Katrina!

[Loyal Rogue]

Well we're taking an on and off pounding with some gusts over 90mph.
Power has been out for almost 3 hours now so I took a nap.
We're hoping the outage doesn't turn into 3 days like my brother's house did last year.
Several square yards of somebody's roofing just blew down the street.
I'll have to take a walk around tomorrow after work to see who's it was.
The worst of the storm is supposed to hit around midnight so I'll probably shutdown the generator and bring it inside around 11.
There doesn't seem to be too much rain on this end of the storm, just lots of wind.
All the real flooding will happen over the next two days as the backend will just keep picking up moisture from both the Everglades and the ocean and dumping it on us.
I'm definitely not looking forward to working in this mess tomorrow.

[admedia]

I am glad you have a generator LR.

Wish you well riding it out tonight.
Be safe.

[admedia]

Strange... it looks like it's tracking south now.
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA...-ir4-loop.html

[nordberg]

she's back...

anyone live in nawlins...?

[DigitalOne]

We'll get the remnants, time to start boarding up.

[gesteves]

Jesus, it's now a Category 5 and it's moving directly towards New Orleans. Are there any FKrs in that area?

[hurricaneone]

The point I find most interesting about hurricanes, more accurately the Saffir-Simpson scale of storm strength (1-5) is that a cat 5 storm is not 5x stronger than a cat 1 but 250 times.

BBC's saying that the National Hurricane Center's chief is predicting it to be a cat 4 by the time it hits N'Orlins.

[Ask The Geezer]

It's already a category 5. Do they loose strength as they hit land? I thought they just got stronger.

"At 11 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center said Katrina’s maximum sustained wind speed had stepped up to nearly 175 mph, with higher gusts. The hurricane’s eye was about 225 miles south-southeast of the mouth of Mississippi River."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9063708/

If you've ever been to NO, you know that it can't stand those kinds of winds, and it's 20 feet below sea level for the most part. A storm surge will roll right over the levee's and if one of them goes, that's it, New Orleans is gone.

You can be in town there and see the upper bridgeworks of ships going by in the channel, and you have to look up to see them.

[hurricaneone]

It's already a category 5. Do they loose strength as they hit land? I thought they just got stronger.

Hurricanes are driven by warm water, the condensation-evaporation cycle and associated heat transfer. Once they're over land, they lose strength fairly quickly.

Not that that does Nerlins much good.

[nordberg]

this is going to be BAD. no city can handle 175 hour winds, especially NO.
they keep showing the footage of miami last week, and that was a cat 1.
now, imagine that it's 100MPH faster.

look at the high-res imagery...it's not good at all...

http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/hurseas2005...0828-1kg12.jpg
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/hurseas2005...0828-1kg12.jpg

iaskwhy - when storms make landfall, they will briefly pickup wind speed.
this is because the eyewall contracts, and spins faster.
but, after about 20-30 miles, it will begin to fall apart quickly.

[Ask The Geezer]

I don't think NO is far enough inland to matter. If there really is a 20 foot surge, NO is going to be out to sea and not inland at all.

[lefteyewilly]

my aunt lives 40 minutes from NO...she went to florida yesterday, the storm is going to pass right over her small city in LA.

Unfortunately, my uncle is the head of the Emergency Room near NO, so he has to stay for disaster relief. Hopefully he'll be fine.

[PAlexC]

I completely ignored all the hype when this was a Category 1. Woke up hung-over Sunday and all I heard on the news was that N.O. was royally screwed, being that it's 8 feet below sea level.

The city could flood anywhere from 18-28 feet deep, and stay flooded for weeks. lefteye, I hope your uncle is stocked up on anti-biotics because it's not the storm that's going to cause the biggest problems, it's the disesase and backed-up sewage that will.

[admedia]

Looks like the roof of the superdome is being compramised along in a seam in the roof.

8,000 people are sheltered in there...
strongest winds are approaching now.

[PAlexC]

From the pictures I saw the people are in the stands. I don't think the dome could flood from rain, even in a hurricane.

[wouter999]

We had a hurricane drinking game all thought out last night but we then went on to playing it and now I can't remember it anymore.

[nordberg]

they can see daylight through the roof of the superdome now.
the worst of the storm is still 2 hours away...this is only going to get worse...

[admedia]

At least N.O. will get spared the worst of the eye wall.

Say goodbye to the casinos in Biloxi.

[nordberg]

We had a hurricane drinking game all thought out last night but we then went on to playing it and now I can't remember it anymore.

while watching the weather channel...?
- every time they say 'honker down', take a drink.
- every time they say 'catostrophic', take a drink.
- every time they mention camille, take two drinks.

[wouter999]

while watching the weather channel...?
- every time they say 'honker down', take a drink.
- every time they say 'catostrophic', take a drink.
- every time they mention camille, take two drinks.

Something like that yeah. Only we pounded beers and we disregarded every rule after about five beers and just kept on pounding 'till one dude passed out.