Friday, September 23, 2005

Rita changes course, may spare Houston area



Powerful hurricane roars toward Gulf Coast, but exact destination unclear



Houston Evacuees escape Hurricane Rita using Interstate 45. To speed the evacuation, the governor halted all southbound traffic into Houston and took the unprecedented step of opening all eight lanes to northbound traffic out of the city for 125 miles.

what if it was us...how will singapore react? probably a road rage will happen every two mins. also where are we to go? we do have bomb shelters but are they build to withstand hurricanes? if they are, why is houston evacuting the whole town? if we have too have to evacute, where would we go? malaysia? hahaha.. they will probably have to look into some old treaty first before they decide. another interesting fact from the net is the "national oceanic & atmospheric adminstration" or noaa.

"The emergence of new monster Hurricane Rita doesn’t rise to the level of a ‘top story’ on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s home page, but visitors can find information on the storm if they know where to look"

"Despite seeing a four-fold increase in traffic in the weeks since Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast and with Rita threatening the region with fresh calamity, the top story Thursday on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Web site was the rescue of four dolphins washed into the Mississippi River by Hurricane Katrina. The storm topping NOAA’s National Hurricane Center Web site? Tropical Storm Philippe, a small system forecast to bypass the United States by more than 1,000 miles. "

"Flash back three weeks ago: As Katrina strengthened into a Category 5 monster and local and federal officials pleaded with Gulf Coast residents to take evacuation orders seriously, NOAA’s home page led with the story of how the agency’s historians had debunked a 142-year-old Civil War legend involving a cannon and a cat"

interesting isn't it, its like loggin to espn to see the results of last nights soccer match but getting american idol results instead. okie maybe thats too extreme but u get my drift.

hurricane experts predict years of more storms; atlantic in cycle of increased activity that may last 10-20 years. it also been said that katrina will not be last major hurricane to hit a vulnerable city.

"Mayfield predicted several more named tropical storms this year. The latest, Hurricane Rita, is the 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which ends Nov. 1. Since record-keeping started in 1851, the record is 21 tropical storms, in 1933.

Mayfield also listed a number of cities and regions in addition to New Orleans he believes are “especially vulnerable” to damage from a major hurricane: Houston and Galveston, Texas; Tampa; southern Florida and the Florida Keys; New York City and Long Island; and New England.The center’s predictions on Katrina’s movements were more accurate than usual, but the storm grew more intense more quickly than expected as it moved through the Gulf of Mexico, he said. Three days before it made landfall on Aug. 29, computer models predicted it would hit near New Orleans."

another interesting read would be "Galveston and the ‘most horrible sights’ of 1900" In September 1900, a hurricane hit Galveston, Texas, killing more than 6,000 people. Sixty years later, Category 5 Hurricane Carla came ashore and caused more than $300 million in damage.

"The port city, then one of the wealthiest in America in terms of per capita income, lay in ruins; it would take decades to rebuild Galveston again although it never recovered its former glory. The remodeled Galveston would include a 7-mile, 17-foot foot seawall to protect against future storm surges.

More than 105 years later, the concrete barrier may be tested as the city on the tip of the Houston Channel anxiously awaits another ferocious blow. Hurricane Rita, measured as a Category 5 storm, is headed toward Galveston, located 40 miles southeast of Houston, and may hit as early as Saturday morning."

our prayers are with them, hope they ride this one out!

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