HURRICANE RITA-Post Landfall 'On The Ground' Reports & More

4:00 AM CDT SAT, SEP 24 2005 – 27
Hurricane Rita: Cat 3
Maximum Sustained Winds (MPH): 120
Wind Gusts To (MPH): 150
Moving Towards the Northwest at near 12 MPH (I) +1
Estimated Minimum Central Pressure: 937 MB...27.67 Inches (I)(a)
Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 85 miles from the Center
Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 205 miles.
Located near Latitude 29.9 north...longitude 93.9 west, or near Port Arthur Texas.
------------
I=Increase, D=Decrease from last report
(a) NOAA Reconnaissance Aircraft Data

Rita moves onshore near Sabine Pass, Texas as a dangerous category three hurricane...currently near Port Arthur texas... A gradual turn toward the north and a decrease in forward motion is expected during the next 24 hours. This motion should bring the center of Rita farther inland over southeastern texas today. An instrumented tower in Port Athur run by the Florida coastal monitoring program has just reported sustained winds of 91 mph with a gust to 116 mph.

The minimum central pressure measured by the hurricane hunters just before landfall was 937 mb...27.67 inches. The automated station at Sea Rim State Park, Texas recently reported a pressure of 951.3 mb...28.09 inches.

Coastal storm surge flooding of 15 feet above normal tide levels... Locally up to 20 feet at head of bays and nearby rivers...with large and dangerous battering waves...can be expected near and to the east of where the center makes landfall. Tides along the southeast Louisiana and Mississippi coasts in areas affected by Katrina could be 4 to 6 feet above normal and be accompanied by large waves... And residents there could experience coastal flooding. Large swells generated by Rita will likely affect most portions of the Gulf Coast.

Since Rita is movingly slowly and is forecast to slow down further over the next few days...Rainfall totals of 10 to 15 inches are expected over Eastern Texas and Western Louisiana. Maximum rainfall totals in excess of 25 inches may occur over localized areas. Rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches with isolated heavier amounts are possible over southeastern Louisiana including metropolitan New Orleans.

====NHC Discussion=====
Reports from Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft and National Weather Service WSR-88d radars indicate that Rita made landfall just east of Sabine Pass about 0730z (2:30 CDT) with maximum winds of near 105 kt (120 mph / Gusts to 150 mph) and a central pressure of 937 mb.

Since landfall...the convection in the remains of the northwest eyewall has become quite intense...possibly due to increased frictional convergence over land. Overalll...Rita should weaken as it moves farther inland...becoming a tropical storm in 18-24 hr and a tropical depression in 36 hr. However...the cyclone is unlikely to completely dissipate before 120 hr. This...combined with the forecast slow motion...wll continue a threat for very heavy rains long after the winds hve subsided.

Rack guidance is in good agreement that the cyclone should turn more northward during the next 24 hr wth some deceleration...then turn slowly northeastward. The guidance then diverges...with some of the models calling for a loop as high pressure builds in west of Rita...some calling for slow motion...and the gfs calling for a rapid motion to the northeast given the spread...the official forecast track will follow the previous package and call for little motion after 48 hr.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS
INITIAL 24/0900Z 29.9N 93.9W 105 KT
12HR VT 24/1800Z 30.9N 94.3W 70 KT...INLAND

====GOPA Comments===

5:00 AM - Is it over yet. How did these guppies get in my underwear? The strongest winds (up to 75 MPH) and rain are in the East side of Houston (and going further east). Almost double what we are getting here in the west side. The East side of Houston is also highly prone to flooding. We lost 1,000’s of homes, due to flooding, in 2001 due to a stalled out tropical depression Allison (The Great Flood of 2001). Here’s a link with substantial info and pics of our massive, $5 billion in damages, 2001 flood, if you are interested:

http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/01/flood/index.html

See what happens with Hurricane, then TS, then TD, Rita. None of the pros and computer models still really know what she is going to do. Never see anything like ‘ol Rita in 20 years of following and studying hurricanes/severe weather systems. I got a bad feeling that Rita’s name is going to be retired after it is all said and done. Hope I am wrong. Bottom line, Hurricane Rita is still an extremely dangerous hurricane. Significant property loss and potential loss of life is expected from this powerful and frankly bizarre hurricane/tropical system

Everything still good here in Houston “ex-Bush Land” Texas from my/our location in NW Houston, other than I/we are totally exhausted.
~~~~~~~~

COUNTY SUSTAINED WINDS
(MPH) PEAK / GUST (MPH)
------------------------------------------
GALVESTON 66 / 82 (Note Winds on the exposed Gulf side island beach property is higher)
HOUSTON 42 / 52
HARRIS 55 / 69 (Houston Metro)

Surrounding Counties
------------------------
East of Houston/Harris Co:
CHAMBERS 73 / 91 (Southeast)
LIBERTY 68 / 85 (Northeast)

Others:
POLK 59 74
SAN JACINTO 54 68
TRINITY 50 62
MONTGOMERY 49 61
BRAZORIA 50 62
WALKER 43 52
MATAGORDA 40 50

GALVESTON BAY & GALVESTON ISLAND UPDATE:
Storm Surge Flood and Storm Tide Impacts

Water levels are currently receding in the upper portion of Galveston Bay as strong offshore winds have pushed the water back southward. Reaches up near the Houston Ship Channel and Eagle Point could fall as much as 4 to 5 feet below normal. This will cause water to pile up across bayside locations of Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula as the winds eventually turn more westward.

Surge models indicate the possibility of a 4 to 5 foot surge being trapped in the bay side portion of eastern Galveston island...along the Bolivar Peninsula...coupled with a 2 foot high tide at 2 am...water levels will be 6 to 7 feet above mean lower low water. Further west along Galveston Island...along the north facing Bay Shores...waters levels should be 2 to 3 feet above mean lower low water...coupled with a 1 to 2 foot high tide at 4:30 am. This flooding will gradually subside a few hours after sunrise. The gulf waters have already drastically receded in response to the strong north winds pushing water further offshore this evening. On the current forecast track...the most severe surge impacts would be
mainly east of Gilchrist.

===CURRENT IMAGES====

GOPA Update: 6:00 am: Hurricane Rita has made a clear west shift/drift towards Houston/Harris County and upper Galveston Bay/Houston Ship Channel in the last 30 minutes, with conditions starting to get much worse again with this shift. Also there has been a significant change in the projected tracks model which has been totally unstable and worthless for the last 48 hours

Any ideas on the area just northeast of Lake Charles? Oberlin, LA.
Looks like my family got the east side of the eye. They evacuated but, this is an old little Cajun town with some great people.

What is this they're saying about it possibly looping and exiting back into the Gulf?

all the way to 25 miles west of the Texas/Louisiana State line. Northeast quadrant of Hurricane Rita on landfall was packing maximum sustained winds of 134 MPH per NOAA-NHC Recon plane over the area. With the 11 MPH forward motion that is 145 MPH or Cat 4 status in that NE quadrant of Rita that hit the Lake Charles area.

I/we have to think the refineries and O & G installations in the area, including Port Arthur, also took on significant damage.

The highest wind and wave readings observed were at NOAA-NDBC Station @ Marsh Island, LA and Bouy stations in the Gulf south of this area. On Rita's approach we saw a 46 ft wave reading at a Bouy station just south of the western LA coastline. Storm surge looks like 16-21 feet based on what data we have. Over in the Galveston Bay area and west we were also on the high side of the tide when Rita hit.

This is in Iowa, LA. Very near their houses. Now the other half of the family is in Corrigan/Lufkin. They didn't evacuate.

Looks like weather info knocked out in Lake Charles.

LUFKIN, Texas (AP) _ Officials said they believe the population of Lufkin has nearly tripled to about 100,000 with Hurricane Rita evacuees in the city. The city's normal population is around 35,000.

Officials estimate that as many as 10,000 people are taking shelter in the city, with the rest staying in private homes or parking lots. U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, said he was worried about East Texas evacuees being in the path of the storm.

"The state successfully evacuated a lot of people off the coast and out of Houston. The problem is a good number of them are stuck in East Texas, right in the direct path of the hurricane," Brady said. He said evacuees are stuck in cities such as Livingston, Jasper, Woodville, Newton and Cold Springs, 70-80 miles inland, that were originally east of the projected hurricane path.

"We have thousands of people with no fuel or food, no shelters, no cots, no security ... When the winds start hitting tonight those people are going to be stuck," Brady said. Brady decided to ride out the storm from his home, about 25 miles north of downtown Houston. He said he had planned to evacuate with his wife and two young children, but "the roads were too much and I'm glad we didn't."

<snip>

who was told to evacuate to Lufkin. She got there and the shelter she was instructed to go to had twice as many occupants as allowed. She was sleeping in her car with 2 children and three adults.

I was worried about Lufkin. Hope your family is okay.

A friend had a can of gas and had to pull his gun out and just show that he had one while he was filling the tank. People had started towards him the minute they saw the gas can.

Another area was trying to give 5 gallons to each car and it got so out of control (gunshots, etc.) that the police came and shut it all down.

Unfortunely, the other half of my family live near Lake Charles. They have some major devestation. But they are at least safely evacuated in Monroe, LA.

my ex-inlaws have family there...

7:00 AM CDT SAT, SEP 24 2005 – 27
Hurricane Rita: Cat 2 (D)
Maximum Sustained Winds (MPH): 100 (D)
Wind Gusts To (MPH): 130
Moving Towards the Northwest at near 12 MPH
Estimated Minimum Central Pressure: 950 MB...28.05 Inches (I)
Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 85 miles from the Center
Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 205 miles.
Located near Latitude 30.4 north...longitude 94.2 west, or midway between Jasper and Beaumont, Texas.
------------
I=Increase, D=Decrease from last report
(a) NOAA Reconnaissance Aircraft Data

...RITA MOVES FARTHER INLAND...WEAKENS TO A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE...

A gradual turn toward the north and a decrease in forward motion is expected during the next 24 hours. This motion should bring the center of Rita farther inland over southeastern Texas today. No change in other previous forecast data from 4:00 AM.

====GOPA Comments===

Rita is now 5 hours inland since official landfall and 7 hours since unofficial landfall. Official landfall is when the center of the eye crosses the coastline. Unofficial is when the northern edge of the eye crosses the coastline. With a 25 mile wide eye I prefer the unofficial landfall time. Rita’s landfall was 5 hours earlier than forecast by NOAA-NHC

80 – 100 MPH winds have been recently reflected in the east Texas area around Beaumont, Texas.

1. THE BIG "Question Mark" from ............ ?
2. A Hook pulling everything off into the ocean ?
3. A living Pacman brain and spine eating everything in its path ?
4. You name the pic ______________________



Well, you can hopefully figure this next image out, lol. Ya know, you can't make this stuff up.

Have Islamic extremists figured out how to control weather and are getting back at us for the Abu Ghraib prisoner photos?

Thanks for your great pics and commentary. I look at the pics and I'm like bush, "Wow, what pretty pictures, but I don't really understand them."

I'm weather-map challenged :)

as feared, though eastern areas are really getting drenched and pounded. I'll PM Rainscents and crispini to alert them to the new thread.

Recommended. People, Part I of this thread is the best site on the internet to follow what Rita is up to, literally blow-by-blow, and I expect Part II is going to be very illuminating too. That is, if the proprietor of the thread can manage to stay awake and power doesn't go off where he is in Houston.

Good morning, GOPA! :hi: Gorgeous blue sky and lovely cool early fall day here in New England, wish you were getting the same.

Thank you for these threads.

My grandparents' neighbors rode out the storm in their church. Went back to the neighborhood to check out the damage and there was very little damage, just one metal carport blown away. No water, no trees down. Sulphur is just to the east of Lake Charles.

My family is in Oberlin. How are utilities for your grandparents?
Now there is no elec. (of course), but also no water, phone, etc.
and it is going to be a long time before it comes back on.

A very long string of updates, all time-stamped. Parts of the 9th Ward of New Orleans are under 8 feet of water. Houston looks like it got off rather easily so far. Much more in these continuing updates about local damage, planning for evacuee returns, and so on. Cameron Parish, Louisiana, which got the worst of the landfall, is a catastrophic mess. (I'm seeing it called "county," but don't Louisianans call them "parishes"?)(For reference, I'll post a Louisiana map below.)

Thanks for continuing with this treads! :hi: :hi:

Glad to hear, some good news out of this storm!

We were ridiculously lucky that the hurricane jogged east away from Houston. I'm in the Westchase district, and we didn't lose power, had (comparatively) minimal winds, and very little rain.

:yourock:

Latest projections, if you can believe anything they say.

Can anyone remember the details?

By KRISTEN MACK and MARK CARREAU, Houston Chronicle
Sept. 24, 2005, 11:09AM

After undertaking one of the most massive evacuations in U.S. history, Houston appears to have weathered Hurricane Rita with little damage. "It looks like the Houston and Galveston area has really lucked out,'' said Max Mayfield, director of the hurricane center. "For a storm that 24 hours ago was supposed to be the largest storm of the history of the Gulf bearing down on Houston, we have come out reasonably well,'' Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said.

There are 575,000 people without power throughout the city of Houston, according to Eckels. Patricia Frank, CenterPoint spokeswoman, said outages were heaviest in the south part of town earlier in the evening, but then shifted to neighborhoods in the Humble and Kingwood areas, which have many trees.

Houston police have cordoned off sections of downtown because of glass falling from buildings, including Chase Tower. The calls for service for police and emergency medical were lower than normal. But calls for fire were up.

<snip>
=================

Much of Galveston is without power
By HARVEY RICE, STEVE McVICKER and KEVIN MORAN, Houston Chronicle
Sept. 24, 2005, 12:12PM

GALVESTON -- Much of Galveston was without electrical power early today and the historical section was scarred by a wind-driven blaze that damaged four Strand-area structures.

At least 41,000 in Galveston County were without power, largely because of high winds and falling power limbs, according to CenterPoint Energy.

Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said at a news conference late this morning that residents who tried to return would be turned back because the city is not safe yet. "Please do not try to come on to the island," Thomas said. A dusk-to-dawn curfew remains in effect in the county, the mayor said.

<snip>

#######
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3367836
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3367955

the protest off the news...I've seen worst storms in northern California in Febuary...get fucking real!!!

Keep watching the bullshit news...they'll make it seem like the end of the world...and people are eating it up!!!

and no name storms here in St Pete Fl.hell when it rains a little and a little gust of wind blows

our power goes out for an hour or so.....oh well, glad people are okay..

some rain water and mud on the ground....Rove did it again...No protest marches will be on the news...Fuck my power goes out four times a year when it rains here in Northern CA This was a joke...Houston and Texas have seen far worst every year...what a fucking Sham!!!!

As far as predictions go, if you listen carefully to real meteorologists, the problem is they can predict a set of brackets, not a pin point. For example, they can say that the storm's power will be between A and B, and it will hit areas between X and Z. If they see a probability that a severe storm will nail point A, should we complain when at the last minute the storm turns, dies down a little and hits point B instead? Are they supposed to be quiet abut a large possibility for a serious storm just because there is a smaller chance the storm will fizzle?

Everyone was saying Thursday this storm was headed for Galveston and Houston. Thank heavens (or whomever you wish) that officials in Port Arthur took note that they were within the range of possibilities and took precautions.

news?

This tropical storm is over...with very little damage...oh some power outages and some broken windows, oh yeah, I saw a sign blown down down....Geee...We get power outages here in CA every year when a storm comes through...keep watching the news they'll find somewhere or something to convince the people who want to believe this was more than just a lot of rain and winds and nothing more than a huge tropical storm .

Keep watching!!!

Please Wake-up!....Hurr Rita is the perfect excuse for BushCo to get the media to run a full blitz/blackout on the protest. Are you people that naïve?

While you are at it, study up on the Vietnam/Southeast Asia War and Prez Nixon and his Administration's suppression tactics. BushCo is using many tactics right out of Nixon's/HR Halderman's playbook.

And BTW, John Kerry and the DNC lost the election, BushCo didn't win it OK!

He has done amazing work on a storm of historic proportions. Take a look today. Power outages and broken windows? OMG! Take a look at a little Interstate known as I-10...you know, as in, goes to Santa Monica and ends?

From Port Arthur in Texas all the way across the state of Louisiana
whole towns, hell, parishes have been wiped off the earth. No death toll? Uh, not yet. They can't even get in there. Natural gas pipeline damaged that supplies 40% of U.S. is damaaged. The South is at a virtual standstill. I promise a whole shitload of stuff happened that YOU didn't see, DID happen. Sit back and watch.
Oh, and your march? CNN covered extensively this morning. Didn't even downplay the numbers.

Sorry, to be a bitch about it. But our govt. is killing more than just the people in Iraq. They're killing us on our own soil.

* 600,000 Centerpoint customers in Houston
* 300,000 Entergy customers in Texas
* 84,000 TXU customers in East Texas

Source: http://www.chron.com/

~~GOPA O & G Infrastructure Damage Master~~

Re: Refineries

Hurricane Rita's northerly turn may have spared Houston-area refineries and chemical plants, but facilities in Port Arthur, Beaumont and Lake Charles, La., could be in for significant trouble.

The four refineries in Port Arthur and Beaumont account for 7 percent of the countries' refining capacity - making it one of the biggest concentrations in the country. But it's still short of the Houston area's 13 percent total. In Lake Charles, sits a 324,000-barrel-per-day Citgo refinery and one of the largest import terminals for liquefied natural gas in the country. Informationally, Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

Rita made landfall at 2:30 a.m. CDT as a Category 3 (Cat 4+ on the northeast side of her eyewall per NOAA-NHC) hurricane just east of Sabine Pass, on the Texas-Louisiana line, bringing a 20-foot storm surge and up to 25 inches of rain, the National Hurricane Center said.

It will be 5 days before these refinery installation can be properly evaluated in full.

GOPA Note: Based on prelim reports, there is very extensive damage and flooding in the Beaumont, Port Arthur, Lake Charles triangle, including the refineries, particularly at Port Arthur.

########

Oil drops $2.31
-----------------
Oil was down $2.31 to $64.19, while natural gas was down 46 cents to $12.32 per million British thermal units. Gasoline was down 5.4 cents to $2.086 cents per gallon, while heating oil dropped nearly 10 cents to $1.95 a gallon.

David Pursell, an analyst with Houston's Pickering Energy Partners, said markets seemed to underestimate the threat from the storm. "I don't think we're out of the woods yet," Pursell said. "The chance of a months-long damage recovery here is less. But given what is off line from Katrina, anything incremental beyond that is a big deal."

Before hurricane season, oil, natural gas and gasoline prices were creeping to record highs because of increased demand globally and across the country. Hurricane Katrina crippled the industry both onshore and offshore when it hit late last month.

Damage to two Dynegy-run processing plants in Venice and Yscloskey, La., and one run by Enterprise Partners in Toca blocked more than 30 percent of the Gulf's natural gas output. It will be more than a month before they are reopened. And much of the oil from offshore cannot flow because of breaks in a Shell pipeline onshore and flooding at a Chevron oil terminal.

GOPA Note: We went through this situation with Hurricane Ivan last year. All you heard about was the property and life loss in the Florida Panhandle area in the media. Very little press on the massive damage to the O & G offshore infrastructure by Ivan that the industry was just starting to get behind them when nailed again this year by Katrina, and now Rita. For example, Ivan caused massive mud slides on the Gulf floor, with breaks of O & G transmission pipes, moving some as far away as 20 miles. It was a very big deal within the industry.

5% of capacity down
-------------------------
To top it off, more than 5 percent of U.S. oil refining capacity was shut down because of flooding and damage. Those plants may not resume making gasoline and other products for several more weeks. Energy output post-Katrina had started to improve, but it was still far from normal before Rita forced another round of shutdowns.

About 56 percent of oil production and 34 percent of natural gas production remained shut in on Sept. 19, the day before companies began to shut down platforms in advance of Hurricane Rita. Until a hurricane passes, companies can only guess the potential damage left in its wake.
Significant Refinery & Offshore Platform Damage Probable by Hurr Rita


The list of energy assets at risk from Rita begins more than 100 miles off Louisiana in some of the larger deep-water oil and gas fields. The center of Rita passed just south of some of those deep-water fields, meaning the stronger winds on the east side of the storm heavily buffeted those areas, some at a strong Cat 5 status.

Among the production platforms near the storm are BP's Atlantis platform, (heavily damaged by Katrina, GOPA) which can produce up to 200,000 barrels of oil a day; Anadarko's Marco Polo platform, with a 120,000 barrel per day capacity; (OK Post Katrina) and ConocoPhillips' Magnolia platform (damaged by Katrina but now back up), with about 50,000 barrels per day output.

While offshore damage will be worrisome, it's the onshore facilities that will garner the most attention. Motiva's Port Arthur refinery can process up to 235,000 barrels per day, while Valero's Port Arthur refinery can process 250,000 barrels per day. Hurricane Rita ran directly over these two refineries.

(CNN) -- Damage was reported Saturday at two oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico area following Hurricane Rita, but the full extent of the damage from the storm is still being assessed.

Valero Energy reported that its recovery teams found "significant damage to two cooling towers and a flare stack" at its oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. Shell Oil reported wind damage to its Motiva facility, also in Port Arthur.

Valero, the nation's leading refiner, said it will take "two weeks to a month to implement the necessary repairs and restart" its 255,000 barrel-per-day facility at Port Arthur. The Valero plant was one of seven major refineries at greatest risk from Rita. The seven together normally refine 1.7 million barrels of crude oil per day.

Shell Oil said its 285,000 barrel-per-day Motiva Refinery at Port Arthur "has sustained wind damage including downed power lines and cooling water-tower damage." Shell, which co-owns the refinery with Saudi Refining, did not know how long repairs would take or when the refinery may operate again.

(GOPA-Note: 85% of the refineries in the Houston & Southeast Texas Coastal area are presently shut down.)

<snip>

According to the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS), 100 percent of offshore oil production, one and a half million barrels per day, remains shut down because of Hurricane Rita evacuations, as does 75 percent of offshore natural gas production.

Exxon-Mobil, which operates the country's largest petrochemical refinery at Baytown says it does not know the status of the 557,000 barrel-per-day refinery, or the 338,000 barrel-per-day Beaumont, Texas refinery. Conoco Philips says damage to its 239,000 barrel-per-day Lake Charles, Louisiana refinery is being assessed.

<snip>

Energy Industry analyst Jon Kilduff said that, even in the best case scenario, it will take "10 to 14 days" days to return refineries to full operations. He warned that structural damage is not the only concern; refineries depend on electrical power that may have been affected by the storm.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/24/rita.refineries/index.html

Lake Livingston Dam Damaged by Katrina

GOPA says - This one is interesting. Livingston is 125 miles north of Houston. They recorded the highest wind readings I have see in Texas from Hurr Rita at 118 MPH. They were catching the northeast side of Rita's very outer hurricane force winds only. Got to be a tornado or severe micro burst that got the dam, and pushed these wind readings. It's a large Corp of Engineers dam and a very large lake. This huge water release will do a lot of damage to property. Officials are evacuated the entire downstream area.

###########

Trinity River Authority began releasing massive amounts of water from Lake Livingston northeast of Houston today in a frantic effort to lower the lake level after Hurricane Rita's winds and tropical waves dislodged part of the earthen dam's protective shield of boulders.

The release of 80,000 cubic feet of water per second, a process that should continue through Monday, will allow a thorough examination of the damaged structure, Karr said.

Saw my Galveston beach home, and our area, in a very good Coast Guard aerial video of the area yesterday. Everything looks good +/- 5%. A neighbor, that has keys to my place, is going back today. She said she would check out my place and give me a call, based on a detailed inspection. Unfortunately, a Galveston Gulf coast beach home area directly to the east of us didn’t do nearly as well. Both homes damaged and significant beach erosion. Also a big backwash/rip tide cut in their beach. Looks like there is damage to about 15% of the island's property along with some infrastructure.

The Historic Strand District in Galveston got hit pretty hard. This is were the media pics/videos of the buildings damage and that 3 building fire were taken. This area is like the New Orleans French Quarters area. In fact, we have a Galveston Marti Gras every year there. This year had approx 450,000 attend for the weekend event. Hated to see Yaga’s Restaurant and Club get destroyed by Hurricane Rita. Great place and hangout on the weekends, with live bands.

Traffic in Houston today will be living hell again, like Thursday on the mass exodus out. Glad we have plenty to do today and plenty of food, so we don't have to get out.

Hurricane Rita - Yaga’s Restaurant and Club Damage

Significant Damage in Cameron, LA. (This is just east of the TX-LA line).



Here's a direct video link on the story:
Windows Media Player 10.5 MB / 3.2 minutes

mms://66.111.54.160/2005/09/24/09242005-14.high.wmv

Just cut and paste it into your browser. It can also be downloaded.

Source: DUer - barbaraann

Isn't it unusual for winds to be that high 150 miles inland? Have you heard about the barge (not the one near Lake Charles...Iowa)
This one got loose when they released the water and did enough damage to Highway 59 that they can't use it coming out of Lufkin.

Some are saying there won't be power until November because of a hit taken at Port Neches. Family in Lufkin says that's where there power comes from. Everything is shutdown in their area.

It's wild. Almost two miles of the earthen part of the dam has been damaged. Corp of Engineers have never seen anything like it. They are draining the lake by 4 feet to take the stress off the dam. That's a lot because Lake Livingston is quite shallow.....huge level decrease they are doing. Severe flooding and home damage down stream but they have no choice.

I'm noticing in many of the pics/videos of this area and other inland areas in East Texas and Western LA that structures, telephones poles etc are bent south or damaged on the north side of the structure by the NW quadrant of Hurr Rita that was blowing directly south. As I stated in a previous post, like Katrina, Rita's wind speed may have decreased before landfall, but not her forward kinetic energy.

PS: That pic I showed in my home OK in Galveston post of Yaga's Restaurant & Club that was destroyed by Rita. That totally destroyed wall is on the EAST side of that building, not North or South.

inconsistent with direction of winds? I wondered why little Vinton, Texas got slammed and yet some cities just to the east of the eye weren't so badly damaged.

Who's steering?

LAKE LIVINGSTON
Dam damage called 'serious situation'
The drawdown continues, flooding the Trinity, so that experts can assess the storm damage
By CINDY HORSWELL and ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA

The unprecedented damage to the Lake Livingston dam caused by Hurricane Rita was termed "a serious situation" on Sunday by the Trinity River Authority.

While stressing there is no need to panic, Trinity River Authority spokesman John Jadrosich said it was imperative to draw down the lake and assess the damage.

The 2 1/2 -mile-long earthen dam was erected three decades ago to provide drinking water for the city of Houston. The dam, which holds back enough water from the Trinity River to form a lake with 55 miles of shoreline, is north of Houston near Livingston off U.S. 59.

Rita's winds of up to 117 mph created monster waves that crashed against the dam for hours, splashing 14 feet over the top. This acted like a power washer, peeling off the huge granite boulders that protected the dam...cont'd

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3369376

Cameron is just west of the TX-LA State Line. Videos are showing massive destruction. Block and blocks of homes and businesses totally wiped clean. Reminds me of some of the videos of Katrina's devastation in Mississippi coastline areas.

------------------

Towns near where Hurricane Rita made landfall over the weekend have had all but a handful of buildings destroyed, including nearly all homes in Cameron, Holly Beach and Creole, officials said Sunday.

Along the border with Texas, Cameron Parish was under as many as 15 feet of water, and thousands of homes of its 10,000 residents were destroyed, said Freddie Richard, the head of the parish's emergency preparedness office.

About 45 miles south of nearby Lake Charles, every home was destroyed in the town of Holly Beach. In the parish seat of Cameron, 90 percent of homes were destroyed. In Creole, 70 percent of residences were destroyed, with little more than the courthouse and an elementary school still standing.

(Richard OTG - 7:37 p.m.)

==================

Hurricane Audrey was a powerful hurricane that devastated coastal Louisiana in the USA during the 1957 Atlantic hurricane season.

Audrey formed over the Bay of Campeche on June 24, and slowly moved north across the Gulf of Mexico. It rapidly strengthened just before making landfall near Sabine Pass, Texas on June 27 as a Category 4 hurricane. It continued north and became a powerful extratropical storm.

Audrey's 12-foot (3.7 m) storm surge devastated Cameron, Louisiana, causing $150 million in damage. Officially, Audrey was responsible for 390 deaths, although unofficial sources claim the number is over 500. Audrey is ranked as the sixth deadliest hurricane to hit the United States mainland since accurate record-keeping began in 1900. No storm to hit the US since had caused as many fatalities until Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
-----------
Duration June 25 - 29, 1957
Highest winds 145 mph sustained
Damages $1 billion (2005 dollars)
Fatalities 390 - 550 direct
Areas affected Eastern Texas, Louisiana, parts of the South Central United States
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FRUSTRATION: Feds dragging their feet ... again, area officials say
By: JACQUELINE LANE, The Beaumont Enterprise News
09/25/2005

BEAUMONT - Frustrated disaster response coordinators said today that they were seeing the same foot-dragging federal response to Hurricane Rita as their counterparts down the Gulf Coast did during Hurricane Katrina.

Jefferson County Judge Carl Griffith and other local leaders, haggard after days of almost non-stop work with little sleep, pleaded with the federal government to get itself in a higher gear. He said he wanted to return services to the residents who remain but that "it seems like they can't figure out how to get it done."

Officials said there has been a problem getting the generators that were brought in for the relief effort. "There's a drastic shortage of generators in Beaumont to provide emergency power," Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said. "There are generators at Ford Park, and FEMA is withholding their release. They want to finish their damage assessment."

Griffith said a man came by Saturday night with 20 small generators and two large ones, and Griffith bought them from him. He said the county would figure out how to pay for them later.

Jefferson County officials had a plan to distribute Meals-Ready-to-Eat from local fire stations. However, Griffith said the MREs, like the generators, were being withheld by FEMA. "They won't let us have them," Griffith said. "They said we had to go through the state - which we already did - to get them. I'm going over there (to Ford Park) now to figure this out."

<snip>

"There's just a breakdown in the state and federal government that you saw in Katrina and you've seen in other disasters," Griffith said. He said he hopes to see a change "so at least the next people that have to go through it ... will have some kind of process that makes sense that can immediately deliver what people need."

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15276109&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6

This is NOAA's high res detailed on the ground damage assessment photos. Each photo is very large as to file size, (1 - 2 MB's each) so it takes a good computer and a broadband connection to use this service. NOAA will continue to add more inland photos over the following days.

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/rita/RITA0000.HTM

Damaged, lost rigs used for exploration may delay discovery of new global oil supplies, paper says.
September 28, 2005: 8:08 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Hurricane Rita caused record damage to offshore oil and natural gas rigs, according to a published report, and that could delay exploratory drilling planned to meet the world's growing appetite for oil.

The Financial Times cited market intelligence firm ODS-Petrodata as saying the storm that hit near the Texas-Louisiana border early Saturday will cause a shortage of rigs off the Gulf Coast this year. Rigs are movable and used for exploration and development, as opposed to platforms, which are fixed and used to extract oil from established offshore reserves.

The newspaper reports that the hit taken by rigs could delay exploration drilling as far away as the Middle East.

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While Hurricane Katrina hit an area where there were mostly mature oil and gas platforms, "Rita came to the west where there is a lot of (exploratory) rig activity." The newspaper reports that according to the Coast Guard, nine semi-submersible rigs have broken free from their moorings and were adrift.

<snip>

Rigs were in short supply even before the hurricanes, the newspaper reports. They cost $90 million to $550 million, and a rig ordered today to replace a damaged or destroyed rig won't be available before 2008, according to the report.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/28/news/economy/rita_rigs/

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Rig shortage seen in U.S. Gulf this year: Financial Times

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures edged back above $65 a barrel Wednesday as traders reviewed the latest damage reports on energy facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and awaited weekly supply data.

Fully 100%, or more than 1.5 million barrels, of daily oil output in the Gulf was offline as of Tuesday as a result of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service. And more than 78% of daily natural-gas production remained offline, the MMS said. The output figures were virtually unchanged from Monday.

An article in the Financial Times Wednesday said that Rita had caused more damage to oil rigs in the Gulf than any other storm in history. Observers cited in the story were expecting a shortage of rigs in the U.S. Gulf this year.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B93D34362-4AF0-49CD-BD4E-8A6424290FE3%7D&siteid=google&dist=