I havent had a problem with any of your posts till now.. "In fifteen years when we look back at Rita we will remember salivating weathermen and traffic" sorry bro, that's just crazy...
Dude, please stay employed in sports radio. When it comes to hurricanes, you obviously don't know what you are talking about. If Rita would have hit Galveston or Freeport, everything east of 610 would be flooded, and the wind damage throughout the area would be mind-numbing. It wouldn't be New Orleans, because we do not depend on a levee system to keep floodwater out, but the people of Houston wouldn't have power for days, and we would be waiting on the curb for the FEMA man to arrive with our morning MRE right about now. Centerpoint reported 600,000 without power right after the storm, and it didn't even hit Houston. Imagine 3,000,000 without power, in this heat, for a couple of weeks. Chance, you seem to be a righteous, religious man. In regards to Hurricane Rita, I suggest you count your blessings.
I am and I do. I am thankful that this did not end up as bad as it could have. I recognize that wholly. I truly, truly do. My whole point with this is this...The news sensationalized the situation. They inarguably did. I witnessed it. You witnessed it. EVERYONE witnessed it. I don't understand why people are running to the defense of them. My own station sensationalized it. I am not defending the actinos of the place that puts food on my table. Now that it is over why can we not all have a collective sigh of relief? Currently, thanks to Katrina, I have 5 additional people living in my house. They opened their house in the woodlands up to Katrina evacuees. A pine tree fell across their driveay and crushed both of their cars. They lost their house in New Orleans. Now they lost their two cars in The Woodlands. They found the shingle funny. They are thankful to be alive and safe. But they still were able to smile at a satirically funny picture and story. Why can't some of the people on the bbs?
Just my $.02. I thought the picture was funny. I just thought the anger behind it towards officials was misguided. If it had been sent to Wayne Dolchefino or channe 2 with the line... Just thought I'd give you some more "damage" to report on. Now, THAT would've been funny. But, getting pissed at officials for evacuating people in a dangerous situation and then calling the people who left stupid lemmings...not really all that funny.
The un-funny part to me was emailing it to the tv station/Dr. Frank as if everything was their fault.
many of us will be thankful that it didn't hit and there wasn't any significant loss to our area. not all of us are so ungrateful.
Not entirely true on the models. If you remember the models did not forecast sw movement across florida for Katrina. This is what pushed the Katrina forecast further and further west. Also, the SHIPS model has shown the weakening we see from these hurricanes prior to landfall. The only problem is that the NHC plays worst case scenario with these hurricanes as they come in. That is not a bad thing though. http://euler.atmos.colostate.edu/~vigh/guidance/atlantic/store/intensity_AAL18_05092200.png
The only mistake I made in retrospect was that I left Victoria, we did not get one drop of rain. The two things I did do right was that I left Victoria at 445 am and got Austin at 845, not to bad of a trip, finally got to bed at 1200 pm after being up for 30 hours straight. The trip back was easy too, we decided that we would leave at 11 at night on friday, around the time Rita was getting close to landfall. We got into town around 130 with no traffic, also the town was dead, we still had a curfew in effect, that was weird. If we would have left saturday morning we would have hit the some nasty traffic. If it was just me, I would have stayed, I have 4 kids and I do not want anything to happen to them for something I could have prevented.
Imagine the number of people in the world without power, in this heat, for their entire life. They survive, you would too.
I think that even in the "worst case hurricane scenario", evacuation from Houston was and will never be needed except perhaps in small pockets of the city very susceptible to flooding. Remember that unlike New Orleans, Houston is (1) not directly on the coast but many many miles from it. (2) Houston is not mostly below sea level like New Orleans but a normal city above sea level. Assume that a Cat 5 was headed dead-on into Houston. Well by the time it reaches Houston, it will drop to Cat 3. And once it gets there, the damage while significant, would be withstandable for residents hunkering down in Houston. Were it not for Katrina, few people would have evacuated from Houston as it really makes no sense to do so. Yes we all know how devastating Katrina was but that was almost entirely due to New Orleans being first and foremost below sea level and surrounded by water and secondarily being right on the coast. These factors are not present in Houston and therefore Houston will never be significantly threatened to the extent that any kind of full scale evacuation will ever be necessary. The evacuation probably cause more problems and dangers (as we saw with the bus explosion and people getting stuck, dehydrated out in the heat, etc) than any storm possibly could.
r35 -- i'm not sure. i can tell you this...our homes aren't designed to withstand winds in excess of about 115 mph, here in Houston. if a storm made landfall similar to what Rita was at...nearly 180mph...then we'd be looking at winds of around 140 sustained in Houston...with gusts pushing to 160 or so. my home is 40 years old and is surrounded by tall oaks and pines about that same age. i don't think there would be a mandatory evacuation for houston, but you can bet your ass i wouldn't stick around to see it. flooding was never my concern for my family out in west houston...it was always wind damage. with little kids, that's a chance i will not take. if you think the evacuation caused more problems than any storm could...then you're just very mistaken. our building code just doesn't account for a storm of that size.
I understand that, and yes we would survive.....those of us who survived the looters, shooters, and other crazies that would be roaming the streets if Houston were without power for a month or so.
yeah, but who wants to?? particularly if you have other options. i can survive a lot of things...doesn't mean i want to. by the way...no power for a month would have a HUGE impact on my business. i suppose that goes without saying.
The televised media contributed to the mass hysteria that hit the city. Evacuating was fine, but the surreal panic that gripped the city and led to Wed evening - Thursdays' Independence Day-esque mad scramble fiasco could have been tempered by more level-headedness on the local stations. Why didn't they spend more time urging people out of danger (not on flood plain, more inland) to hold off and allow evacuees from Galvaston, Kemah, etc to get through? We've got a phased return plan, but everyone had to clog the freeways Thursday before a Saturday morning landfall??? I personally found it rather shameful on Saturday when the stations (and the Mayor) put in such an effort to spin it that it was such a surprise that people took off the way they did. dc rock, you mention that people are too busy to learn the basics of storms and therefore rely on the local media. Well, doesn't the media then have more of an obligation to guide people as to whether they should stay or go? An obligation to try and maintain calm if it's unnessecary to panic? When they focus on how powerful the storm was in the gulf, that's what freaks people out - and that the hurricane wasn't going to be anywhere near as powerful at landfall, and even less if it got to Houston was underemphasized. I've got a collegue that took off with her family after being scared by all the talk of "3rd most powerful hurricane ever" and honestly thought that Houston would take a harder hit than NO. Fact is, the local govt and media wanted to be certain they couldn't be blamed for a Katrina part 2, and went at least somewhat over the top to scare people into leaving. If Rita came at us a month ago, no way would the coverage have been the same. A saner media probably couldn't stop the mass exodus, but I believe it could have smoothed things a lot. Evan
and your colleague was right...it was entirely possible. NOLA was spared the hurricane's brunt...NOLA was not spared a levee break. They're not independent events, entirely...but they are different. a Cat 5 making direct landfall in Galveston comes with a price tag of about $80 billion according to FEMA experts. they told us it would decrease in power and intensity..it did...but remember, those were the same guys who were telling us it would struggle to ever get to Cat 3 strength to begin with. it went to Cat 4 in less than 24 hours after hitting Key West...it hit Cat 5 strength within about 36 hours of that. i'll say it again..our homes in Houston aren't designed to withstand the kind of sustained winds that would come with a Cat 5 storm. they're just not. assume winds in Houston are around 130-145. there would be mass devastation. roofs would be popping off left and right. trees would be falling all over the place. not a good idea to ride that baby out in houston. it's just not. i was part of the evacuation. i left with my wife, my 5 year old and my 1 year old..along with my dog. if all this happened again next week...exact same scenario up to the Wednesday evening point...my ass would do the same thing again. it sucked. it wasn't fun. but i'd be gone. no way i'm sticking for a storm of that strenth..spinning off 100+ tornados. No, thanks. I watched my roof pop up from a twister during Alicia. I lived through that. I'd stay for a storm of that strength again. But if a storm threatens that hits Cat 4 or above...I'm out.
Max, My lemmings line was a pot stirrer and I don't begrudge anyone for evacuating their family or themselves. My problem was not with the people's reaction to the news but the delivery.
