This is looking like another Katrina. The Gulf is nice and warm too. The Gulf Coast don't need another big storm. Get ready for even higher GAS prices to if the Offshore Rigs are damaged.
Originally posted by CajunManThis is looking like another Katrina. The Gulf is nice and warm too. The Gulf Coast don't need another big storm. Get ready for even higher GAS prices to if the Offshore Rigs are damaged.
Pray that this thing stays away from the Gulf.
(edited by CajunMan on 26.8.08 1904)
Most of the tracks right now have it meandering into the Gulf (except for one bizarre path that has it doing something like a 3-point turn and bouncing between Jamaica and Cuba or something like that). It's still a bit too early to tell though, buy come Saturday we should know more. The way it strengthened though, in addition to a huge open space to cook in, should it make it to the Gulf, means that if it's anywhere near New Orleans, it probably won't be pretty.
Granted, New Orleans is right in the middle, but Katrina was one of those one-in-a-million storms that hits at precisely the worst spot. Plenty of hurricanes have hit the Gulf without causing the damage Katrina did.
Odds are against Gustav becoming Katrina II...and at least the levees are more reinforced now. We hope.
Originally posted by The ThrillThe Weather Channel's predicted path has Gustav making landfall anywhere from the Florida panhandle to southeastern Texas.
Granted, New Orleans is right in the middle, but Katrina was one of those one-in-a-million storms that hits at precisely the worst spot. Plenty of hurricanes have hit the Gulf without causing the damage Katrina did.
Odds are against Gustav becoming Katrina II...and at least the levees are more reinforced now. We hope.
Who told you that the levees are more reinforced now?
I know that after the storm we had here last winter, the last thing I want to see for a very long while is another storm like that. (Our roof is just finally getting replaced this week). Even the threat of Gustav is more than I would wish on New Orleans.
Originally posted by The ThrillThe Weather Channel's predicted path has Gustav making landfall anywhere from the Florida panhandle to southeastern Texas.
Granted, New Orleans is right in the middle, but Katrina was one of those one-in-a-million storms that hits at precisely the worst spot. Plenty of hurricanes have hit the Gulf without causing the damage Katrina did.
Odds are against Gustav becoming Katrina II...and at least the levees are more reinforced now. We hope.
The thing about Katrina is the initial impact wasn't the real blow. In the hours after the storm hit, the word was how it was just another overblown event by the media. Once the levees broke after the storm was when all hell broke loose. My main concern is if this thing is real strong and it goes right at Houston. If that happens, $7 a gallon might not be far behind. If it misses the mountains in Cuba, someone is going to take a real beating.
One of my employees in the area was told to evacuate Saturday morning and they hightailed it to Houston. Another that lives in Baton Rouge is staying put (for now) and his parents are coming up from the NO area to stay with him.
I was all the way up in Jackson, MS this past week and flew out on Friday. There were already a lot of gas stations near the airport that were out of gas as people were trying to fill up before things got hairy and people began the trip up I-55 from NO so we had a tough time filling up our rental before returning it.
Glad my schedule worked out to have me not in the area over the next week or so and hope everyone else gets to safety and returns to find their homes just fine.
It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. P. G. Wodehouse (1881 - 1975), The Man Upstairs (1914)
The local news reports say that Gustav was downgraded from a Category 4 to a strong Category 3 hurricane after it passed over Cuba...wasn't Katrina a Category 3?
Katrina was a 3, but hit so close to N.O. The issue was more about the storm surge, and that the levees failed and flooded half the city than it was damage from the hurricane itself - which was notable for ripping up the SuperDome roof.
The levees have been repaired, but I believe they are still built to withstand a 3, and the CNN animation appears to be modeling Gustav as hitting the coast as a 4. The question is where will it hit - 30 miles to either side of the eye appears to be the worst of it. Working against New Orleans is that the track has the storm hitting to the west of the city this time (unlike Katrina), which potentially exposes the city to the brunt of the storm (they rotate counterclockwise).
It's good to see that everything that can be done, appears to be getting done - as you'd expect 3 years after the FUBAR Katrina effort. But the questions remain how close to populated areas the storm will make landfall, and if it's New Orleans again, will the levees hold up against a 13-17 foot storm surge?
It's good to see that everything that can be done, appears to be getting done - as you'd expect 3 years after the FUBAR Katrina effort. But the questions remain how close to populated areas the storm will make landfall, and if it's New Orleans again, will the levees hold up against a 13-17 foot storm surge?
Remember too, since the storm is coming in from the other side, (and thus, the surge is coming off the river, as opposed to off of Lake Ponchartrain), there are different levees that would potentially be impacted. The levees that would be under threat this time didn't have as many issues as last time, and if they need repair, would have been lower on the list than those that were damaged in Katrina.