The hurricane Rita

[kreket]

How bad is this going to get? There is already the matter of the 100 mile long traffic jams and I'd hate to be there and I'd hate to be the government official trying to clear that one up.


Is this a Katrina sized hurricane?

[Lord Kelvin]

It really just depends. Last I heard it was Cat 5 and weakened to Cat 4, and it might or might not weaken further as it approaches land.

[SWATJester_os]

In terms of sheer geographic size, I believe it's only slightly smaller than katrina, but it's definately comparable.


I think you're a Euro am I right? Check out www.nhc.noaa.gov for updates on all the hurricanes.

[kreket]

Yup, I'm Euro.

Changed my nick since last time.

[Modest Genius]

comparable, yes. the mass panic is mostly an effect of the debacle that was new orleans. there have been plenty of these over the last decade without the current hysteria

[SWATJester_os]

Well, that and the fact that we've got an incredibly active storm season, including the possibility of the first time since 1915 of two cat. 4 storms striking mainland.

[-V-]

Well, looking at the news right now, seems Rita was a lot milder then Katrina in its after-effects and acting very similar to the common hurricane. Knocked some stuff down, but no psuedo-appocalypse type dammage as resultant from Katrina.

[DunNa]

The common hurricane? The only thing so special or powerful about katrina iirc was that it hit New Orleans which is below sea level. Basicly a big storm hit a place where it could potentially do the most damage out. If the storm had hit say most anywhere else it wouldn't have been that bad.

Also most places don't get completely ass raped from hurricanes look at florida last year it took three and is still dandy. Yeah for awhile power was out and back roads were blocked. But life went on.

I don't know if it was the people, the political people involved (mainly New Orleans and LA people), or it Katrina was just so fucking massive (and I didn't think it was that big) that it fucked everything.

Now media over hype and such bullshit are making people panic and all this happiness is happening and 100mile gridlocks and such. Its not the storms it where it hit that makes the difference more often than not.

[SWATJester_os]

Katrina and Rita were both massive....having tropical storm force winds extending more than 150mi from the eye is huge.

-edit- and florida, we get hit by storms every year. We've modified our building and insurance codes, so that we are prepared. Our residents are smart and evacuate when necessary, they don't sit around.

[Modest Genius]

rita hit as a cat 3. katrina hit with a cat 4, just downgraded from a cat 5. BIG difference (for a start 4s and 5s are 'strong huricanes', 3s are not)

sure, theyre big storms. and scientific studies have proven that their frequency is increasing. but the media frenzy is still unjustified.

[waisted menkey]

agreed. at work I have to deal with the hurricanes, each and every one of them. including the multitude of typhoons and any other disaster (ie, earthquates, large scale riots, acts of terrorism, tsunamis, government uphevals, etc, etc, etc...). no, i'm not some government wacko, i work in travel (for a very large travel company), part of a team which monitors things of this nature so we can put out the message to our thousands of travelers who might be in the various effected areas and do what we can to get them out. and to tell you the truth, i'm SICK of all the coverage. any and every hurricane to hit the US will get stupid amounts of coverage for quite some time now because of Katrina like hurricanes don't come each and every year :rolleyes:

i guess just give it a decade. eventually people will forget and be happy to live below sealevel again. something i read today which i found "funny" (not laughing funny, but more like trippy funny) was the river which runs through or by lafayette was running backwards. instead of S it was running N due to storm surge

[SWATJester_os]

No, give it till the end of novermber when storm season ends...by next july you won't hear shit about hurricanes.

[waisted menkey]

No, give it till the end of novermber when storm season ends...by next july you won't hear shit about hurricanes.

you kidding? next year during hurricane season there will be "where are they now" specials and they'll be all "well, it's not as bad as Katrina" and for god's sake, if one heads towards N.O. they'll be all "and they just barely recovered."

we'll hear about it for at least one more year. guaranteed. i don't mean to sound like i'm complaining too much, because it truely is a horrible tragety, but i've been living, breathing and eating hurricanes for quite some time now. it would be nice to come home and see something else on TV (that jetblue landing was pretty trippy) or hear something else on the radio (radio seems to be either hurricanes or granny-sex on stern....though i'm tired of hurricanes, granny-sex just isn't better).

[Rebus]

The fact that the Houston-area roadways don't exactly make sense and the fact that many of the highways in the city are in some degree of construction didn't help matters with getting people out of the region any.

[Tunnel Rat]

as a native Houstonian, with family strung from Galveston to North Houston, I just have to quote Kanye West, "George Bush Doesn't Like Black People." that's a joke btw. Of course all the conspiracy theorists are sure that the Hurricane Rita barely hit Texas because of George Bush's seekrat wether m4chine.

all kidding aside,

there have been plenty of these over the last decade without the current hysteria

Depends which "these" you're speaking of. If you're talking Cat 3 hurricanes, then yes. If you happen to be talking about "extremely active hurricane seasons" then, no you're wrong. Let alone two cat 5 storms in the Gulf within 10 days of each other. Additionally, the Western Gulf of Mexico for the most part hasn't been hit with hurricanes of similar strength since Alicia blew through in '83. We're more on the receiving end of tropical depressions and tropical storms, not full-blown Cat 3+ hurricanes.