← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · kminta
Thread ID: 20334 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2005-09-22
2005-09-22 17:08 | User Profile
[I]God help the millions who are in the projected path and all possible paths of this new hurricane, which is predicted to be at least the third most intense of all storms to have hit the United States since record-keeping began. Governmental costs and economic consequences aside, millions of these people, of all ethnicities and socio-economic classes, will be displaced from their homes, their jobs, their privacy and their dignity for an indeterminate period of time, much as happened and is happening to the thousands of mostly Black and mostly indigent victims and survivors of "Katrina" who were unable to evacuate New Orleans.[/I]
[B][URL=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=awREsxvEy5MA&refer=us]Rita Become Category 5 Hurricane on Path Across Gulf (Update1) [/URL][/B]
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Rita strengthened into a Category 5 storm as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas and Louisiana, surpassing the power Katrina had when it swept ashore three weeks ago and became the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.
Rita has winds of 165 mph (265 kph), putting it in the highest intensity level on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the National Hurricane Center said. Rita's reach may extend anywhere from northeast Mexico to along the Texas coast and up to the western half of Louisiana, said center spokesman Frank LePore said.
Category 5 storms have winds of 156 mph or stronger. Such storms can blow down trees and shrubs, completely destroy mobile homes and cause major damage to lower floors of buildings near the coast.
``Anything Category 5 and above is likely to cause catastrophic damage,'' LePore said in an interview.
Since record-keeping began, only three Category 5 storms have hit the U.S.: one that hit the Florida Keys in 1935; Hurricane Camille, which hit Mississippi in 1969; and Andrew, which devastated southern Florida in 1992.
Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana with winds of 140 mph after earlier packing gusts as strong as 175 mph as it moved over the warm waters of the Gulf. The storm killed more than 900 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, destroyed coastal towns, submerged most of New Orleans and disrupted U.S. oil supply.
Oil Production Threatened
The threat a strengthening Rita poses to oil rigs, refineries and platforms in the Gulf pushed the price of crude oil and gasoline higher. Texas is the producer of a quarter of the nation's refined fuel.
The Houston area is ground zero of the refining industry,'' said Rick Mueller, an analyst with Energy Security Analysis Inc. in Tilburg, the Netherlands.If it suffers the scope of damage caused to refineries in Louisiana by Katrina, we could see rationing and queues at the gas pump. This is something OPEC can't do anything to remedy.''
Federal emergency officials have water, ice, generators and other equipment already in place for Rita, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. He said today that Rita is ``a very different situation that we face in Texas, New Orleans was below sea level.''
Imminent Disaster
Texas Governor Rick Perry yesterday recalled National Guard members sent to help the Katrina recovery effort, so they could help in the state's preparations for Rita. He signed a proclamation stating Rita posed a ``threat of imminent disaster'' along the 367-mile Texas coast and the state Army National Guard mobilized 5,000 personnel and 11 helicopters.
Perry urged coastal residents from Beaumont to Corpus Christi, about 320 miles apart, to leave now. State officials are working to evacuate people from state-run facilities and those who can't leave on their own.
``I encourage coastal residents, in a calm fashion, to gather important documentation, secure their property to the best of their ability; fill up their gas tanks; pack water, non- perishable goods, flashlights, batteries, an adequate supply of medicines; study their local evacuation routes; begin proceeding to more secure areas in an orderly and safe manner,'' Perry said today.
Rita, the ninth hurricane and 17th named storm of the June 1-Nov. 30 Atlantic hurricane season, was about 755 miles (1,215 kilometers) east-southeast of Corpus Christi, the center said. This is the first time in 10 years that Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes, named in alphabetical order, have reached the letter ``R.''
Houston
Rita was moving west at about 13 mph and hurricane-force winds extended 45 miles from the center. The storm is expected to move into the southeastern Gulf today, the center said. It is forecast to turn toward the northwest over the next three days, making landfall somewhere in an area from just south of the Texas-Mexico border to central Louisiana.
Houston Mayor Bill White asked people living in low-lying areas and mobile homes of Harris County, which contains the city, to begin making plans to leave. There will be a mandatory evacuation of all people in flood-prone areas starting at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Harris County has 3.6 million people, according to the 2003 census.
Galveston
White asked employers to allow people to stay home from work tomorrow and Friday and said schools will be closed. He asked people who can't leave on their own to contact family or friends because there aren't enough government vehicles to evacuate everyone.
``Hurricane Rita, on its present course, poses a risk to Houston and the whole Houston region,'' White said during a televised press conference.
Houston and Galveston, about 50 miles to the southeast, are moving Katrina evacuees to safer locations ahead of Rita. Galveston started running buses today. Galveston is the site of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history -- a hurricane that killed 8,000 to 12,000 in 1900.
Thousands of evacuees were moved yesterday from Houston to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Houston contains estimated 200,000 Katrina evacuees, most in the nation, and has the world's largest concentration of oil companies.
Galveston, which declared a state of emergency yesterday, began evacuating nursing homes and assisted living facilities today, removing 1,500 people so far. All other residents will be required to leave at 6 p.m. local time tonight. Similar evacuations are going on in neighboring Brazoria County.
With this type of track here and with an intensity of the storm, which will likely be either a strong Cat 3 or Cat 4 during landfall, the storm surge across that area could get up to as much as 15, even 20 feet or more,'' said Mark Russo, a meteorologist at Chesapeake Energy in Corp. in Chicago.Those low-lying areas, especially in the Galveston area, would likely take the brunt of the storm surge.''
Evacuees
In San Patricio County, which borders Nueces County, where Corpus Christi is located, officials will order a mandatory evacuation beginning at 2 p.m. today, Emergency Management Coordinator William Zagorski said on a conference call with state and local officials, the newspaper reported.
Austin is preparing to house 40,000 refugees, Texas Cable News reported.
Daily natural-gas output slipped to about 5.287 billion cubic feet from 6.518 billion yesterday, and oil production dropped to 402,643 barrels from 622,725 barrels, according to figures released today by the Minerals Management Service.
About 47 percent of normal Gulf gas output and 73 percent of oil production are shut, according to the service, an arm of the U.S. Interior Department.
Rigs Evacuated
Oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. have begun evacuating workers from rigs and platforms near the two states. About 30 percent of U.S. oil production comes from platforms in the Gulf, and 44 percent of U.S. refining capacity is in Louisiana and Texas. The Texas Gulf Coast has seven of the 13 largest U.S. refineries.
Valero Energy Corp., the largest U.S. oil refiner, cut production at plants in Houston and Texas City and evacuated non- essential workers, spokeswoman Mary Rose Brown said. She made no reference to Houston-based Valero's largest refinery in Corpus Christi, which can process 340,000 barrels of oil a day.
Gasoline, Oil Rise
Kerr-McGee Corp. is evacuating all of its Gulf workers and closing its production there, shutting 110,000 barrels of daily oil and gas production by the end of today, spokesman John Christiansen said in a phone interview.
BP Plc is evacuating some workers from its refinery in Texas City, the nation's fourth-largest, and shutting parts of the plant. Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil producer, said today it evacuated about 200 workers from the Gulf.
Gasoline for October delivery surged 8.34 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $2.06 a gallon at 1:30 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures reached $2.92 a gallon on Aug. 31, the highest since trading began in 1984. Futures are 60 percent higher than a year ago.
Crude oil for November delivery rose 92 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $67.15 a barrel in New York. Futures touched $68.27, the highest since Sept. 2. Oil has declined 5.2 percent since touching a record $70.85 a barrel on Aug. 30. Prices are 43 percent higher than a year ago.
Lessons Learned
The threat to the region already devastated by Katrina prompted New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to halt plans for residents to return. Evacuations are expected for the 2,447 Katrina victims in shelters in Calcasieu and Cameron parishes, which are in the southwestern corner of the state and in the projected path of Rita, said Terri Ricks, undersecretary of the Louisiana Social Services Department.
State authorities are beginning to evacuate 236 elderly, sick, other special-needs Katrina survivors and their caregivers from shelters in Lake Charles, Lafayette and Thibodaux, Louisiana to communities in the northern part of the state, she said.
Seas near southeastern Louisiana will begin to rise tonight because of Rita, increasing to 8 feet near shore by Sept. 23 and 10 to 12 feet offshore, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Winds will whip up to 25 mph on the Louisiana coast that day.
``Let's hope that the hurricane does not hit at a Category 4 strength, and let's hope the lessons we've learned -- the painful, tragic lessons that have been learned in the last few weeks -- will best prepare us for what could happen with Rita,'' U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said today.
Bush is scheduled to make stops in Texas and Arkansas over the weekend, visiting places where evacuees from the Gulf Coast region have taken up temporary residence. The trip may be altered, depending on when and where Rita hits, McClellan said.
Rita yesterday passed south of the Florida Keys, depositing debris on roads, flooding some areas and leaving as many as 24,800 customers without power, according the state Emergency Management Division.
Residents who evacuated have been permitted to return today, officials said.
2005-09-22 18:37 | User Profile
Rita will not be worse than Katrina.
Katrina was actually relatively mild. The real disaster was caused by the leadership of New Orleans, a city sitting 8' below sea-level and surrounded by water on three sides.
Even Katrina is far from as bad as Katrina.
Rita has already dropped to a cat 4.
Neither Rita or Katrina are a Andrew.
2005-09-22 21:37 | User Profile
One thing to consider is how far inland Rita will go, dumping many inches of rain into the Red River and other of the Mississippi's tributaries. Two to three days later, the river will be a risin' in New Orleans. Again.
So, how much more water it dumps on the north Gulf Coast, and how much gets dumped inland, will tell us how badly flooded New Orleans will get the second time.
As to Andrew, true, and while we are at it, Rita ain't Gilbert, who luckily swerved left and smacked Matamoros. (1988) If Rita swerves left at any point tomorrow, it's gonna get real ugly, real fast, all over south and central Texas.
AE [QUOTE=Happy Hacker]Rita will not be worse than Katrina.
Neither Rita or Katrina are a Andrew.[/QUOTE]
2005-10-16 04:28 | User Profile
i work with folks from tx. rita, note the number of replies... wasnt that bad.