Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rapier]

After Katrina, came Rita. Prayers for Florida:

By MICHELLE SPITZER, Associated Press Writer
28 minutes ago

KEY WEST, Fla. - Rita strengthened into a growing hurricane on Tuesday as it lashed the Florida Keys with heavy rain and strong wind, threatening the island chain with a storm surge of up to 6 feet and sparking fears the storm could eventually bring new misery to the Gulf Coast.

Rita became a Category 1 hurricane with sustained top wind of 85 mph during the morning, said meteorologist Michelle Mainelli at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Thousands of residents and tourists had fled the low-lying Keys island chain, where forecasters said Rita could dump up to 8 inches of rain, down from earlier forecasts of up to 15 inches.

Rita promised to continue gaining strength as it crossed the warm Gulf of Mexico for a weekend landfall, most likely in Texas although Louisiana could end up in the path of what could become a major hurricane.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050920/ap_on_re_us/tropical_weather;_ylt=Av24RABEFmh6r55uMNL9YNqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

New Orleans jittery on Rita threat

2 hours, 14 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans readied itself for a new evacuation on Tuesday amid fears that a new hurricane threatening to hit the Gulf of Mexico could wreak fresh havoc in the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Mayor Ray Nagin, whose ambitious plans to bring residents home had been questioned by U.S. President George W. Bush, urged anyone remaining in the city to leave ahead of Hurricane Rita, which he warned could swamp the levees that collapsed and flooded the city three weeks ago.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/katrina_wrap_dc;_ylt=AqXT8etPv7k3alrxqv6lKY6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

[rapier]

Forecast to make landfall in texas at following locations:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIASPFAT3+shtml/201503.shtml

MUHA 230N 824W 60 X X X 60 NEW IBERIA LA X X 1 9 10
MUAN 219N 850W 6 1 X X 7 PORT ARTHUR TX X X X 9 9
MMSO 238N 982W X X X 6 6 GALVESTON TX X X X 11 11
MMTM 222N 979W X X X 4 4 FREEPORT TX X X X 11 11
MMTX 210N 974W X X X 2 2 PORT O CONNOR TX X X X 10 10
MMMD 210N 897W X 1 2 1 4 CORPUSCHRISTI TX

Rita tracking maps and strike probabilities:
http://www.quehubo.com/eng/rita/hurricane_rita.php

Galveston evacuations.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/sfl-920ritaevacuations,0,3839547.story


HURRICANE RITA ADVISORY NUMBER 11
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
11 AM EDT TUE SEP 20 2005

...RITA BECOMES THE NINTH HURRICANE OF THE SEASON...

A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR ALL OF THE FLORIDA
KEYS...AND FROM GOLDEN BEACH ON THE FLORIDA SOUTHEAST COAST
SOUTHWARD TO EAST CAPE SABLE...THEN NORTHWARD TO CHOKOLOSKEE ON THE
SOUTHWEST COAST.
Official advisory and infra-red map: expected to make landfall 8am Sat. Morning.
http://www.weatherstreet.com/hurricane/2005/Rita.htm

[rapier]

Levees unlikely to hold if rita hits new orleans:

"There is deep concern about this storm causing more flooding in New Orleans. If it were to rain a lot, there is concern ... that the levees [flood defences] might break." - George Bush
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21092005/17/new-orleans-awaits-sister-katrina.html


Hurricane Rita Grows In Ferocity Wednesday September 21, 01:15 AM Hurricane Rita has increased in strength and is now a category two hurricane, packing winds of up to 100mph.

But a turn east could take it dangerously close to devastated city of New Orleans.

Rita was a tropical storm until Tuesday when it was upgraded to hurricane force.

Forecasters have warned Rita could grow to category three.

Authorities have ordered the evacuation of Key West and the rest of the Florida Keys.

They have also urged residents in low-lying areas around Miami to head to safer ground.

Rita's growing danger prompted the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, to stop the return of people to the city following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21092005/140/hurricane-rita-grows-ferocity.html

[Tiger Beer]

I got the graph for it.. you can watch it coming in.. just refreshing this .gif.

[rapier]

Rita now a category4, sustained winds of 140m.p.h.

Rita Plows Across Gulf; Patients Evacuated
AP - 26 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/tropical_storms_and_hurricanes

Latest Infra-red sattelite image of Rita;



Texas coast begins clearing out;
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/3363238

Bush Administration Touts Rita Readiness
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050921/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/hurricanes_federal_response_hk4_1;_ylt=AqjMizhznPIBhOl8JG1uAj.Cbpwv;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[RachaelRoo]

Category 4!! I'm not familiar with Hurricanes, other than what I've seen on CNN, but I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone who is - is this normal? I mean, it's not just a high number of hurricanes this year - it seems to me that they are unusually strong as well.
I sincerely hope that this one does not hit New Orleans. Not that I would wish this on anywhere else, but that city has just been through too much.

[Tiger Beer]

[kermit_ojp]

As you know...its a category 5 now....not looking good.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa050921_am_ritapm.7d87df68.html

[rapier]

[hypnotist]

And so my friend who moved from the UK to NoLa just to be evacuated to Houston is now being evacuated again... and I think my life is hard to organise!

[Kuros]

[Gopher]

[hypnotist]

Here's a slightly better argument than a yahoo news report:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/hurricanes.html

[rapier]

[Kuros]

I believe global warming is a phenomenon, but I am skeptical about how much people attribute to its power. Most of the evidence for this contention comes from one study made by Kerry Emanuel at MIT.

Live Science

Quote:

Before this study, most researchers believed global warming's contribution to powerful hurricanes was too slight to accurately measure. Most forecasts don't have climate change making a real difference in tropical storms until 2050 or later. But some scientists questioned Emanuel's methods. For example, the MIT researcher did not consider wind speed information from some powerful storms in the 1950s and 1960s because the details of those storms are inconsistent. Researchers are using new methods to analyze those storms and others going back as far as 1851. If early storms turn out to be more powerful than originally thought, Emmanuel's findings on global warming's influence on recent tropical storms might not hold up, they said. "I'm not convinced that it's happening,'' said Christopher W. Landsea, another research meteorologist with NOAA, who works at a different lab, the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory in Miami. Landsea is a director of the historical hurricane reanalysis. "His conclusions are contingent on a very large bias removal that is large or larger than the global warming signal itself,'' Landsea said.

Should a second study confirm it, I will be a little less suspicious. The rising temperature in the ocean is interesting, however.