Breakfast at Tiffany's – Because I Do Not Know

Another Gulf Monster

Y'know, as much as I love following the weather, I'd be fine with not writing about another hurricane for the rest of this year. Yet we still have several more weeks of prime hurricane season. And Rita seems intent on one hell of a closing act.

Rita is now a Cat 5 with sustained surface winds of 165 mph. Sustained, people. That's stronger than Katrina when she came ashore. And, as you can see, she's bigger than the entire state of Louisiana. But at least some people are learning from Katrina's painful -- and deadly -- lesson:

Helicopters, ambulances and buses were used to evacuate 200 patients from Galveston's only hospital. And at the Edgewater Retirement Community, a six-story building near the city's seawall, 200 elderly residents were not given a choice.

"They either go with a family member or they go with us, but this building is not safe sitting on the seawall with a major hurricane coming," said David Hastings, executive director. "I have had several say, 'I don't want to go,' and I said, 'I'm sorry, you're going.' "

Let's hope something stalls her some before she reaches land. Right now, it looks like the Texas coast is in for some hurt, although I haven't given up entirely on my original prediction of landfall at Lake Charles, La. This would mean dire consequences for Louisiana.

2 comments Jake McCafferty last posted at 5:44 PM
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2 Comments:

i was reading something where they were saying they might run out of names this hurricane season and turn over to a greek alphabet nomenclature. how boring.

as for doing something about the hurricane, i understand the logistics in firing something into the heart of the hurricane. but if it's greatest weakness is wind shear that tears apart the inner cyclone, why not detonate something to either disrupt the wind formation or the temperature balance. like an icbm. its not as if we don't got enough of those. or an fae, though i'm sure the gas ring would be thrown askew by the wind before it was detonated. but that thing sucks the air out of people's lungs, surely there's possibility of poking a whole in the vortex's wall. now now gov't people, don't try and tell me you havn't developed an fae with that kind of yield.

By kinkyrhombus, at 11:59 PM

In related news, Blanco is as ever the bastion of sensitivity...

"Rita has Louisiana in her sights," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. "Head north. You cannot go east, you cannot go west. If you know the local roads that go north, take those."

As for those who refuse to leave, she said: "Perhaps they should write their Social Security numbers on their arms with indelible ink."

WTF?!?!?!

By Jay Six, at 3:30 PM