← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Gregz
Thread ID: 20327 | Posts: 15 | Started: 2005-09-22
2005-09-22 01:45 | User Profile
More than one million people have begun to evacuate the Gulf Coast of the United States ahead of Hurricane Rita.
[I]The storm, which has been upgraded to Category Five, is heading towards Texas with winds of 165mph (265km/h).[/I]
Meteorologists say the hurricane could be the most intense ever to hit Texas, and one of the most powerful ever seen on the US mainland.
President George Bush has declared a state of emergency in Texas and neighbouring Louisiana.
He called on people to heed evacuation orders, adding: "We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we've got to be ready for the worst."
Rita was upgraded twice on Wednesday, as it gathered strength over the warm, shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Moving at about 13mph (21km/h), Rita is expected to hit Texas on Saturday "as a major hurricane... at least Category Three".
Category Five is the highest level on the scale. Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans last month, was a Category Four storm when it hit land.
On the move
In Texas, residents have been ordered to leave the city of Galveston and parts of Houston and Corpus Christi.
Several thousand Louisiana residents who found shelter in Texas after their homes were wrecked by Hurricane Katrina are being uprooted again and moved to Arkansas and Tennessee.
We need the citizens... to go out and actively look for those who may need assistance
Houston Mayor Bill White
Houston Mayor Bill White has warned there are not enough government vehicles to evacuate everyone in the affected areas, and urged friends and neighbours to help.
"Everyone's scared, that's why we're all leaving," Galveston resident Maria Stephens told the Reuters news agency.
Referring to television images of Hurricane Katrina, she said: "I saw the people at the shelters and the bodies floating in the water. I don't want that to be my family."
Although New Orleans is not in the likely path of the storm, engineers are racing to repair the city's levee system, for fear that rain from Rita could cause yet more floods.
Preparations
US authorities said that more than 70% of oil production in the Gulf has been shut down.
The US space agency NASA has announced the closure of the Johnson Space Centre in Houston and has transferred control of the international space station to Russia.
Federal authorities, much criticised over their response to Katrina, have put emergency workers and medical teams on alert. Trucks filled with water, ice, food and medical supplies are on standby.
Precautionary measures have also been taken along the east coast of Mexico.
On Wednesday, the confirmed number of deaths from Hurricane Katrina surpassed 1,000 to reach 1,036, of which 799 were in Louisiana.
In Florida, thousands of residents who fled the hurricane have returned to their homes.
The storm, which passed through the Florida Keys on Tuesday as a Category Three hurricane, caused minor flooding and power cuts, and winds damaged buildings and infrastructure.
Hurricane Rita also lashed Cuba, where some 58,000 people were evacuated from the northern coast and more than 6,000 in Havana alone, Cuban officials said.
2005-09-22 01:54 | User Profile
God is a ninja, throwing hurricanes at Babylon like shuriken stars.
2005-09-22 02:16 | User Profile
That's a pretty psychedelic comment, Roddy... :wacko:
Petr
2005-09-22 02:21 | User Profile
Does anyone know what low pressure means in relations to a storm, such as wind speed and strength? Rita is suppose to be the 3rd strongest storm in recorded history. But, it's wind speed isn't that special.
2005-09-22 02:29 | User Profile
Well gee, this is realy gonna help the Texas economy... Not only are we flooded with mexicans in the emergency rooms and public schools, then the storm in Louisiana sent 100K + negros over to us. Now this.
2005-09-22 02:31 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Petr]That's a pretty psychedelic comment, Roddy... :wacko:[/QUOTE]I'll take that as a compliment. FYI, I'm straight as a bean-pole. :smoke:
2005-09-22 02:33 | User Profile
Some people are simply blessed with more powerful sense of visualization than other mortals.
Petr
2005-09-22 02:45 | User Profile
God wants those New Orleans welfare cannibals [I]out[/I] of Houston. HE's gonna dog 'em until they get off their butts and get jobs. :biggrin:
2005-09-22 05:29 | User Profile
[QUOTE=RowdyRoddyPiper]God is a ninja, throwing hurricanes at Babylon like shuriken stars.[/QUOTE] I think we've found a new bumper sticker slogan.:ph34r:
Perhaps we in Texas are to blame for this, after all that praying for rain, and all that praying for the folks in Louisiana, and then all that praying for the folks in Houston having to put up with the folks from Louisiana, maybe the "watch what you ask for" is true.
2005-09-22 10:13 | User Profile
Hurricane Rita has intensified considerable in strenght over the last few days from 100mph to 165mph and is forecasted to continue to build in intensity over the ocean before hitting land sometime over the weekend.
[IMG]http://image.weather.com/images/maps/tropical/map_tropprjpath18_fcst_5nhato_enus_600x405.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/FLOAT/IR4/20.jpg[/IMG]
"The NOAA is calling for a 95% to 100% chance of an above-normal 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, according to a consensus of scientists at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Hurricane Research Division (HRD), and National Hurricane Center (NHC). This forecast reflects NOAAââ¬â¢s highest confidence of an above-normal hurricane season since their outlooks began in August 1998."
"The updated outlook calls for an extremely active season, with an expected seasonal total of 18-21 tropical storms (mean is 10), with 9-11 becoming hurricanes (mean is 6), and 5-7 of these becoming major hurricanes (mean is 2-3). The likely range of the ACE index for the season as a whole is 180%-270% of the median."
For more info take a look at [url]http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/[/url]
Greg
"'He is a prodigy,' he said at last. 'He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else. We want,' he began to declaim suddenly, 'for the guidance of the cause entrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose.'" - Heart of Darkness : Joseph Conrad
2005-09-22 13:29 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Happy Hacker]Does anyone know what low pressure means in relations to a storm, such as wind speed and strength? Rita is suppose to be the 3rd strongest storm in recorded history. [u]But, it's wind speed isn't that special.[/u][/QUOTE]OK, winds over 130 mph are most definitely "special." A Cat IV is no picnic.:dry:
What the pressure drop means is how low the low pressure system is in the center. The sharper/steeper the gradient between the center and other weather systems, the higher the wind speed caused by the pressure drop. Same problem with squall lines, which are fast moving high pressure systems. The bigger the change in barometric pressure, the stronger the wind sheer and the stronger the vertical movement of the wind, and the more powerful the thunderstroms in the squall line.
AE
2005-09-22 13:30 | User Profile
[QUOTE=RowdyRoddyPiper]I'll take that as a compliment. FYI, I'm straight as a bean-pole. :smoke:[/QUOTE] It was a brilliant visual image, you are a poet, sir. :smartass:
AE
2005-09-22 23:26 | User Profile
Thanks, AE
[QUOTE=BlueBonnet]Perhaps we in Texas are to blame for this, after all that praying for rain, and all that praying for the folks in Louisiana, and then all that praying for the folks in Houston having to put up with the folks from Louisiana, maybe the "watch what you ask for" is true.[/QUOTE]I believe we are living through the End Times of the current phase of world history.
Major social changes such as violent revolutions or massive social upheavals are often preceded (precipitated?) by a string of natural disasters such as famines, earthquakes, tsunamis or floods, because it is in these circumstances that the flawed assumptions and ideologies underpinning our social structure come under the greatest stress from reality. If a series of natural disasters come within a compressed period of time the false worldview will buckle under the strain and realign with REALITY, God's golden standard of truth.
If these disasters are on a global scale the revolution in thinking can be truly epoch-making, apocalyptic on a world-historical scale of significance. A revelation of truth (apocalypse) followed by the starting point of a new cycle in time (epoch).
I'm not gloating too hard at you sitting here in NZ, either. We'll have our turn soon enough. We're on top of one of the largest fault lines in the world and we're overdue for "The Big One" - a major earthquake that could destroy Wellington.
You can either see it as the supernatural hand of God or just a meaningless string of events. All in how you look at it I guess.
2005-09-22 23:40 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Petr]Some people are simply blessed with more powerful sense of visualization than other mortals.[/QUOTE]Some people, such as yourself, have blessed themselves with a more thorough knowledge of Scripture than other mortals. Thanks for all the stuff you post, Petr.
2005-09-23 04:31 | User Profile
[QUOTE=RowdyRoddyPiper]Thanks, AE
I believe we are living through the End Times of the current phase of world history.
Major social changes such as violent revolutions or massive social upheavals are often preceded (precipitated?) by a string of natural disasters such as famines, earthquakes, tsunamis or floods, because it is in these circumstances that the flawed assumptions and ideologies underpinning our social structure come under the greatest stress from reality. If a series of natural disasters come within a compressed period of time the false worldview will buckle under the strain and realign with REALITY, God's golden standard of truth.
If these disasters are on a global scale the revolution in thinking can be truly epoch-making, apocalyptic on a world-historical scale of significance. A revelation of truth (apocalypse) followed by the starting point of a new cycle in time (epoch).
I'm not gloating too hard at you sitting here in NZ, either. We'll have our turn soon enough. We're on top of one of the largest fault lines in the world and we're overdue for "The Big One" - a major earthquake that could destroy Wellington.
You can either see it as the supernatural hand of God or just a meaningless string of events. All in how you look at it I guess.[/QUOTE] You are so right. I had thought the same thing when the tsunami hit. We have to put up with so much nonsense, it is just about time for some "attitude adjustment".