Korean Job Discussion Forums

[EFLtrainer]

[rapier]

As you can see, Hurricane rita has surpassed Katrina in strength and if you look at the latest image tracker, has now moved significantly closer to the Southern U.S.

Rita, More Intense Than Katrina, Bears Down on Texas
Hurricane Rita, the third-most intense storm ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, bore down on the Texas coast as residents moved inland. The Category 5 storm is more powerful than Katrina, which left more than 1,000 dead last month in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

Hurricane Rita bears down on US coast with mega force
September 22, 2005
Hurricane Rita turned into a 265-kilometer-an-hour mega-storm as it hurtled across the Gulf of Mexico, forcing crews to abandon oil platforms and hundreds of thousands of people to flee the Texas coast.
http://www.physorg.com/news6684.html

Rita, with winds of 175 mph (280 kph), is ``potentially catastrophic,'' the National Hurricane Center said today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aYJojJxFIDU4&refer=us

Oil, Gasoline Jump; Rita Disrupts U.S. Output, Imports in Gulf
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil and gasoline jumped and natural gas reached a record as Hurricane Rita gained strength, with winds surpassing those of Katrina, disrupting supplies at rigs and refineries spared from last month's storm.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=amWBTTKItaqc&refer=news_index

Kuros: here is that other study you're waiting on.

National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
NCAR climate expert: Hurricanes to intensify as Earth warms
The strongest links between hurricane intensity and climate change, according to Trenberth, are a long-term rise in ocean temperatures and an increase in atmospheric water vapor. Both processes are already under way and expected to continue, he says. The additional water vapor will tend to produce heavier rains within hurricanes and an increased risk of flooding at landfall, Trenberth notes.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/ncfa-nce061305.php

Recent warm water patterns in the gulf have intensified hurricanes:

[Tiger Beer]

[bucheon bum]

A friend of mine living in Austin says the place is jammed pack full of people from Houston and the Gulf. People were buying a couple hundred dollars worth of water and batteries at the store she works at as well.

[rapier]

As predicted the storm has slowed to 140kph now and banked a little northward. I think it'll probably be a cat. 3 on landing and is unlikely to do anything like as much damage as Katrina. Although the oil installations in the area are a worry as regards posibble oil spill.

The outer edge has begun dropping rain on New Orleans I see.

[Tiger Beer]

Thats crazy.. I've also been reading reports that gas stations are being exhausted of all their gas (along the way).. so have been reports of people out of gas and unable to get gas.

I also can't imagine how much hotels must cost right now in that area.

[rapier]

Kuros: interesting article for you in today's news-
Scientist criticises U.S. climate 'loonies' Friday September 23, 03:44 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - A leading British scientist said on Friday the growing ferocity of hurricanes hitting the United States was very probably caused by global warming and criticised what he termed U.S. climate loonies over the issue.

Sir John Lawton, chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution which advises the government, made what the Independent newspaper said was a thinly disguised attack on the stance of U.S.
President George W. Bush's administration.

"The increased intensity of these kinds of extreme storms is very likely to be due to global warming," Lawton told the newspaper in an interview.

"If this makes the climate loonies in the States realise we've got a problem, some good will come out of a truly awful situation," said Lawton.

Less than a month after Hurricane Katrina devastated large areas of the U.S. Gulf coast, a new hurricane called Rita was roaring through the Gulf of Mexico towards the centre of the U.S. oil industry.

Climate change policies sharply divide Bush from many other world leaders who have signed up for caps on emissions of greenhouse gases under the U.N.'s Kyoto protocol. Bush pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying it was too expensive and wrongly excluded developing nations from a first round of caps to 2012.

In July this year, Bush launched a six-nation plan to combat climate change with Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea focussed on a shift to cleaner energy technology. Unlike Kyoto, it stops short of setting caps on emissions.

Asked what conclusion the Bush administration should draw from two powerful hurricanes hitting the United States in quick succession, Lawton said:

"If what looks like is going to be a horrible mess causes the extreme sceptics about climate change in the U.S. to reconsider their opinion, that would be an extremely valuable outcome.

"There are a group of people in various parts of the world ... who simply don't want to accept human activities can change climate and are changing the climate. I'd liken them to the people who denied that smoking causes lung cancer."

Lawton said hurricanes were getting more intense, just as computer models predicted they would, because of the rising temperature of the sea.

"Increasingly it looks like a smoking gun," he said.

"It's a fair conclusion to draw that global warming, caused to a substantial extent by people, is driving increased sea surface temperatures and increasing the violence of hurricanes."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/23092005/325/scientist-criticises-u-s-climate-loonies.html

Amen to that.

[rapier]

Now a category 4.
Unfortunately, it looks like Rita has has already claimed casualties:

Up to 20 Dead in Fire Aboard Evacuees' Bus
By SHEILA FLYNN, Associated Press Writer
20 minutes ago

WILMER, Texas - A bus carrying elderly evacuees from Hurricane Rita caught fire early Friday on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, killing as many as 20 people, authorities said.

"Deputies were unable to get everyone off the bus," spokesman Don Peritz said. "We believe it's going to be closer to 20 fatalities.

The bus, carrying about 45 people, was engulfed with flames, causing a 17-mile backup on Interstate 45.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050923/ap_on_re_us/rita_bus_explosion_hk1

Nation waits as refineries face storm Hurricane Rita hasn't made landfall yet, but the storm has shut down almost one-fifth of this country's refining capacity.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/rita/3366121

New Orleans wary of second dose
A few stragglers chance fate as the hurricane moves toward landfall
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/05/rita/index.html

[Harpeau]

[Tiger Beer]

[rapier]

[rapier]

Rita Causes New Flooding in New Orleans
14 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Rita's steady rains sent water pouring through breaches in a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city's lowest-lying neighborhoods in a devastating repeat of New Orleans' flooding nightmare.
"We have three significant breaches in the levee and the water is rising rapidly"
"water rising about three inches a minute."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hurricane_katrina_hk2;_ylt=AubbLa.AOUNgLCdpUixLrTWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

[poker player]

Here's a link to the TV station in Lake Charles Texas which is supposed to be ground zero when Rita hits land. They are doing a live stream from a bunker type environment-click on the link at the top. Scary stuff.
http://www.kplctv.com/

[khyber]

[EFLtrainer]