Cat Heinie Prize
Aug. 29th, 2005 12:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rain_gryphonIt's just as well that I never really wanted to visit New Orleans, I suppose. NOAA rates the storm's strength as 'catastrophic', which is a designation I've not seen used before. Depending on what data you use, it's either the second or fourth strongest low pressure zone ever recorded. The NOAA site shows the local radar, and you can see the rain bands sweeping over them. It seems so distant from here, but New Orleans is about to get completely wrecked.
This will be kind of like Camille, except this time live on TV, I think. I'm old enough to remember Camille, and what a horror that was. IIRC, the rest of the country didn't really know what was happening there until the next morning. Now you can sit here and watch, live.
There's some slight good news, in that they say now that the eye wall may be beginning to shed and reform, so that it may be at the weak point of the cycle as it hits shore. GOES visible imagery shows an absolutely circular eye. It's like an illustration from a book.
I grew up in a tornado alley, so I'm used to having to drop what I'm doing, grab the Cat and head for the shelter when the sirens blow. With a tornado, it's all over in a half hour or so, and you can either get on with your day or else start picking up the debris. I can't imagine having a couple days to know what was coming your way, and not be able to do anything about it, then have to endure it for hours.
They're interviewing people from Alabama who decided earlier not to evacuate, and now it's too late. Their state and local governments, like most, have spent the past decade proclaiming an emergency and ordering evacuations every time any hurricane whatsoever comes anywhere close. Lots of people, of course, have in consequence stopped paying attention to evacuations. They've probably saved a dozen or so lives over the years with the incessant evacuations, but that's going to even out by noon tomorrow.
This will be kind of like Camille, except this time live on TV, I think. I'm old enough to remember Camille, and what a horror that was. IIRC, the rest of the country didn't really know what was happening there until the next morning. Now you can sit here and watch, live.
There's some slight good news, in that they say now that the eye wall may be beginning to shed and reform, so that it may be at the weak point of the cycle as it hits shore. GOES visible imagery shows an absolutely circular eye. It's like an illustration from a book.
I grew up in a tornado alley, so I'm used to having to drop what I'm doing, grab the Cat and head for the shelter when the sirens blow. With a tornado, it's all over in a half hour or so, and you can either get on with your day or else start picking up the debris. I can't imagine having a couple days to know what was coming your way, and not be able to do anything about it, then have to endure it for hours.
They're interviewing people from Alabama who decided earlier not to evacuate, and now it's too late. Their state and local governments, like most, have spent the past decade proclaiming an emergency and ordering evacuations every time any hurricane whatsoever comes anywhere close. Lots of people, of course, have in consequence stopped paying attention to evacuations. They've probably saved a dozen or so lives over the years with the incessant evacuations, but that's going to even out by noon tomorrow.
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Re: Sympathy
Date: 2005-08-30 04:30 am (UTC)Re: Sympathy
Date: 2005-08-30 06:22 am (UTC)Re: Sympathy
Date: 2005-08-30 06:53 am (UTC)