Hurricane Season: Yet Another Hurricane Headed to Florida

[zoobyshoe]

My family all evacuated yesterday. They live in a coastal area of Houston. It took them about 13 hours to get to Austin.

Glad t hear they made it to Austin, and I hope there's no serious damage to the house.

 

[BobG]

And for those who are inclined to "ride it out":
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9439537/

Staying? Better write your SS# on your body...
From one mayor, a sobering message in attempt to get die-hards to leave

Mayor Alan Tharling of Port Lavaca, a city on the Texas coast between Houston and Corpus Christi, is taking creative measures to make citizens take the threat of Hurricane Rita seriously.

Tharling says that the 1,000 or so die-hards who refuse to evacuate are being given permanent markers and asked to write their Social Security number, next of kin and a phone number on their arm or across their abdomen — so that returning officials can identify their bodies.

My family all evacuated yesterday. They live in a coastal area of Houston. It took them about 13 hours to get to Austin.

Well, I would go for the tatoo. That info also comes in handy when you don't quite make it home from the bar at night.

It probably makes them do a double take, anyway.

It reminds me of the aluminum siding company that would include your address, free of charge, on the hidden side of each piece of aluminum siding installed on your house (just in case, you know).

 

[Evo]

My mother and sister live in Houston. I was there during the last Cat 5 hurricane that hit and we had zero damage, we lost electricity for a few days, that was it. I'm not sure if they are planning to stay, we've never left the house due to a hurricane, but the house is steel frame and brick, so it's as sturdy as any building designated as a shelter. I fear those 30 foot pines all around the house though, there could be roof damage.

 

[Math Is Hard]

It looks now like Port Arthur is going to get nailed. The storm turned quite a bit today.

 

[stoned]

Is there a chance Rita going to go to Crawford ?

 

[tdunc]

Official Rita thread? If this sucker hits Galveston, ooh boy. If you have seen pictures of what the storm surge did to the New Orleans coast, that is what the entire area of Galveston will look like, FLAT. Flooding won't be the issue because it will just run back into the Gulf after the fact. And the sad fact is that it will be completely leveled if it hits just right cause the biggest surge is on the right of the eye. There is a major industrial infrastructure around that area, not just oil refineries which is Huge too, but look, there is Texas A&M, Nasa Johnson Space Center 2 major Nuclear plants, up a ways near the water... Bad bad spot. Oh not to mention a Level 4 Biohard laboratory smack dab in the middle of the island not more than a mile from the water, which I don't know what I want to say about that... few images. Been having fun with Nasa's
"Worldwind" which is a global satalite dealie. http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

http://www.photodump.com/viewer/tdunc/94.77379W_29.31163N.html
http://www.utmb.edu/gnl/about/index.shtml
http://www.utmb.edu/construction/ctiedlab.htm
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/index.html

Going to bed, hope for the best.

 

[hitssquad]

The hurricane-name lists

They skipped 'Q'? I've never seen the names get this far down the alphabet - I was kind of curious what 'Q' name they would use.

nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

"Six lists are used in rotation. Thus, the 2004 list will be used again in 2010."


cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/19/storm.names/index.html

The Atlantic basin has seen 17 named storms since the season began June 1, and only four are left on the list.

What's a meteorologist to do if the names run out? Go Greek.
[...]
The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are skipped because not enough names start with those letters, [National Hurricane Center meteorologist Daniel] Brown said.

Hurricane Alpha would be a first for the hurricane center.

"There was one year in 1933 we actually had 21 storms. That's been the most in the Atlantic. However, it was before we started naming storms" Brown said.

 

[Astronuc]

I believe that the 2011 list will not have Katrina.

IIRC, they retire names of the destructive hurricanes, like Andrew and Katrina.

 

[Moonbear]

I believe that the 2011 list will not have Katrina.

IIRC, they retire names of the destructive hurricanes, like Andrew and Katrina.

That is correct. When one is particularly destructive, they retire the name and replace it with a new one in the list.

I'm already getting emails from scientific societies setting up message boards to help place more grad students and scientists if Rita hits Galveston and Houston as hard as predicted.