Yikes! Hurricane Gustav!

[3113]

Hurricane Gustav strengthened and picked up speed as it headed toward western Cuba and the U.S. Gulf Coast cities ravaged by Katrina and Rita in 2005, after lashing the Cayman Islands with torrential rain. The U.S. National Hurricane Center declared Gustav a Category 3 hurricane today, with winds of almost 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour, and said the storm could become Category 4 before making landfall in Cuba. It may reach central Louisiana on Sept. 2 before moving northwest into parts of Texas.

...A tropical storm warning was in effect for the lower Florida Keys between Key West and the Dry Tortugas, as well as Havana and the western Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio, La Habana, Isla de Juventud, Matanzas and Cienfuegos. Bush ordered federal aid to supplement state and local efforts, the White House said by e-mail. Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana issued their own state emergency and disaster declarations and alerted National Guard units.

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin urged an estimated 30,000 residents needing assistance to register with a program to help them get out of the city if Gustav strikes. New Orleans will assist residents who need help leaving at 8 a.m. today, according to a statement. Louisiana has about 800 buses mustered for a possible evacuation. Amtrak trains are also available.

``We have to take these storms seriously,'' Governor Bobby Jindal said at a news conference on Aug. 28. ``We as Louisianans have to be better prepared.''

We have to take the storms seriously and be better prepared? Ya think?

Okay. Anyone battening down the hatches for Gustav? Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi folk--are you ready?

 

[Guest]

Goos-TAHV, the newscasters are pronouncing oh-so-carefully today, almost as if we'd all better remember this name.

I feel for those people who've spent the last 3 years rebuilding. What if their homes are destroyed again?

Damn.

Be careful, everyone.

 

[rgraham666]

Apparently the authorities are prepared this time. Sort of.

 

[trysail]

Here's a link to the National Hurricane Center five-day track forecast:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at2.shtml?5day?large#contents

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT07/refresh/AL0708W5_sm2+gif/085813W_sm.gif

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I feel sorry for anyone whose home was destroyed by Katrina. However, that storm should have shown the entire region just how untenable the low-lying Gulf Coast really is. Anyone who insisted on rebuilding on the same site is asking for a Darwin Award. Even the first French colonists who landed there knew that New Orleans shouldn't be where it is . . . all except for the aristocrat that lead the expedition, that is.

 

[3113]

Well, it seems that more than George Bush has learned to be better-safe-than-sorry when it comes to hurricanes:

Lines of people waiting for buses to take them out of the city grew longer Saturday and traffic grew heavier on main highways as Hurricane Gustav strengthened into a dangerous storm on track for the Gulf Coast.

A line well over a mile long stretched in six loops through the parking lot at Union Passenger Terminal. Under a blazing sun, many led children or pushed strollers with one hand and pulled luggage with the other. Volunteers handed out bottled water, and medics were nearby in case people became heatsick.

It's too bad it took Katrina to hit home the lesson, but I'm glad to see that all branches of government as well as residents are doing what needs to be done, in an orderly and timely fashion, to prepare for this.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

GUSTAV now has winds of 145 MPH, Cat 4

HURRICANE GUSTAV TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL072008
120 PM EDT SAT AUG 30 2008


DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT
GUSTAV HAS CONTINUED TO STRENGTHEN AND NOW HAS MAXIMUM WINDS
NEAR 145 MPH...230 KM/HR WITH HIGHER GUSTS. THIS MAKES GUSTAV AN
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON
HURRICANE SCALE. A SPECIAL ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED AT ABOUT 200 PM
EDT TO MODIFY THE INITIAL AND FORECAST INTENSITIES. THE SPECIAL
PUBLIC ADVISORY WILL TAKE THE PLACE OF THE INTERMEDIATE PUBLIC
ADVISORY PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED FOR THAT TIME.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

3113

I understand that Dubya will stand on the beach, hold up his hand in the STOP position, and empty a bottle of Wesson Oil on the surf. But I dont think it will appease you.

 

[trysail]

According to NOAA's computer models, Gustav is supposed to pass to the west of N'awlins.

Mind you, these models (or their analogues) are brought to you by the folk who claim the ability to accurately predict global temperatures, global warming and climate change thirty years in the future:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT07/refresh/AL0708W5_sm2+gif/180114W_sm.gif

 

[Recidiva]

Best of luck, wishes, and waterproofing to everyone in the storm's path.

We're in Central Florida and out of the path and I hope everyone who can gets AWAY as soon as possible.

 

[Weird Harold]

Best of luck, wishes, and waterproofing to everyone in the storm's path.

We're in Central Florida and out of the path and I hope everyone who can gets AWAY as soon as possible.

Don't get too fixated on Gustav -- Hanna's sneaking up on Florida form the other side. It does look like Hanna's going to dip south and hammer Cuba with a third storm in about three weeks, but the interaction with Gustav is keeping her small for now.

 

[Recidiva]

Don't get too fixated on Gustav -- Hanna's sneaking up on Florida form the other side. It does look like Hanna's going to dip south and hammer Cuba with a third storm in about three weeks, but the interaction with Gustav is keeping her small for now.

Yeah, we're tracking Her too.

Fortunately we're high and dry enough to not be anywhere near as threatened as New Orleans.

But Charley was only a few short years ago and there's a lot of my family in New Orleans that are trying to rebuild. My heartfelt sympathy and prayers for them and for others in the way.

 

[3113]

Here's the latest:

HAVANA - Gustav slammed into Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane Saturday while both Cubans and Americans scrambled to flee the storm as it roared toward the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans.

Forecasters said Gustav was just short of becoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane as it hit Cuba's mainland after passing over its Isla de la Juventud province, where shrieking 150 mph (240 kph) winds toppled telephone poles, mango and almond trees and peeled back the tin roofs of homes.

And, in New Orleans:

Spooked by predictions that Hurricane Gustav could grow into a Category 5 monster, an estimated 1 million residents fled the Gulf Coast Saturday — ahead of the official order to get out of the way of a storm taking dead aim at Louisiana.

Residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars — clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region. Gustav had already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, and if current forecasts hold up, it would make landfall Monday afternoon somewhere between the northeast corner of Texas and western Mississippi.

Forecasters warned it was still too soon to say whether New Orleans would take another direct hit, but residents weren't taking any chances judging by the bumper-to-bumper traffic pouring from the city. Gas stations along interstate highways were running out of fuel, and phone circuits were jammed.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Yeah Gus's a biggie. Maybe it ought to be renamed Hurricane Get-Out-of-Town-by-Sundown-Brown. That begins with a G.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

HANNA changed course and is aimed at Miami.

 

[SeaCat]

My prediction. Millions of people will heed the evacuation orders. They will get the hell out of the way and survive.

Unfortunately there will be those who stay back and tough it out. Most of these will actually be those who have their own vehicles and have better types of homes. They won't be the homeless or the Indigent.

These same people will then call for help, then scream when they don't get it.

I don't feel sorry for anyone who says they got blindsided by Gustav. Even the Hermits will have heard about this one.

As for Hannah, We'll I have no idea where she will hit if she even does. No one does. Like everyone else in southern Florida I have my eye on her but I'm not going to freak out. (Even though I'm not overly fond of her latest track.)

Cat

 

[TE999]

I think we're gettin' some rain from Gus already. Seems like squall lines or feeder bands rollin' thru.

Hanna looks to be whuppin' up on the Bahamas, then goin' south. That'll be a rain event. My ditches just dried up, now here we go again.

 

[English Lady]

So sad I'm praying so hard for a little mercy for folks in the path of this one. take care everyone.

 

[Belegon]

Please...everyone we care about on the gulf coast...keep your head down or get te hell out of there...

 

[English Lady]

Just to let folks know, I've just heard from Joe W he's busy planning to evacuate his lawyer friend from the coast. I'll report in when I can.

 

[michchick98]

My prediction. Millions of people will heed the evacuation orders. They will get the hell out of the way and survive.

Unfortunately there will be those who stay back and tough it out. Most of these will actually be those who have their own vehicles and have better types of homes. They won't be the homeless or the Indigent.

These same people will then call for help, then scream when they don't get it.

I don't feel sorry for anyone who says they got blindsided by Gustav. Even the Hermits will have heard about this one.

As for Hannah, We'll I have no idea where she will hit if she even does. No one does. Like everyone else in southern Florida I have my eye on her but I'm not going to freak out. (Even though I'm not overly fond of her latest track.)

Cat

I'm thankful that I'm far, far away from any of that, but I do have friends in the area who were smart and got the hell out of there.

I know there are people who are unable to leave on their own, especially in New Orleans, but you'd think after Katrina, the state/city governments would step up to the plate a bit more on this one. Although I haven't heard anything much on the news....are they stepping up or just playing the wait and see game?

Anyway, I did hear an interview on the radio with one woman who said she and her family managed to survive Katrina, but all around them it's still evident of what happened and they're high-tailing it out of there. She said permanently. Katrina was enough for them.

I hope everyone remembers what happened during Katrina (and Rita and Wilma, too) and decides it's best to evacuate. My prayers go out to everyone in the path of Gustav.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

MICHCHICK

You have got to be a McCain voter! Its so obvious youre unplugged.

 

[michchick98]

MICHCHICK

You have got to be a McCain voter! Its so obvious youre unplugged.

You know, you've just broken my steadfast rule that no matter what someone says, I won't put them on ignore. Congratulations, JBJ, it's taken ten years of me being on the internet for someone to accomplish that feat.





And one more thing before I go, is this a relative of yours?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/2813203051_e734082c06_o.jpg

 

[Guest]

You know, you've just broken my steadfast rule that no matter what someone says, I won't put them on ignore. Congratulations, JBJ, it's taken ten years of me being on the internet for someone to accomplish that feat.

And one more thing before I go, is this a relative of yours?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/2813203051_e734082c06_o.jpg

It is one of his relatives! I've even posted it before!

Welcome to the JBJ ignore club. Eventually no one will even read his schlock.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm a founding member.