The latest report indicates that Rita (once a tropical storm) is now upgraded to a major category 3 hurricane. It’s headed toward the Gulf region just like Katrina did. They say it may it Texas, but Louisiana or even northern Mexico may also get hit.

I wonder whether global warming has something to do with the increased frequency and intensity of recent storms.

Check out this weather site. Right now there is a total of five major storms.

3 in the pacific, two in the alantic.

But of course Global warming has NOTHING to do with it

(sarcasm)

link

It's just been classified as a category 5.

Rita has just been categorized as a 5!?

Source NWS

It's going to be a bad one.

But remember, there is no global warming, this is a natural cycle of disasters.

CNN.com (source)

Texans flee colossal Rita
Category 5 storm churning toward Gulf Coast

Wednesday, September 21, 2005; Posted: 6:02 p.m. EDT (22:02 GMT)

Programming Note: As Texas braces for Hurricane Rita, CNN looks at how officials are working not to repeat mistakes made before, during and after Katrina, tonight, 7 ET.

(click on above link for the full story)

And here in Sweden we thought Gudrun was bad...



(Well, she was, by Swedish standards...)

Thanks for the links guys.
Insane.

What I find insane, is that all the folks they evacuated from New Orleans to Houston are now having to be re-evacuated to another area.

According to the National Weather Service Rita's sustained winds are 165 mph, with higher gust. And a potential to grow (Katrina only had 145 mph winds at landfall)

This is becoming a looming disaster for this country. Expect gas prices to skyrocket again

000
WTNT63 KNHC 212351
TCUAT3
HURRICANE RITA TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
650 PM CDT WED SEP 21 2005

...RITA BECOMES THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE ON RECORD...

DROPSONDE DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE
AIRCRAFT AT 623 PM CDT...2323Z...INDICATED THE CENTRAL PRESSURE HAS
FALLEN TO BELOW 899 MB...OR 26.55 INCHES. THE DROPSONDE INSTRUMENT
MEASURED 32 KT/35 MPH WINDS AT THE SURFACE...WHICH MEANS IT LIKELY
DID NOT RECORD THE LOWEST PRESSURE IN THE EYE OF RITA. THE CENTRAL
PRESSURE IS PROBABLY AT LEAST AS LOW AS 898 MB...AND PERHAPS EVEN
LOWER. FOR OFFICIAL PURPOSES... A PRESSURE OF 898 MB IS ASSUMED...
WHICH NOW MAKES RITA THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE IN TERMS OF
PRESSURE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN. SOME ADDITIONAL DEEPENING AND
INTENSIFICATION IS POSSIBLE FOR THE NEXT 12 HOURS OR SO.

RITA CURRENTLY RANKS BEHIND HURRICANE GILBERT IN 1988 WITH 888 MB
AND THE 1935 LABOR DAY HURRICANE WITH 892 MB.

FORECASTER STEWART

There is also a natural cycle of global warming and cooling. Ice Ages? I believe we are in a global warming period but unlike many environmentalists, I don't blame it on human activity.

Rita does look potentially more harmful than Katrina did before it hit.

Let's not make stupid racist posts please. I've removed several posts about it including the remark itself.

Thanks Burnside.


It seems, or at least what I just saw on the weather channel, that they are hoping that rita will downgrade to a cat 4 before it makes landfall. This is what Katrina was when it came in. However, due to the warm gulf waters, it is possible that this storm, currently the third strongest on record is very unpredictable at this time.

I sure hope everyone gets out of there. It's horrible to have another strong hurricane to hit so soon.

On the weather channel the reporter said that they eye on this storm is the most impressive that he has ever seen.. That's saying something considering he's got over 30 years of experience.

Where will the people go? I remember a news bulliten around when Katrina hit saying it was just the start of the hurricane season when Katrina hit, is this true? I guess oil will go up. We can inly wait and see

Good question, they are calling for strong winds all the way up to Austin.

Hurrican season starts June 1st and last until November 30th if memory servs me.

Since Galvaston is in it's path, the oil companies will hike the price for whatever reason. (Like they need a reason)

This storm is now 300 miles wide. Can anyone say The Day After?

Oh well, at this time I can only suggest that those who have a faith may wish to put in a request to their god and ask for help.

ok this makes me a little nervous as my cousins and her family live in texas near the mexico border. I hope they will be ok. i guess it depends where it goes. 300 miles wide is huge. i really hope ppl will be ok.

Winds are now 175mph

I was talking to someone earlier tonight who couldn't order my service due to a hurricane warning...Also many states had to be filtered out because of the unappropiateness of calling during a crisis...I feel bad for all the people who have to live with natural disasters. The worse we get is the tail-end of your hurricanes which are merely strong rains and moderate winds. It's sad it will take such extremes to wake people up on global warming, not talking about the victims or you guys, but the government will have to wake up at some point.

Maybe they are going to need a catagory 6

I have often wondered about that..

The majority of the platforms along the Gulf Coast are along Rita's path just not the Port of Galveston. The other problem is that it looks like the eye of Rita might hit west to southwest of Galveston and Houston and the worse place to be is on the east side of the eye. I don't want to be an alarmist, but this doesn't look good.

Your not being an alarmist, Your being honest. And your right it does not look good.

Source

I am not trying to counter any global warming theories, this is just for informational purposes.

A little part from here .. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATC...ml/DDHHMM.shtml



I hope people can get out of the way in time

300 miles across . . . My God!! The status (category) might decrease as it hits cooler water, but they're saying the intensity will probably increase before it makes land fall.

Okay people, to give you a pretty good idea of how big this is, pull out a map of the US, look on the west coast for a state called Oregon...This state is a little more than 300 x 300 miles. Rita is almost as big as the state I live in.

As far as will it be another Katrina? The storm itself is definately more bas-ass than Katrina was, but that will all depend on where it hits and how intense it is and how many people got out, to name the three big factors.

Worried. This is a bigger one than Katrina, I think.

Sadly, you are right. Katrina was a category 4 storm. Rita is a category 5 storm.

Hurricane Rita remains a Category Five

Kratos: It makes me nauseous. We have to wait and wait. It won't hit till Saturday now; it has stalled out there in the gulf.

Well it looks like the government of Texas is getting people out much more efficently than in the other gulf states during Katrina. I know the factors are different and I'm not saying anything about poverty so don't jump on me. I'm just saying it appears that people are getting out much more efficiently than the previous storm.

I would hope people are getting out after what they saw happen to other people! I mean not only do the big cities need to be cleared but the little ones too! That is a ton of ppl trying to get out!

That kinda made me curious, an searching I found:
http://www.weathermatrix.net/tropical/cat5storms.htm

The basic rundown is, these are all CAT 5 Storms, for each decade...

1930's 3 Cat5
1940's 1 Cat5
1950's 4 Cat5
1960's 6 Cat5
1970's 3 Cat5
1980's 3 Cat5
1990's 2 Cat5
2000's 4 Cat5

So if this Small Sample from the 30's is anything to go by, the next decade will be an increase, and then will decline for a bit after.

Manmade global warming is bunk.

Edit: Also, the young skulls full of mush born in the late 80's through the 90's are going to think we've Never had This many bad storms ever ever and the world must be going bad. Easy prey to corrupt their minds into thinking this liberal socialist induced claptrap is valid.

I just moved from Houston about 4 months ago. My girlfriend made it to where Im at now, 100 miles north of Houston last nite at 10:00..
Thats a 100 mile drive that took 9 hours.
Whats sad is people from Houston are not evacuating until today. I mean, some left yesterday, but most will leave today. Thats 4 MILLION people.
Every Hotel in every city/town that I called, is BOOKED. And from what I hear, there is not a Hotel between Houston, and Arkansas.
Whats bad about Houston is that 80% of Houston is Under construction, at ALL times. They dont do one project, finish, then move to another. They do everything at once, so these 4 million people are gonna have hell today.

As far as the strength of this storm.. Just think of it this way.. Nobody under the age of 36, has seen a storm of this strength, in the entire World.

And about the whole move into colder waters thing. Dont get your hopes up. They are saying that to give people false hope. Sure, the waters get a little cooler as the storm moves closer to texas, but that water is still WARM.. Id say maybe a 2 degree difference?? I mean we have 90+ degree water out here at times.. Dont get your hopes up for a downgrade

Just another fact I looked up to prove my theory.. The waters in Key West where the storm was exploding from a catagory 1, into a catagory 5 in 1 day, was 84.7 Degrees..
The current temperature of the water in Galveston Texas, at 9:42 on 9/22/05 is 86.9

Latest from the NHC:-

WTNT43 KNHC 221455
TCDAT3
HURRICANE RITA DISCUSSION NUMBER 20
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
11 AM EDT THU SEP 22 2005

RITA APPEARS TO HAVE REACHED ITS PEAK INTENSITY DURING THE PAST
12 HOURS. HURRICANES TYPICALLY DO NOT MAINTAIN SUCH HIGH INTENSITY
FOR A LONG TIME. INITIAL INTENSITY ESTIMATE IS 145 KNOTS. ALTHOUGH
SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN INTENSITY ARE LIKELY DURING THE NEXT DAY OR
TWO...DUE TO EYEWALL REPLACEMENT CYCLES...AN OVERALL GRADUAL
WEAKENING TREND SHOULD TAKE PLACE. THIS WEAKENING TREND IS BASED ON
LOWER OCEANIC HEAT CONTENT ALONG THE FORECAST TRACK AND INCREASING
SHEAR. NEVERTHERELESS...RITA IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL AS A
DANGEROUS HURRICANE OF AT LEAST A CATEGORY THREE INTENSITY.

RITA HAS BEEN MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST OR 295 DEGREES AT 8
KNOTS. A STRONG HIGH PRESSURE SYSTEM CURRENTLY CENTERED OVER
NORTHERN TEXAS/OKLAHOMA IS EXPECTED TO SHIFT EASTWARD ALLOWING RITA
TO TAKE A MORE NORTHWESTERLY AND NORTHERLY TRACK. THE EASTWARD
SHIFT OF THE HIGH IS FORECAST BY ALL GLOBAL MODELS...RESULTING IN
TRACK GUIDANCE CONSISTENTLY TURNING THE HURRICANE TOWARD THE
NORTHWEST AND NORTH TOWARD THE UPPER-TEXAS OR THE WESTERN LOUISIANA
COASTS. AFTER LANDFALL...STEERING CURRENTS ARE EXPECTED TO WEAKEN
AND THE CYCLONE COULD MEANDER FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS IN THE VICINITY
OF NORTHEASTERN TEXAS...PRODUCING HEAVY RAINS.

BASED ON THE FORECAST TRACK AND WIND RADII...HURRICANE WARNINGS HAVE
BEEN ISSUED AT THIS TIME FROM PORT O'CONNOR TEXAS TO MORGAN CITY
LOUISIANA. TROPICAL STORM WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT ON EITHER SIDE OF
THE HURRICANE WARNING.

FORECASTER AVILA

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INITIAL 22/1500Z 25.4N 88.7W 145 KT
12HR VT 23/0000Z 25.8N 89.9W 140 KT
24HR VT 23/1200Z 26.9N 91.6W 130 KT
36HR VT 24/0000Z 28.2N 93.0W 125 KT
48HR VT 24/1200Z 30.0N 94.5W 100 KT...INLAND
72HR VT 25/1200Z 33.0N 95.0W 45 KT...INLAND
96HR VT 26/1200Z 34.0N 95.0W 30 KT...INLAND
120HR VT 27/1200Z 34.5N 94.5W 25 KT...INLAND

hey people, Osswe here

it looks like my house is gonna be around on the east side of the eye of the storm.........perfect

I have evacuated, moved a whole bunch of valuabals into one car, within 2 hours yesterday, never moved out faster in my whole life,lol.

God Bless

Osswe

Stay safe Osswe - hopefully Rita won;t hit your house too hard

btw one of my friends is currently flying out to Houston en route to monitor Rita's landfall.......

Holy crap Cat5 thats like gonna destroy anything in its way

WOW!!! Leave it to nature to be just as ugly as it can be.

I really sympathize with people in the gulf coast region. May they all get out safely. May we (the nation) not have a repeat of Katrina.

Thoughts & prayers to those in the possible path of Rita.

40nrockinon

Look at the dates... 19th
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/

New Orleans mayor halts city’s reopening
Nagin says threat posed by Tropical Storm Rita forced him to reconsider

21st...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050922/od_nm/...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - In a sign that things may be returning to normal in New Orleans, strip shows are back in the city's famous French Quarter.

Also, a little comparison...

[attachmentid=18885][attachmentid=18886]

Major developments on Hurricane Rita ...

Major developments in the progress of Hurricane Rita and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

_ Rita's winds fell to 165 mph but the storm remained at Category 5 strength Thursday as it headed west-northwest across the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters predicted a Saturday landfall on the Gulf Coast somewhere in Texas or southwestern Louisiana.

_ Rain began falling in New Orleans, raising concerns about whether patched-up levies could hold.

_ About 1.3 million people were ordered to evacuate the Galveston-Houston-Corpus Christi area, along with more than 20,000 in Louisiana. Hundreds of buses were sent; hospital and nursing home patients also were moved out.

_ Eager to avoid a repeat of the public pounding that followed his response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush pledged to be "ready for the worst."

_ An estimated 319,000 National Guard troops nationwide were on alert, along with amphibious assault ships, search-and-rescue and medical teams, and trucks loaded with water, ice and ready-to-eat meals.

_ Crude-oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel as offshore rigs were evacuated and oil companies began closing refineries.

_ Louisiana's death toll from Katrina rose to 799, pushing the U.S. total to 1,036.

_ New Orleans was about 10 percent flooded with isolated ponds, down from 80 percent.

_ Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco asked President Bush to appoint an independent commission to investigate Katrina preparations and response, following similar calls by a chorus of Democrats.

_ New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said his city may be able to handle little more than half the 480,000 people it held before the storm.

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Military Fatalities: By Time Period News

Period US UK Other* Total Avg Days
4 473 10 16 499 2.12 235
3 579 26 27 632 2.93 216
2 718 27 58 803 1.89 424
1 140 33 0 173 4.02 43
Total 1910 96 101 2107 2.3 918

That means that more of my countrymen died in 2 weeks in Katrina than any full year in Iraq.

I just heard that Rita is expected to move more of a northernly track and hit sometime Saturday morning... and possibly directly on the Texas/Louisiana border...

If you have Windows Media Broadband you can watch Live Feed updates

HERE

Rita weakens to Category 4

Better then a Cat. 5 at least...

Newest updates...

Rita looms large heading towards Texas, New Orleans

By LEILA FADEL, BILL HANNA and MARTIN MERZER

Knight Ridder Newspapers


GALVESTON, Texas _ Four hundred miles of dread stretched Thursday from Texas through Louisiana as Hurricane Rita, a recurring nightmare of catastrophe, closed in on an area that included Galveston, Houston and _ unbelievably _ New Orleans.

As Texans fled the coast and the metropolis of Houston _ and as gasoline supplies evaporated along the way _ a 100-mile traffic jam blocked I-45 from downtown Houston to points north. The domino effect: Motorists idling in the jam also ran out of fuel, making it worse.

“This is unprecedented,’’ said Mark Cross of the Texas Department of Transportation. ``We’re doing the best we can.’’

Gov. Rick Perry said gasoline tankers were being dispatched to help stranded motorists along evacuation routes. “We’ll get fuel to those who are on low or out of gas,’’ he said.

Weakening slightly during the day but still a Category 4 terror, Rita began hurling its outlying rain and wind into the Gulf Coast on Thursday morning. New Orleans received its first rain since Hurricane Katrina all but destroyed it only three weeks earlier.

Conditions will become progressively worse through Saturday, particularly along the east Texas and west Louisiana coast. Though Rita’s path and intensity will fluctuate before the core makes landfall around daybreak Saturday, it still was predicted to strike as a 125-mph Category Three hurricane.

Another disaster along the Gulf Coast seemed utterly inevitable. “I'm worried for my family,'' said Mike Garza, 38, a Houston resident who tried to drive his wife and three children to safety but _ like thousands of others _ confronted gasoline shortages and jammed highways. “I'll go as far as I can. I’m just trying to get out of town before it gets any worse.”

A hurricane warning covered 404 miles of coastline from Port O’Connor, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana. That means hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours.

New Orleans found itself under a tropical storm watch, meaning winds higher than 34 mph were possible within 36 hours. Up to five inches of rain were expected in that already swamped city; engineers said they believed _ they hoped _ that newly repaired levees would withstand the strain.

Throughout the sprawling region, more than 1.3 million residents of Galveston, Corpus Christi, low-lying parts of Houston and, again, New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders.

Horrified by the death and devastation wrought by Katrina, most people heeded the orders, triggering a reverse morning rush-hour out of Houston _ except only the lucky few could really rush and the traffic torment persisted throughout the day.

Gasoline supplies rapidly disappeared, stranding many motorists in mid-flight along highways leading to higher ground. Most people remained calm, but gasoline availability and blocked highways created enormous tension.

Walter Nesbitt, 48, from Texas City, and his wife were found on I-45 about 10 miles on the wrong side _ the south side _ of Houston. They waited in a line of 10 cars at a Shell station. They were trying to reach the safety of San Antonio, about 190 miles away

“All I can think about is getting gas,” Nesbitt said. “I can’t even think about what Rita is going to do to my home, which I think may not be there when I get back. I never dreamed a city this size would just simply start running out of gas, but it looks like that is what’s happening.’’

He guessed he would need 15 hours to reach his destination, usually about three hours away.

Roads were crowded and gasoline in short supply as far away as Austin, nearly 200 miles from the coast. Convoys of military trucks streamed south.

“There’s no panic, but you can tell that people are worried,” said Bob Richards, a Denver resident who was driving through and found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. “There are a lot of evacuees here.”

Lengthy delays also stymied operations at Houston’s Hobby Airport, where some people waited four hours to check in.

“They weren’t ready for this,” said passenger Kevin O’Neal. “They don’t have enough people. It’s chaotic.’’

A police officer using a bullhorn tried to calm the nerves of those standing in line.

“We’ve never had a crowd like this,” A. Carter Jr. of the Houston police department told the edgy crowd. “This airport has never seen anything like this in its history. We’re doing the best we can, but ya’ll have got to work with us.’’

Houston Mayor Bill White blamed the Transportation Security Administration, saying many of its employees failed to show up for work. Some airport employees said only two TSA workers were at work. The TSA could not be reached for immediate comment.

Yet, only residents of mobile homes and those living in areas of Houston that are in a 100-year flood plain were told to leave. Officials said they would have needed a week to evacuate the entire city of 2 million people.

Evacuation orders covered all of Galveston, and most of those 270,000 residents left.

Still, as always, some people defied orders or strong recommendations to leave.

In the low-income, flood-prone neighborhood of South Union, in southeast Houston, L. Williams stood outside the Come & Go Food Store, buying gasoline from one of the few pumps still open in the city.

Not only was he staying behind, he also planned to work as usual Thursday cutting his customers’ lawns.

“Oh, yeah,’’ said Williams, 70. “It’s not raining yet.’’

Chastened for its slow response to Katrina, the federal government and state officials mustered troops, relief workers and tons of supplies in staging areas just outside the projected impact zone.

The Pentagon, for example, readied 26 helicopters for damage assessment and search and rescue missions. Perry, the Texas governor, deployed 1,750 National Guard troops and placed more than 3,000 others on standby.

Forecasters said they believed that Rita’s power peaked early Thursday, when it became the third strongest U.S. hurricane, in terms of atmospheric pressure, since record-keeping began in 1851. But the storm will spend most of its time over unusually warm, nourishing water _ its path kept jogging a little toward the east Thursday, lengthening the time it will spend in that environment _ and it was expected to retain considerable destructive capability.

Alarmingly for holdouts in New Orleans and those hoping to return soon, each new forecast edged the core's path closer to the Texas-Louisiana border. And the storm's danger resided not only in its power, but also in its size and scope.

Hurricane-force winds higher than 74 mph roared 85 miles in every direction from the center; tropical storm-force winds higher than 39 mph ranged 185 miles in every direction, an area that will include central Louisiana.

Tides already were a foot above normal in areas of Mississippi and Louisiana struck just three weeks ago by Katrina. Tides in that area will increase to three to four feet, forecasters said, topped by large waves.

Even in a best-case scenario, Rita’s rain and storm surge again could flood portions of New Orleans.

Worse, at the point of the core’s landfall and to the east that unfortunate spot, 20-foot storm surges were expected, enough to inundate many areas along the coast.

Another problem: Dozens of chemical plants and petroleum facilities stood in Rita’s path, raising the specter of environmental problems similar or greater than those experienced in the New Orleans area after Katrina.

And another: Operations were suspended at numerous oil-drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, rigs unlikely to stand up to the storm. The ultimate effect on gasoline and natural gas prices remained to be seen, but more financial pain for consumers seemed likely.

As of 11 a.m. Thursday, the projected path carried the core _ surrounded by 125-mph sustained winds and higher gusts _ ashore about 50 miles east of Galveston around 4 a.m. CDT Saturday.

Tropical storm-force winds could reach Louisiana by 2 a.m. Friday and Texas by noon. The first hurricane force winds could arrive by 11 p.m. Friday.

And thus, great numbers of people boarded up, packed up and fled. In Pasadena, southeast of Houston and close to Galveston Bay, these signs were spray-painted on shuttered businesses.

O’Reilly Auto Parts: “Gone Fishin.”

Deer Park Vacuum: “Open Monday with wet vacs.”

The Shell station: “We will survive.”


Fadel and Hanna of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported from Houston and Merzer of The Miami Herald reported from Washington.

Also contributing to this report were Jack Douglas Jr. of the Star-Telegram in Houston and Edwin Garcia of the San Jose Mercury News in Pasadena, Texas.

LINK

is it just me or is this happening more and more. in general i mean.

its worrying

hope all you guys are safe.

Now That's interesting!!! Why would you have that impression? That's one of the most important points of focus in our world today. It's not just you. Many people have that impression. Why?

The highways are grid-locked, bumper to bumper; many haven't gone but 9 miles since 4:00 (am) this morning. They are running out of gas and gas stations have closed. Many gas station attendants have evacuated and service people, too, at the airport, have left. Many airline stewardesses haven't shown up or people that service the planes, either. People (passengers) are tripping over each other at the airport trying to get out; it is chaos.

Those poor people on the expressways are sitting ducks.