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Post by pitbulllady on Aug 28, 2005 7:50:10 GMT -5
At the present, Hurricane Katrina is now a HUGE and deadly Category 5, the strongest hurricane possible, with winds of 160 miles per hour and it is expected to get stronger! It is forecast to make a direct hit on my favorite city in the world, New Orleans, but will impact an enornous area of Mississippi and Louisiana and much further inland. I've got friends in both states, near the coast, and I'm quite worried about them. President Bush has already declared a Federal state of emergency in Louisiana and he and the governor are ordering evacuations, but the Red Cross has decided it's too dangerous to operate shelters there, so people have no place to go.
pitbulllady
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Beboots
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a plague in Equatorial Guinea that I have to attend.
Posts: 646
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Post by Beboots on Aug 28, 2005 10:54:01 GMT -5
When's it due to hit? Is it possible it could blow out, or become less strong or something before it arrives?
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Post by RandallBoggs on Aug 28, 2005 13:40:43 GMT -5
I'm glad I got Ran out of there years ago... Anyway. Where did this tornado originate from? The ocean...or was it a ground made one?
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Post by pitbulllady on Aug 28, 2005 16:28:31 GMT -5
This isn't a "tornado", Sean. All tornadoes originate over land, as part of large thunderstorms, and are very short-lived. Most tornadoes only last a few minutes, and their formation, exact path, and how long they last is something very, very unpredictable, so there's no point in giving names to them. Hurricanes, on the other hand, form out over warm ocean water during the summer and fall months. They usually start out as storms moving off the West African coast, and as they get out over the Atlantic, they grow stronger and stronger, and start to develope rotation due to the earth's own spin. Hurricanes need two types of "fuel" to grow more powerful-moisture and heat-and find both over the waters of the Atlantic this time of year. If there is no "sheer"-winds in the upper atmosphere moving counter to the storm's own movement-to keep the storm clouds from gaining in height and therefore strength, it will continue to grow more powerful. In the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream usually carries these storms close to the US coast, but other things like cold fronts and low pressure systems over land over the eastern US can steer them one way or another, too. Once the storm's winds reach a sustained strength of over 35 miles per hour, it becomes a Tropical Storm, and is given a name to help scientists, weather forecasters and anyone else be able to track it, since these storms can last for days or even weeks out over the ocean. Once sustained winds reach at least 75 miles per hour, it has gained minimal hurricane status, a "Category 1" storm. The most powerful category of hurricane, the one that does the most damage and takes the most lives, is the "Category 5", and that's what Katrina is at the moment. Right now, it is the second-most powerful hurricane forecast to hit the US. The worst was an unnamed storm that hit Galveston, TX, on Labor Day back in the early 1900's, back when the storms were impossible to predict and were not given names. That one killed over 6,000 people. Up until now, the most powerful storm after that one was Hurricane Camille, which hit the Mississippi-Louisiana-Alabama Gulf Coast in 1969, killing thousands of people with 155-m.p.h. winds. This is the hurricane enountered by "Ltnt. Dan" and "Forrest Gump" on the shrimp boat in the movie, "Forrest Gump", by the way. Katrina is way more powerful than Camille was at this point, and much larger in diameter, so it will affect even us here in the Carolinas with the potential for tornadoes(often a side-effect of landfalling hurricanes)and heavy rains. Flooding is predicted as far north as New England once it treks up through the US.
Yes, there is always a possibility that it can weaken or change direction, though at this point this seems extremely unlikely. Hurricanes are the work of a Creator who is far more powerful than the National Weather Service, though, so the best we can hope for is a miracle. I so dearly want to be able to return to New Orleans one day before I die or get too old to go, and I can only pray that there is something left of that wonderful, eccentric old city, one of the few places I know of where someone like Randall could walk among the populace and not turn a single head in shock or fear, but be treated with the same warmth and respect as everyone else.
pitbulllady
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Post by RandallBoggs on Aug 28, 2005 16:39:03 GMT -5
Tornado...Hurricane whatever...
Well...hopefully it will die out when more of the land breaks it up, unless it helps it.
Creator?
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Post by pitbulllady on Aug 28, 2005 17:09:30 GMT -5
Normally, once a hurricane makes landfall, it DOES weaken, since part of its fuel supply-water-is cut off. That's not the case with southern Louisiana. Even over land, all the coastline is swamp, full of water and the land itself is very low. There are no hills or mountains to further break up the wind's force. The southern coastline of my state, South Carolina, is much like that-all swamps and large river systems, and they cannot compare to the enormity of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya drainage systems that Katrina will be heading for. When Hurricane Hugo slammed into us back in 1989, it actually GAINED strength, due to all the overland water sources it encountered, and the lack of any landforms that would impede its progress. It hit us with winds of 135 m.p.h, and picked up some strength to produce 165-m.p.h. gusts as far inland as Sumter, SC, well over 100 miles inland from where it made landfall. Katrina will be following the course of the largest river in North American for awhile, and that will be almost as if it is still over the ocean. The Mississippi River is freakin' HUMONGOUS; at some points you cannot even see from one side to the other, and the largest tanker ships, cargo ships and cruise ships can easily navigate its waters all the way up to at least where it joins the Ohio River. Katrina is also huge, taking up nearly the entire Gulf of Mexico at this moment. In contrast, Hurricane Andrew, which devastated southern Florida in 1992, was a tiny, compact little storm. None of the hurricanes which hit Florida last year can come close to this thing in power or in size.
pitbulllady
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Post by RandallBoggs on Aug 28, 2005 17:12:14 GMT -5
Right...forgot about the nature of the land....
Have they gone so far as to evacuate the closest towns to the hurricanes?
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Post by pitbulllady on Aug 28, 2005 17:23:59 GMT -5
Yes, President Bush has ordered New Orleans and surrounding towns to be evacuated, and has already declared a Federal state of emergency in both Louisiana and Mississippi, which will quite likely be extended to Alabama and possibly Tennessee as well. That is how large an area they expect to be directly impacted by this storm.
pitbulllady
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Post by RandallBoggs on Aug 28, 2005 17:25:26 GMT -5
Watch...it's gonna go wrong.....
Hmm...I should check my book again....
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ScrewyOldDame
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
The classes that wash most are those that work least.
Posts: 402
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Post by ScrewyOldDame on Aug 29, 2005 3:16:46 GMT -5
How do you mean? I think evacuating the place is the sensible thing to do.
I am sorry, Pitbull. It just must be unbearable worrying about friends and family in a disaster. Our prayers are with them!
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Post by lizardgirl on Aug 29, 2005 10:28:56 GMT -5
Yeah, ditto. I've been hearing a bit about it on the news- makes me feel lucky to be living in a place where hurricanes are very, very rare. The amount of destruction they can do...Some countries in the past have been put into deep debt just trying to clear up and rebuild what the hurricane has destroyed. They're terrible, but, in a weird way, beautiful, I think.
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Post by RandallBoggs on Aug 29, 2005 14:14:55 GMT -5
Sorry RE...I'm halfly a negative person.
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ScrewyOldDame
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
The classes that wash most are those that work least.
Posts: 402
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Post by ScrewyOldDame on Aug 29, 2005 16:32:01 GMT -5
haha, well, You've got to hope the for the best in terrible situations, don't you?
Yes. It is nice to live resonably far from natural disasters. It's just awful seeing others go through it.
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Post by RandallBoggs on Aug 29, 2005 16:33:17 GMT -5
Same. But not to make those in Louisiana and such feel bad...
'Expect the Worst, Hope for Best'
.....Maybe I should get to that Controlling Weather chapter in my book....see if I can do anything...
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Post by pitbulllady on Aug 30, 2005 10:10:17 GMT -5
There is no way to get through to anyone I know in Louisiana. If any of you have been watching this on the news, the whole area of Lousiana and Mississippi is almost completely devastated. Right now, in my beloved New Orleans, 80 percent of the city is under 8-20 feet of water, much of which is contaminated with chemical run-off and oil from ruptured natural gas pipes. Gas fires are breaking out all over the city, and there's no way to get to them to extinquish them. The mayor says that there are bodies floating everywhere, and no way yet to get out and recover them. Millions of people are still trapped on top of roofs and the water is still rising. One of the levees that holds back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain has broken, sending more water into the city, and then there is the threat of malaria and other diseases. It's like what you see in a Third-World country, only this is one of the largest cities in North America! In Mississippi it's even worse, with over 80 known dead in one county alone, far exceding the death toll from both Andrew and Hugo, just in one state. This is probably the worst natural disaster in US history, for over a century, and the storm's remnants are still spawing tornadoes far inland over the Ohio River Valley and near the Great Lakes. I have not even been able to reach my best friend Christine, who lives in western Tennessee, and drives a big commercial tractor trailer rig cross-country, so I don't know if she got caught in this thing while on the road or not. She makes frequent trips to Louisiana. From what I hear, all highways into and out of this area are impassable, either under water or under sand and mud. I've been through one of the worst hurricanes in our history, Hugo, and experienced three weeks with no electricity or running water, and this is much, much worse than Hugo. The scary thing is, that the hurricane season has not reached its peak yet; that usually comes mid-September, and there are several systems out in the Altantic which are developing and could become full-fledged hurricanes eventually, all headed for the US, so there could be a situation like Florida faced last year, with assembly-line storms hitting them one after the other.
pitbulllady
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