<div><object width="512" height="322"><param name="movie" value="http://d.yimg.com/static.video.yahoo.com/yep/YV_YEP.swf?ver=2.2.18.2" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="AllowScriptAccess" VALUE="always" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="flashVars" value="id=9456536&vid=3379306&lang=en-us&intl=us&thumbUrl=http%3A//us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sch/cn/video06/3379306_rnde2e52056_19.jpg&embed=1&ap=butterfinger" /><embed src="http://d.yimg.com/static.video.yahoo.com/yep/YV_YEP.swf?ver=2.2.18.2" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="512" height="322" allowFullScreen="true" AllowScriptAccess="always" bgcolor="#000000" flashVars="id=9456536&vid=3379306&lang=en-us&intl=us&thumbUrl=http%3A//us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sch/cn/video06/3379306_rnde2e52056_19.jpg&embed=1&ap=butterfinger" ></embed></object><br /><a href="http://video.yahoo.com/watch/3379306/9456536">Hurricane Hits Land Mass South Of Texas</a> @ <a href="http://video.yahoo.com" >Yahoo! Video</a></div>
As a Cajun, I rather see this thing take a dramatic turn and head towards kings ranch. I would hate to see my state get hit by this as it would truly cripple our economy right when we were getting headed in the right direction. Louisiana can not withstand another direct hit from such a monster of a storm. So Gustav, goto hell and turn east you big b*stard.
haha my favorite is the filled green circle one. It hits 'nawlins dead on and then completely reverses to slam directly into houston
You guys are arguing over the the level of uncertainty, the fog of war. You can't review the facts without the context. The human mind makes sense of the unknown by reviewing similar patterns of the known and applying them to real time. Katrina was the reality in the mind of Houstonians prior to Rita; death destruction and human misery. Any decisions about actions or even about how to portray Rita in the media were made with Katrina as the possibility. This could be called Katrina syndrome but that doesn't make the response unwarranted. People will choose whatever actions they think is necessary for their family's safety and given the mindset, panic was probably unavoidable. When The Great Freeway Panic started, 36 or so hours out, the information on landfall was that Houston was directly in the center of the cone. My memory was that 24 hours before landfall I was 100% sure that my beachouse was history. 12 hours before landfall I was about 75% sure Houston would get hit hard enough to have wide scale power outages. I did watch Frank Billingsly because I thought he was the most informative and business-like source on the days I had to make my decisions. At that point, with that information, I decided to take a little 4 hour nighttime drive to Austin and have a late dinner with friends. Nobody was right, nobody was wrong. Different people just had differing levels of concern. You just have to get the best information you can find and make the best decision you can; and always allow for human nature because we are still an animal with a flight repsonse. I will say though that the level of information available this week is a lot better than it was for Rita/Katrina week. But you can't expect to have a calm rationale public response yet. You have to run the process through a few time to get the bugs out. We are going to get a lot better at this.
Ummm...the eye of Hurricane Alicia went DIRECTLY over Houston. We haven't had a Cat 3 storm since Alicia....and that was BARELY Cat 3. The maximum recorded winds in Alicia were 125 mph on Galveston Island....the maximum recorded winds in Rita AT LAKE LIVINGSTON (roughly 100 miles north of the coastline) were 120 mph. You can ramble on all you want...I said this before, I'll say it again. I had a one year old and a 5 year old. I live in a neighborhood of old homes and old mature trees. You tell me there's a good chance of a Cat 4 hitting my house...I'm out. Even if you stick around and do fine, you're dealing with no power for a week or more after a storm like that. No, thanks.
anywhere but Houston or Louisiana... thats all Im hoping, but looks like I can throw that out the window... damn hurricane is going to ruin my football season
And you believe this government official KNEW WITH ALL CERTAINTY 36 hours before the storm made landfall exactly where it would make landfall. I lived long enough on the coast to know it doesn't work that way.
Listen azzclown -- don't argue with A3P0 he's a certified expert on hurricanes -- he's also edgy and in your face.
After yesterday evenings models runs that started to show Gustav moving more north and the east after landfall, two model runs in a row show a U-turn towards the Southeast Texas area again.
I can confirm that. I had to work that night (UPS made us come in - those semis were rocking back and forth that those guys were loading. ). I got home around 4:30am and what a mess. I drove a guy home that lived by Hobby and drove over someone's wall which was laying in the road with the curtains flapping. But the eye passed over me (around Fuqua and 45) around 7am. The rain was coming down sideways - then it stopped and cloudy skies with calm winds for around 20 minutes - then it started back up again only this time the rain was coming in from the other direction. That was weird for a midwest boy. By the way - hurricane tip - just because you have water hours after the hurricane passes doesn't mean you will have water days later so keep the tub filled for a couple of days. I emptied the tub after it was over and the next day they shut all water off in my area for almost a week - a water plant flooded. I was melting ice cube trays to 'wash my hair'. I was lucky though because my apt was one of the few that didn't lose power.
I meant it. It's a sad but true fact that New Orleans high population, location and circumstances (such as being a big city near the ocean AND below sea-level) put it at a particularly great risk for hurricanes. About 10 years ago (before 9/11), the Chronicle had an article about the 3 major catastrophes the United States must be ready for: 1 A major hurricane to hit New Orleans 2 A major earthquake in San Francisco 3 A terrorist attack in New York IMO, the lack of preparedness for Katrina was as big a crime as the poor response by the federal government. What I meant was that Houston is inland and hurricanes are weakening by the time they get here. Unlike Galveston and near the coast (where I would NEVER live), it takes a very strong hurricane to have much of a damaging effect on the city. Max, you and others with very small children, infirm relatives and other special circumstances like big trees and ancient houses perhaps made the right choice by leaving. A power outage could affect you more than most of us. Still (and I almost remember it like it was yesterday), the dueling forecasts, comments and body language between Neil Frank and Frank Billingsly was a site to behold. IMO, Neil Frank wanted the hurricane to hit so he could be a part of history. Billingsly was cool, calm, non-alarmist and laid out the projected facts without slathering on the drama. Bill White should have stated to everyone in Houston, "We are not telling you to evacuate, here are the evacuation zones by category..." Instead of being a leader, he was an enabler and encourager of mass of hysteria.
Monday morning quarterbacking is useful to formulate strategies for the future but it should be evaluative not accusatory. Stress and time constraints don't apply after the fact. Did you see the Chronicle Travel Section today? New Orleans, Swamped For Fun. WTF were they thinking even if it did go to press on Friday?
Some people aren't leaving the areas. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/08/30/new.orleans/index.html?iref=topnews NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- On a cigarette break from washing dishes in the French Quarter, Michael Kennedy swung open the door of Café Maspero, and the briny smell of raw shrimp followed him outside. A woman walks her dog down the streets of New Orleans, where most have fled in anticipation of Hurricane Gustav. A woman walks her dog down the streets of New Orleans, where most have fled in anticipation of Hurricane Gustav. "You gotta make as much money as you can, because when we shut down -- and we're gonna shut down -- that's it for a long while," the 26-year-old said, exhaling, a dribble of sweat rolling into his mouth. "The thing is," he continued, "most people don't have cars to leave, don't have money for gas. Pay for a hotel for that long? I mean, you have to do whatever you have to do, and I guess I'm gonna stay and work." Though Maspero wasn't doing half the business it usually does, customers were still coming in for $2 clam buckets. A few packs of tourists, identifiable by their slightly off-kilter walk and gigantic hot pink test tubes of booze, ambled down St. Louis Street, peeking into bars and asking, "You still open?" Most were, up until the hour that Mayor Ray Nagin told the public to run for their lives. "It's the storm of the century," he said. But Kennedy can't and others just won't leave. They are the few residents who did not make the tortoise crawl down Interstate 10 on Saturday. iReport.com: Do you plan to evacuate? Tell us "If I left, I'll probably lose my job," said Jeremiah O'Farrell, another dishwasher who is staying put. "I really don't have anywhere to go if I could leave. I could go home, but that doesn't seem like the thing to try. Too far, I guess." Wrestling out of his white apron, he explained that he moved from Chicago to work a construction job during efforts to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "Our boss was into playing his trumpet down here more than he was into running a business, so that all kinda went to hell, and now I'm working here." Sure in his choice, O'Farrell still feels a hurricane newbie's nervousness. "Really, how bad do you think it's gonna get?" he asked. "I've never been through one, and I'm not sure what to believe. You see the national weather people, and they're telling you it's gonna be really bad." "Aw, it's gonna turn!" That confident pronouncement comes from Russell "I've-seen-some-hurricanes-so-don't-tell-me-nothing" Gonzalez. He's been making muffaletas at Maspero since 1985. "I don't leave for nothing. I didn't even leave for Katrina," he said, letting that fact hang in the air for a beat for the benefit of several other young men who have gathered for a smoke. "I mean, look at the local weather guys, they know what they're doing, not those Weather Channel people. The local people say it's gonna move north, and that's enough for me." Before Gonzalez goes back inside, he turns and mutters, "Too expensive, anyway." Across town in the 9th Ward, a neighborhood decimated by Katrina, Sidney William climbs slowly out of his truck. He's 49 but moves like he's 20 years older. "My legs hurt; my feet hurt a lot," he said. "It's not easy." William wants desperately to leave his native New Orleans to avoid Gustav. He didn't leave for Katrina because he didn't have the money. He won't talk about what happened to him during that storm. "I wish I had the money to go." Rejected for disability subsidies, he depends on his 23-year-old daughter, Gloria, to support the family. "Lot of folks around here are gonna make do with what they have, and you won't hear a terrible amount of complaining," he said. "You can't just come in here and expect to hear people fussing about how they don't have nothing. People just be used to not having much, and so you don't even think too hard about it until someone starts asking you questions." A neighbor, Victoria, says she has two Rottweilers who she's not willing to leave behind. "Now, what do you think that would look like, me and my little car sitting there in traffic with two big old Rottweilers," she said, laughing. Money is tight for her, too. "Guess I'm just gonna wait. I just don't know. It's all stressful." A woman who would only give her name as Bette, owner of an antiques store in the French Quarter, says outsiders can't understand. "It's hard to explain to someone who's not from here why anyone would choose to stay." Erik Ericson stands next to Bette in front of his Internet café, Bastille. "This is New Orleans. We have survived worse." Motioning to his storefront with a sign saying he is still open for business, he said, "As long as I have power, I'm good. Probably won't have power for long, but this place is pretty tough." Bette has the means to leave New Orleans. She and her husband could jump in their car and take off. During Katrina, she briefly relocated to Houston, and while happy she made that choice, she couldn't stay. She had to return to her city. Like a relationship that suffers a bad break-up and is stronger after a reunion, she worries that she hasn't got the heart to leave and then return a second time. "When you stand out there by that river and look at that levee," she said, "you are just so blessed to live here. I am in love, and so I make my choice."
