Satellite Photos of Hurricane WTF

[shereads]

"...and those tiny white dots where the bowling pins would be are the Florida Keys."

This can't be good.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/FLOAT/IR4/20.jpg

For those who aren't familiar with our little peninsula, the Florida Keys and Key West are that barely visible white thread that trails away from the bottom of Florida and veers to the left. Not the island-shaped thing (that's Cuba) but the fragile white thread that's directly in the path of the spinning red thing.

 

[English Lady]

that doesn't look good to me either.


be safe sher ok?

 

[TxRad]

(A) When I was younger, the Keys stuck straight out toward Cuba...But with all the hurricanes, they are now bent and can't be fixed......

(B) The Fla keys are a hurricane rod... Kind of like a lightning rod but for hurricanes..... they keep Fla itself safe......

(C) All of the above......

 

[Guest]

i love the keys.
looks like the marathons are ganna be pounded...*sigh*

C) the keys are what appears to be the dribble off of a flacid penis.


i hope everyone evacuated. *another sigh*

 

[Guest]

(A) When I was younger, the Keys stuck straight out toward Cuba...But with all the hurricanes, they are now bent and can't be fixed......

When I was younger, all the continents were one. This continental drift thing is a bitch. Costs a fortune to visit my brother in Mongolia now that I can just drive there.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

All the computer models, see Weather Underground are showing RITA headed for Texas.

That's no comfort for the folks still digging out from Katrina. The psychiatrist from that area who stayed with us for two weeks (she's a single mom with a seven year old) is back home now and says many folks who held up under Katrina are starting to come unhinged at the possibility of another hurricane.

And those evacuees who went to Texas, especially the Houston area, most be convinced nature is pissed at them big time.

The 8:00 am EDT advisory said Rita is about 100 miles e-se of the Keys with winds up to 70 mph and moving at about 15 mph. If it keeps moving that fast and doesn't pick up much more wind speed, those folks should be in relatively good shape. But that's a big IF.

Damn, but I'm tired of reading advisories and tracking hurricanes.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Guest]

All the computer models, see Weather Underground are showing RITA headed for Texas.

That's no comfort for the folks still digging out from Katrina. The psychiatrist from that area who stayed with us for two weeks (she's a single mom with a seven year old) is back home now and says many folks who held up under Katrina are starting to come unhinged at the possibility of another hurricane.

And those evacuees who went to Texas, especially the Houston area, most be convinced nature is pissed at them big time.

The 8:00 am EDT advisory said Rita is about 100 miles e-se of the Keys with winds up to 70 mph and moving at about 15 mph. If it keeps moving that fast and doesn't pick up much more wind speed, those folks should be in relatively good shape. But that's a big IF.

Damn, but I'm tired of reading advisories and tracking hurricanes.

Rumple Foreskin

if it follows the red, green or yellow tracks, it'll come right over us. the main concern would be for tornadoes in that case...since we don't live on the coast.
i ain't nevah seen a tornado and im not in a hurry to do so....EVER.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

if it follows the red, green or yellow tracks, it'll come right over us. the main concern would be for tornadoes in that case...since we don't live on the coast.
i ain't nevah seen a tornado and im not in a hurry to do so....EVER.

Welcome to texas Vella-la

Seriously, you, lucky, the little luckster and the little vellas all be safe.

*HUGS*

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Okay, everyone come to my house, it's not that big but if we take out the furniture we can squeeze together.

 

[rgraham666]

Okay, everyone come to my house, it's not that big but if we take out the furniture we can squeeze together.

Only if I can pick who I get squeezed by.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Only if I can pick who I get squeezed by.

Don't pick the iguana.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Don't pick the iguana.

Abs, if your iguana is anything like this one, IT will do the picking.

http://www.shakabruddah.com/iguana_apr_2003/images/iguana_12.jpg

Rumple Foreskin

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Abs, if your iguana is anything like this one, IT will do the picking.

http://www.shakabruddah.com/iguana_apr_2003/images/iguana_12.jpg

Rumple Foreskin

Holy shit, mines not that big..........yet. It's only about three feet....is that one yours???

 

[matriarch]

if it follows the red, green or yellow tracks, it'll come right over us. the main concern would be for tornadoes in that case...since we don't live on the coast.
i ain't nevah seen a tornado and im not in a hurry to do so....EVER.

Same for my brother. He's between Houston and Galveston, just got a mail from him that said Galveston is being evacuated. He's been there 10 years now, and this is the first time he's really had to take advantage of all the emergency stores and supplies he's had stacked away. Don't think he's looking forward to it either. And the oldies are worried......

 

[amicus]

Drove to Key West with a ladyfriend just to sample keylime pie and tour the Hemingway place, a long time ago.

Latest reports are that minimal damage along Keys (Quays) and that all is well, glad you folks dodged this particular bullet...look out Texas...

amicus....

 

[shereads]

Demonstrating once again why people are so reluctant to evacuate...

In Miami, H. Rita didn't amount to very much. It was noisy and scary, but I've been in worse storms that got much less publicity than this one. A tornado here and there, but I haven't heard about any fatalities.

In the Keys, the storm surge coincided with high tide and there's been some flooding. But it seems to be mostly street flooding and not chase-you-through-the-house flooding. No city-wide power outages!

(Waiter, open a magnum of your finest air-conditioning. Put it on my tab!)

For retailers in the Keys, like my friend who owns a dive-gear outlet, the mandatory tourist evacuations last year and this year will end up costing some people their businesses. Of course, it's better to kill the tourism-based economy than to take the risk of killing the tourists.

Still, it's tough for Keys natives who've run thriving businesses for decades and are edging close to bankruptcy now, thanks to the 4 evacuations that were ordered last summer, and now this one.

This storm would have made the bars more crowded until the rain let up this evening. The blenders would have worked just fine. There would have been frozen Pina Coladas and lightning on the horizon, and enough money in the cash drawer to help make up for all the losses from last summer's false alarms.

-----

I hope Rita defies the worst-case predictions for the Gulf Coast states, as it did for South Florida and the Keys. Good luck, coastal pornsters.

 

[shereads]

Drove to Key West with a ladyfriend just to sample keylime pie and tour the Hemingway place, a long time ago.

Latest reports are that minimal damage along Keys (Quays) and that all is well, glad you folks dodged this particular bullet...look out Texas...

amicus....

Isn't it a beautiful drive? The Overseas Highway and 7-Mile Bridge are one of my favorite things about Florida. Miles of nothing but blue water on each side of the highway.

You might enjoy a non-fiction book called "Last Train to Paradise" about the construction of the railroad that connected Key West to the mainland. The climax of the book is a nail-biting account of the 1935 "No-Name Hurricane" that killed 500 people in the Keys - most of them WWI veterans who had found jobs with the railroad.

A locomotive and rail cars were sent to the Keys to attempt a rescue, but delays at the start of the trip sent the train into the storm at its worst. The eye-witness accounts of that train trip are as scary as anything in fiction. Thousands of people were crowded along the tracks hoping for space on the train.

In Islamorada, there's a monument to the WWI veterans who died in the 1935 hurricane. You have to leave the main road to find it. but since the island is only about three dachshunds wide, it's not hard to find your way back.

 

[sophia jane]

Same for my brother. He's between Houston and Galveston, just got a mail from him that said Galveston is being evacuated. He's been there 10 years now, and this is the first time he's really had to take advantage of all the emergency stores and supplies he's had stacked away. Don't think he's looking forward to it either. And the oldies are worried......

Galveston and Sabine Pass (which is closer to me than Galveston) are both under voluntary evacuation. I think they're going to mandatory tomorrow. Sounds like your brother lives not that far from me.

 

[kendo1]

Mm. Weird place.

We just get a bit of wind every now and then. Burp.

 

[amicus]

SheReads...yes, a lovely drive and made even more memorable as the Miami Dolphins were completing their undefeated season and we listened on the radio all the way down.

Yes, I am aware of the 1935 disaster, a very sad chapter. Sometimes it is a shame that humanity has to learn from mistakes, but then, I think that is the nature of the beast.

If we ccould only foresee the future and plan for all contingencies..but then, we shall never be able to do that and might find the future rather unattractive if we could.

amicus...

 

[shereads]

If we ccould only foresee the future and plan for all contingencies..but then, we shall never be able to do that and might find the future rather unattractive if we could.

amicus...

There are people who foresee the future and plan for all contingencies. We call them "alarmists."

I didn't live in Miami during The Perfect Season. But like all newcomers to the city, I was captured the day I moved here, locked inside a so-called "Welcome Wagon," and forced to watch video highlights until I swore an oath never to visit a menswear outlet that hadn't been recommended by Dan Marino. I'm proud to say, I've kept my promise.

 

[English Lady]

*hugs* Sher -good to see you!

 

[moonlight elf]

Hope all those in the storms path keep safe.

~Moonie.

 

[shereads]

*hugs* Sher -good to see you!

Thanks, EL.

Hurricane Rita was just warming up when it passed by south of Miami. Unfortunately, it's picking up strength in the Gulf of Mexico and is now a Category 5 storm. If it makes landfall as a Cat. 5, it will be only the 3rd storm of that strength to hit the U.S. in a century.

Hurricane Andrew was a Category 5. Nobody knows the maximum windspeed because it broke the wind meter at the Nat'l Hurricane Center. There wasn't as much flooding as with Katrina, because Andrew was a relatively dry, fast-moving storm and didn't make landfall during a high tide. But the wind damage extended farther inland.

If Rita hits Galveston as a Category 5 storm, Houston could see just as much wind damage 50 miles inland.

LiTSTERS in Houston: Anyone who doesn't have secure storm shutters on every window should stay with friends who do. It's not the breaking windows that kill you - It's the wind getting inside and lifting the roof off the house.

Stay safe, Litsters.

 

[SeaCat]

To my friends in and along the Texas Coast,

If you are along the track of this storm I'm hoping you get the hell out of her way. Stay safe and don't take the risks I would.

Cat