Man, thats where my parents have their property for businesses, not good at all. If the eye is right at 610 south/north than expect 110 mph winds and lots of flooding on 610, 59, and I10. Also avoid downtown area as much as you can.
so there were like 40000000000 ppl trying to buy batteries and water today. why dont ppl just fill up botttles of water from the tap instead of buying water b4 such events? it would be cheaper and seem smarter when say(hope) nothing goes wrong. I was in richmond when hurricane isabel hit us, it wasnt even a cat 3 and like that thing knocked treees left and right, and we didnt go to school for 2 weeks. no power for 1 imagine that.
Where are you getting a Cat 4 information from? I'm reading information off Weather Websites (Meterologists and Weatherfreak forums) Some of them are saying that this storm is begining to look MORE POWERFUL than Katrina. One of them said this... Houston is the 4th largest city... population over 5.1 million. Galveston basically is about 30,000. Building code in Houston is not post-Andrew Miami-Dade standard. As well, Houston itself is also situated on Galveston bay (on the eastern front). Along with the major shipping channel. Houston has many large buildings that will accelerate winds an extra category at least. The infrastructure in that area of the gulf is even MORE fragile then around NOLA. Our country's diesel, nat. gas, and heating oil supplies and refineries are largely in this area. These are energies that are NOT imported in large quantities like gasoline and crude oil. A storm here will shake the core of America. The list is endless and not good. The tracks are starting to zero in on this major U.S. city. This could make Katrina look like a joke. I cant recall a storm EVER hitting a major metropolitan city like this might, Andrew came the closest and we saw what that did. There is no precedent for this.. history will be made. Worst case scenario: Eyewall going directly over downtown houston, giving horrific wind damage to the entire area. Along with that, galveston is completely destroyed as the surge drives up 20+ feet and well into Galveston bay, concurrently flooding out the bay areas of houston and rendering the shipping in that area non-existent. Along with that.. what katrina left un-touched rita will finish off as our gulf-oil interests are concerned. Gam
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050921/ts_nm/weather_rita_dc oh and this is what isabel did it was a cat 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Isabel
Just to slow things down a bit, 72 hour projections on Tue evening still put Houston in the 10% probability range, and while they project landfall after 72 hours, the ability to reliably project weather decreases in a near logarathimic fashion as time increases. We may get hit, but to say that Houston is probably going to get the eye simply isn't true at this point. And if the storm angles off by a couple hundred miles, the main damage goes elsewhere, and we just get some windy rainy weather. BTW if you read the text of the story, it just says it's projected to be Cat4 on Wednesday, which is a far cry from being Cat4 at this time in it's current location.
Damn, guys, everything is booked from here to hell!!!! Got a spot in Del Rio though, 354 miles away. Might just stay here though, and ride it out.
ya i tried to check some hotels too but came out with no luck!! Looks like I will be riding out the storm in my house with no power
OTTOMAN - don't mean to start a debate here - but the storm is already a Major Hurricane - and could easily be a 4 by Sunrise today. True it's still anyones game to where this thing is going... BUT - NHC and most MODELS are putting Houston either directly on the path or least on the Dirty Side of the storm. (AND by now we really do know where it's going) The graphic you just showed will look the same when it's 3 hours off the coast... So when do you think people should comprehend "It's going to hit us and hit at Category 4?" On FRIDAY? NO - Today is THE DAY. PEOPLE must begin to take action to protect LIFE and PROPERTY TODAY.
My dad lives in Lake Jackson, 9 miles from the gulf just above Freeport, he is headed up here (Plano) tonight... boarding up his windows at sunrise... he has no flood insurance, so he hopes he has a house to come back to. He is in a major flood plain... We have friends that live in Freeport, just 2 miles or less from the gulf, they called and told my wife that the Freeport police came to their house and told them to leave by 6 PM Wednesday (today)... They are heading here as well. I may have as many as 20 in my home by Thursday. I'm praying for all of you down there... Rita's a solid 3, and is now a "significant threat" storm... mandatory evacs in Brazoria, Chambers, Matagorda, Galveston counties, into parts of Harris county as well... If the storm hits as a strong 4, just south within 50 miles (which is essentially west) of the Houston Ship channel, expect storm surge flooding as far north as League City, possible into the 610 loop area, much like you saw on the outskirts of N.O.,LA. near the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet ("Mr. Go") that area was flattened... Any hit south/west of freeport still will push the worst of it into Houston (the east side always gets the worst of it). Pray. Gather some resources. LEAVE THE AREA! And pray some more. Don't play with your life.
this is actually lookin better for us...the two models that earlier had it coming straight thru Galveston Bay have moved towards MAtagorda Still too early to tell at this point...but continue making arrangements just in case.
Maybe that weatherman from East Bumblef***, Wherever was right. These two HUGE hurricanes hiting the two largest cities on the gulf within a month's time seems like too huge a coincidence....
Let's Pray for Houston. Hurricane Rita Upgraded To Category 4 "At 8 a.m. ET, Rita centered was about 195 miles west of Key West, Florida, and 790 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas. The latest extended forecast from the hurricane center has Rita gathering strength before the eye makes landfall near Galveston, Texas, late Friday or early Saturday. That would place Rita about midway between New Orleans and Brownsville, Texas. A Category 4 storm, with top sustained winds of 131 to 155 mph, can cause extreme damage, according to the Saffir-Simpson scale measuring hurricane strength."
NBC just mentioned that the waters look 'good' for strengthening. I wouldn't know the difference, but they said that buoy 42040, where Rita is headed, is about 84 for both water and air temp. http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=42040 I take it that these are the buoy observations closest to Rita: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/radial_search.php?lat1=24.3N&lon1=84.6W&dist=250&time=3 You can see the current columination of all the buoys on a map here: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/quikscat.php?station=lonf1
I live out in Richmond and I really don't expect my roof to be in tact after the storm. I read in the paper today that homes built after 2000 are supposed to be built for only 110 mph winds. My home was built in 2002.
