Category: Weather

New Orleans wasn’t hit as badly as it could have been, but it was hit badly — the weather service says it is suffering from fresh water flooding, and there was extensive wind damage. Already the police are being swamped with calls to rescue people from roofs in the city and surrouding area. And New Orleans wasn’t even the hardest hit community. I can’t even imagine what Gulfport will look like. Or Mobile.

We’ll get some of the effects of the storm, but in a minor sense — some wind, some rain. Arkansas is under high wind alert, and several states are at real risk for some significant flooding.

Just because New Orleans wasn’t hit directly, and smashed to smithereens with a category 5 hurricane, don’t discount the effects of this storm. I think it’s going to have a lot more flood and storm damage than Camille, so if you were planning on giving to the Red Cross, don’t decide to spend that money on something else. Lot’s of folks will need help for some time to come, and the Red Cross is always there.

In fact, if everyone skipped one dinner out and one movie, or one music CD, or book this week, and donated that money to the Red Cross, I bet the organization would have enough to make it through the rest of the hurricane season. We’re not even past peak hurricane season yet, and the organizations that help need help, themselves. You can, of course, just give without skipping anything, but I don’t think this is the same thing. Consider it equivalent to spilling a few drops of wine as libation to the gods. Or God, if that’s your thing.

I don’t have any spare cash, and until I get paid for some jobs, am living on kindness and roast cat*. But I do have blood so am off to donate blood this week. And I hate donating blood. I’d rather give money. Sigh.

My server is getting a little bit swamped by Google search requests for Hurricane Katarina, Katrina before I caught my typo.

Though not in a storm, it is warm and humid and uncomfortable at home, today. The french doors leading off from the kitchen developed dry rot, and the management is currently replacing them. In the meantime, I caught a screenshot of this doppler image that I bet the folks in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and so on would rather be the truth.

I call the image, “Wow, that prayer stuff really works!”

*Just kidding on the kindness.

If Katrina makes it to a Category 5, as big as she is, and then hits Louisiana and the New Orleans area, well, puts things in perspective about some guy with a bomb in a subway. I cannot believe how poorly managed the preparations for this hurricane have been.

If you read the comment thread at Dr. Master’s weblog, well, some of it just breaks your heart. Some of it makes you angry.

We need to refocus our emergency services back on the events we know we’ll be hit with, year after year after year. And we had better stop being so damn arrogant about weather. And about the science that allows us to understand weather better.

Not unless you all want to put your faith in a big hand of God coming down and scooping you all up to safety. But as one person says in Dr. Master’s comments: Oh my God…. this thing is like the hand of God.

The conditions look very good for Hurricane Katrina to be a very nasty affair when it hits land. There’s little or no shear to tear it apart, and the water in the Gulf is bathtub hot. If it hits on or near New Orleans, well, this is about the most Not Good of the Not Good scenarios.

From Wunderground’s Dr. Jeff Masters’ weblog:

I’d hate to be an Emergency Management official in New Orleans right now. Katrina is pretty much following the NHC forecast, and appears likely to pass VERY close to New Orleans. I’m surprised they haven’t ordered an evacuation of the city yet. While the odds of a catastropic hit that would completely flood the city of New Orleans are probably 10%, that is way too high in my opinion to justify leaving the people in the city. If I lived in the city, I would evactuate NOW! There is a very good reason that the Coroner’s office in New Orleans keeps 10,000 body bags on hand. The risks are too great from this storm, and a weekend away from the city would be nice anyway, right? GO! New Orleans needs a full 72 hours to evacuate, and landfall is already less than 72 hours away. Get out now and beat the rush. You’re not going to have to go to work or school on Monday anyway. If an evacuation is ordered, not everyone who wants to get out may be able to do so–particularly the 60,000 poor people with no cars.

From Weather Underground:

… Excessive heat warning in effect from 7 am Thursday to 7 PM CDT
Sunday…

The National Weather Service in St Louis MO has issued an excessive
heat warning.

Afternoon high temperatures will rise near 100 degrees with heat
indices ranging from 105 to 115 degrees. Overnight low temperatures

are only expected to drop into the upper 70s… which will provide
little relief from the daytime heat.

An excessive heat warning is issued when high temperature and
humidity levels are expected to make it feel like it is 105 degrees
or greater for 3 or more consecutive days.