top of the roof and rolling down," he said. "You just heard the big thud."
The hurricane hindered the Coast Guard's search early Friday for a family of five who went out on their 24-foot pleasure boat. A Coast Guard helicopter finally found Edward and Tina Larsen and their three children. Their conditions were not immediately known.
The hurricane emptied the usually bustling streets of Miami Beach. The city is hosting celebrities and partygoers in town for Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards. MTV called off its pre-awards festivities Thursday and Friday.
And in the face of all the damage, some people took advantage of the wild weather to have fun. Surfers hit South Florida beaches Thursday ahead of the storm, and after it passed Friday.
"It's like a one-day vacation," said 17-year-old surfer Chris Dobson in Deerfield Beach. "We're just hoping to catch a few good waves, and have some fun out here while we can."
___
On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
Pressure down to 945mb
947
URNT12 KNHC 270823
VORTEX DATA MESSAGE
A. 27/08:06:00Z
B. 24 deg 23 min N
084 deg 17 min W
C. 700 mb 2629 m
D. NA kt
E. deg nm
F. 262 deg 086 kt
G. 170 deg 007 nm
H. 945 mb
I. 13 C/ 3039 m
J. 17 C/ 3049 m
K. 12 C/ NA
L. CLOSED WALL
M. C12
N. 12345/ 7
O. 0.02 / 1 nm
P. AF304 1212A KATRINA OB 17
MAX FL WIND 104 KT NE QUAD 07:08:10 Z
God Bless you for all you and other Freepers do. I read and investigated and read some more yesterday and sent an urgent heads-up to my uncle in NO. He asked me where I was getting my information because he was still seeing the Florida panhandle. When I sent him the links to this thread and others he began to see the light.
This morning he is working on evacuating his family.
Bless you.
wherever it lands now expect this to play havoc on OIL and GAS prices
http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/lsesale/Visual1.pdf
Wow. You've got a lot of good stuff on this. Thanks for the links. Fortunately, in NY, I won't have to worry about her unless it's in the form of alot of rain next week.
wasn't this just a "made for tv movie" a month or two ago??
Obscure Louisiana port linchpin for U.S. energy
by Mark Bibineck
03 Jun 2005 23:26:55 GMT
Source: Reuters
The nearby Louisiana Offshore Oil Port is the only direct link for vast supertankers to the mainland. Its pipes also run through Port Fourchon en route to refineries and, eventually, the nation's fuel tanks.
The port's location leaves it vulnerable to storms and other disruptions related to access. So what if it were hit by a major storm or another catastrophe?
It would quickly become part of the American consciousness because prices at gasoline pumps would skyrocket...
Hurricane Ivan reminded the industry of Port Fourchon's vulnerability last September when it roared through the Gulf, cutting 45 million barrels of U.S. oil production.
Even though it landed well east in Alabama, Ivan still caused minor silt buildup that required dredging. A closer landfall could cripple the port, cutting it off from the U.S. Gulf.
"If a Category 3 or 4 really hit (Fourchon), it could take three or four months to dredge it, and that's from the day the dredge showed up," said Edmond Russo, operations manager for the Army Corps of Engineers
Time for some cliches....
It's Bush's fault...
It's because of Global Warming
"Women and minorities hit hardest"
I live in Jacksonville, Florida, this area has been lucky not have hit head-on since Hurricane Dora in Sept. 1964, with that said, I wish the best to whomever gets hit by this 'Cane..my thoughts and prayers for the safety of all the FReepers(and non) who are going to be in the path of "Katrina" and the hardships that happen after a hurricane hits...
I don't know much about all of this forecasting and whatnot, but I was just looking at the radar, and it looks like there is a lot of bad weather headed south from northern Louisiana.
VORTEX DATA MESSAGE A. 27/22:44:30Z B. 24 deg 49 min N 085 deg 36 min W C. 700 mb 2604 m D. NA kt E. NA deg nm F. 287 deg 083 kt G. 207 deg 028 nm H. EXTRAP 944 mb I. 12 C/ 2745 m J. 19 C/ 2746 m K. 12 C/ NA L. RAGGED M. E12/40/30 N. 12345/ 7 O. 0.02 / 2 nm P. AF306 WX12A KATRINA01 OB 12 MAX FL WIND 101 KT E QUAD 21:38:40 Z SLP EXTRAP FROM 700 MB RAGGED EYE STRUCTURE APPEARS TO BE CONSOLIDATING