HURRICANES - 2005
PAGE 2
8-12-05 Irene moves towards Carolinas
8-16-05 - Irene slides past U.S. - no damages
8-25-05 - Katrina - Tropical Storm - turns deadly
wipes out New Orleans
11 dead in south Florida
3 dead in Baton Rouge, MS
50 deaths in Biloxi, MS
Over 100 deaths in MS
New Orleans Death Toll May Eclipse 10,000
Official toll is over 975 - still rising
Some deaths are NOT being counted as 'official'
Bodies still be found in April, 2006
9-22-05 - RITA STRIKES NEW ORLEANS A SECOND TIME
FRIGHTENING IMAGES FROM NOAA - INTERACTIVE MAPS
NEW
ORLEANS MAP BEFORE AND AFTER
updated 7-19-05 - HURRICANE
SEASON of 2005 - PAGE 1
DENNIS MAKES LANDFALL -
10 dead in Cuba - 15 Dead in Haiti
EMILY HEADED TOWARDS JAMAICA
1 DEAD IN GRENADA
4 die in JAMAICA
2 DIE IN HELICOPTER CRASH IN GULF OF MEXICO
EMILY HITTING MEXICO AND TEXAS
Tropical Storm Irene Strengthens, Moves Toward U.S.
May Become Hurricane Soon
MIAMI (Aug. 12) - Tropical Storm Irene was expected to intensify Friday and possibly reach hurricane strength as it approached the U.S. East Coast, forecasters said.
Irene's potential threat to land was still uncertain, as its path had shifted east, according to forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters said the storm could strike the coast anywhere from South Carolina to New Jersey. Irene's top sustained winds increased to about 60 mph, and forecasters said conditions appeared favorable for the storm to strengthen. Hurricanes sustain winds of at least 74 mph. At 5 a.m. EDT, the storm's center was located about 325 miles south of Bermuda and about 795 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It was moving northwest near 15 mph, though it was expected to slow down, forecasters said. Irene broke records Sunday when it became the earliest ninth named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30. Typically, there are only two named storms by this time in the season. Irene weakened into a tropical depression Monday, but regained tropical storm strength Wednesday. 08/12/05 06:08 EDT Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. August 16, 2005 update ... hurricane Irene is pulling out to the north Atlantic with a near miss but the US oil industry's newest ploy to drive up prices using hurricane and severe weather continues (something I started showing earlier this summer and is augmented greatly over these phony but effective efforts of past years) ... per James McCanney
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KATRINA Part of the blame goes here: From: http://www.legitgov.org/
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(CNN) -- Disaster response officials are
urging evacuated residents not to return for at least a week to areas of
Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi hit hard by Hurricane Katrina.
"When folks who are desperate are trying to get home, it just makes it more difficult for us to get to folks whose lives are in danger," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday. "The roads are blocked with water in many cases," she explained. "Even if you drive up to a certain area, you're going to have to get into a boat, and we don't have boats to take citizens back to their property. All our boats are engaged in search and rescue." Officials are asking people not to contact local fire and police agencies, which are busy responding to emergencies. Instead, disaster officials recommend the following Web sites and phone numbers: General informationAlabama Alabama Emergency Management Agency -
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| HEADS UP!! 8-28-05 TROPICAL STORM KATRINA THREATENS SOUTHERN FLORIDA....MAY WELL BECOME CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ACCORDING TO LATEST REPORTS. Waters off the Florida Coast extremely warm....88-89 degrees which will feed this storm as it moves closer to the mainland....Because of possible CME arrivals, which some scientists claim feed these hurricanes, this storm could develop rapidly into a much higher classification, catching everyone by surprise....no plans for evacuation anywhere... Katrina is plotted to go over southern Florida and then over the gulf, where it should regain strength and become a major hurricane. Remember that Florida is targeted by the Lord for trouble. Watch Katrinka carefully during the next few days.... MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Katrina formed in the central Bahamas on Wednesday and headed toward Florida's southern Atlantic Coast with the potential to become a hurricane. Katrina was expected to hit the Miami area by Friday as a strong tropical storm or a weak hurricane, dumping up to 12 inches of rain on the southern tip of Florida as it moved slowly across the state into the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Some isolated areas could get up to 20 inches of rain, said Jennifer Pralgo, a meteorologist at the hurricane center. "It's going to soak us," Pralgo said. Floridians Brace For Katrina
(CBS/AP) Battered by four major hurricanes last year,
Floridians are accustomed to going through the motions of preparing
for dangerous storms. But as a tropical storm blows its way toward
South Florida, prompting a run on gas stations Thursday, there's
concern people may not be taking it seriously enough.
The leading edge of Tropical Storm Katrina reached South Florida this morning and forecasters said severe squalls should begin by mid-afternoon. The center of the slow-moving, rain-intensive system could reach land probably in Broward County and possibly as a minimal hurricane around 7 p.m. tonight. But Katrina's center was surrounded by multiple bands of rain and wind. Regardless of the precise site of landfall, forecasters warned the entire region to prepare for gusty wind and a severe soaking, with some areas receiving a foot or more of rain. Hurricane warnings have been posted for the southeast Florida coast and for people living along Lake Okeechobee inland. The big danger could be from flooding, with a forecast of up to 20 inches of rain. Officials have already begun lowering water levels in canals due to the heavy rain threat, CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports for The Early Show. Authorities around Ft. Pierce are urging people on the barrier island to get out voluntarily. And gas stations report people have been topping off their tanks and stocking up on supplies, but not leaving. The storm had maximum sustained winds near 50 mph, and was expected to reach hurricane strength as it slowly approached the Florida coastline, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricanes sustain winds of at least 74 mph. A hurricane warning was issued for the southeast Florida coast from Vero Beach to Florida City, as well as inland Lake Okeechobee. A tropical storm watch was issued for Florida's west coast. Katrina's path appeared centered on the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, but forecasters warned it could easily move to the north or south before making landfall late Thursday or early Friday. The storm was expected to cross Florida before heading into the Gulf of Mexico, dumping 6 to 12 inches of rain on the state, with some spots getting up to 20 inches. Broward County recommended that people evacuate barrier islands and low-lying regions, and some schools in the area were closing. Battering waves and storm surge flooding of 4 to 6 feet were expected. Gas stations along the Interstate 95 corridor between Miami and Fort Lauderdale were seeing up to 25 motorists an hour Thursday, instead of the usual handful. People were buying gas and stocking up on water and cigarettes. "People go out and fill their tanks to the brim, but they don't leave. They buckle down," said Chris Bonhorst, a gas attendant. Carlos Sarcos, 48, of North Miami, said he would only evacuate his family if Katrina grew into a Category 3 storm, with winds of at least 111 mph. "I don't think it's going to be dangerous," he said. But Strassmann reports that on the 13th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, officials warn that resident should beware. Gov. Jeb Bush canceled a business trip to Peru that was to begin Wednesday and planned to return to Florida from Virginia, where he was attending a hearing on military base realignment. Katrina formed Wednesday over the Bahamas, bringing heavy showers and battering waves but causing no reported damage or flooding. "For the most part it's just been pretty much a wet storm, but not much wind," said Basil Dean, the Bahamas' chief meteorological officer. At 5 a.m. EDT, Katrina was centered about 90 miles east of Fort Lauderdale and was moving west at about 8 mph. Forecasters said the storm was expected to slow down as it crossed the warm, storm-feeding waters of the Gulf Stream. The Florida Panhandle was hit by Tropical Storm Cindy and Hurricane Dennis earlier this year. Early indications were that Dennis caused about $2 billion in total damage. Last year, four hurricanes caused an estimated $46 billion in damage across the country. In an average year, only a few tropical storms develop by this time in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30. |
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Aug. 27, 2005, 11:27PM
Big Easy gets busy as Katrina takes aim for Gulf coastLouisiana and Mississippi residents urged to evacuate earlyBy KEVIN MORANCopyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
NEW ORLEANS - With a killer storm bearing down on them, hundreds of thousands of people Saturday closed up their homes, gassed up their cars and fled low-lying areas of southern Louisiana expected to be flooded by a potentially deadly storm surge when Hurricane Katrina roars ashore Monday. Evacuees were spurred by strident pleas from public officials to get out early. "This is not a drill," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told residents during a news conference televised live in the region. "We want you to take this very seriously. This is a major, major hurricane." The season's 11th named storm was expected to strengthen to Category 4 with winds of at least 131 mph by early Monday. A hurricane watch extended from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, but forecasters predicted landfall in the New Orleans area. Nagin ordered a voluntary evacuation of the city at 5 p.m. Saturday. Some residents decided to go, some to stay, and some still were undecided late Saturday. "I want to have fun and watch God's fury," said Gaetano Zarzana, a street performer and musician who said he planned to stay in town. "I'm going to hang out in Johnny White's bar on Bourbon Street and watch the flood come up." Luis Molina, a hotel employee who lives across the Mississippi in Marrero, La., said he planned to take his wife and two sons, 7 and 12, to stay in Houston near the Galleria. "I don't like to take chances," said Molina, who has evacuated at least four times since he moved to New Orleans in 1981. Kimberly Rosenberg was cleaning out the storm drain outside her home on Bourbon Street on Saturday evening. She said three neighbors were leaving town. Her husband, Harry, said the couple usually stays in town during storm threats. "But this might be the one that constrains us to leave the city for safer ground," he said. "At the moment, I think we're inclined to try and weather the storm." Hoping to move more people to safety as quickly as possible, officials imposed a controversial evacuation-traffic plan at 4 p.m Saturday, turning inbound lanes of highways into the New Orleans metropolitan area into outbound lanes and nearly doubling the flow of traffic away from Katrina's path. Called "contraflow," the traffic plan caused huge bottlenecks and long delays in some spots when Louisiana officials tried it when Hurricane Ivan threatened the area in 2004. But Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the system has been refined, and she expected that people would not have to spend hours trying to go just 100 miles or so. "Now we've got a very clear plan of departure, and we believe we're going to avoid bottlenecks," Blanco said. Shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday, the only traffic on a section of Interstate 10 in New Orleans was westbound on both sides of the highway. Traffic seemed to be flowing well as more people began making their way out of southeast Louisiana. "We have a million and a half people just in the New Orleans metro area, and we have several hundred thousand more in the outlying areas," Blanco said. "We hope to have a million and a half to 2 million people moving out of this region." With Katrina still nearly 400 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the National Hurricane Center had not issued official hurricane warnings for a specific area of the Gulf Coast. But Blanco, Nagin and officials in coastal parishes of the state seemed to have little hope that Katrina would miss the New Orleans area and were planning for the worst. Blanco said she expects Katrina's damage to be "rampant" in Louisiana. "We've seen it many, many times over the years in many regions of the state," Blanco said. "We always worry the most about the New Orleans area because we have so many people living here." But Blanco said too many people in southeast Louisiana have seen many hurricanes miss the New Orleans area in recent years, and officials were worried that residents have become complacent about storm threats. "And those people are the ones we worry about," Blanco said. "We don't want any complacency." Roy Williams, director of the Louis Armstrong International Airport, said operations were normal Saturday, but he expects airlines to cancel some flights today. The airport will shut down when winds reach 50 mph and traffic controllers cease operations, Williams said. Louisiana officials got an early start on evacuations from the low-lying parishes south and west of New Orleans. As Katrina sprawled over an ever-growing area of the Gulf on Saturday, officials in Plaquemines, St. Bernard and other parishes began at 9 a.m. to urge people to evacuate their homes. Under the state's plan, New Orleans and Orleans Parish don't call for evacuations until after the low-lying areas, to allow people who live south and east of the city to get on the road first and head for safety. Nagin said the city is preparing to mobilize Regional Transit Authority buses to pick up people who are unable to evacuate and take them to the Superdome for shelter. If the storm takes dead aim on the city, tens of thousands of people might ride it out in the stadium, Nagin said. The mayor urged residents to check on neighbors and make sure that people have somewhere to go. "This is a very serious storm, and it's going to take all New Orleanians rallying around each other and help our neighbors to make sure everyone is safe," Nagin said. City officials were preparing to close floodgates in the levees that surround New Orleans, which is below sea level and relies on pumps to prevent flooding. As city officials started the evacuation, officials at power company Entergy were mobilizing crews from Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas to be prepared to restore electricity to southeast Louisiana if the storm knocks out power lines. Entergy President Dan Packer said about 4,000 linemen will be ready to move into stricken areas after the storm passes. Packer said another 3,000 workers were being mobilized to help clear downed trees and tree limbs if needed after the hurricane moves through. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency, and the director of his Emergency Management Agency, Robert Latham, urged coastal residents not to wait for evacuation orders. "I realize that we have done this drill two or three times in the past few months, but we cannot take this storm lightly," Latham said. A Holiday Inn Express in Jackson, Miss., was booked up, said manager Jeff Rogers. "Most of the people that we have are coming from Florida, the Alabama Gulf Coast, Mississippi Gulf Coast and southern Louisiana," Rogers said. The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency urged people to heed evacuation orders. "I'm very concerned about people in Mississippi and Louisiana who have watched these storms the past two years hit Florida and Alabama and may have a little lackadaisical attitude toward this thing," FEMA Director Michael Brown told AP Radio. Chronicle wire services contributed to this report.
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New Orleans braces as Hurricane Katrina bears down
28 Aug 2005 04:56:42 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Michael Depp and Russell McCulley NEW ORLEANS, La., Aug 28 (Reuters) - Shopkeepers sandbagged galleries and stores in the French Quarter of the vulnerable Gulf Coast city of New Orleans and workers boarded up city hall as Hurricane Katrina churned across Gulf waters. Officials in the low-lying city famed for its Mardi Gras parades urged residents to evacuate and stranded tourists to shelter on at least the third floor of their hotels as Katrina threatened to make a second and possibly more deadly assault on the U.S. coast after killing seven people in Florida. "I think there is a very good possibility it will indeed get stronger," Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, told WSVN television in Miami. "This hurricane has the potential to cause extreme damage and large loss of lives if they don't take action very soon." By 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT) on Saturday, Katrina was about 335 miles (540 km) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River with 115 mph (190 kph) winds. It had begun a turn to the northwest that could see it roaring ashore somewhere between the Florida-Alabama border and Morgan City in Louisiana on Monday, and taking a course through the heart of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production. Computer models showed that New Orleans, much of which lies below sea level, could be in the storm's bull's eye. They also indicated Katrina could grow into at least a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale with destructive winds of more than 131 mph (210 kph). Some predictions saw it becoming a catastrophic Category 5 -- like Hurricane Andrew which struck south of Miami in 1992 and ranks as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, or Hurricane Camille in 1969, which just missed New Orleans but devastated Louisiana and Alabama and killed more than 400. EXODUS New Orleans officials turned some major routes out of the city into one-way streets, helping to speed the exodus. Mayor Ray Nagin said the Louisiana Superdome would become a giant shelter for people with special needs on Sunday. As for others, Nagin said he hoped "people are taking the necessary steps to leave the city of New Orleans." Art gallery owner R.R. Lyons boarded up the windows and doors of his store on Royal St., and said he would take shelter on the third floor of the building to escape any possible storm surge and flooding. "We didn't board up for the last one, but word on the street is that this one is going to be a Category 4 storm. That could take our glass out, and some of our glass goes back to the 1890s," Lyons said. President George W. Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana, a measure that allows federal emergency assistance to be deployed. The storm was larger and more powerful than when it hit Florida's southeast coast on Thursday, killing seven. Insured losses from Katrina's first strike on U.S. shores were estimated at $600 million to $2 billion by independent forecasting firms. That compared with an estimated $45 billion in total damages caused in 2004 by four powerful hurricanes that struck Florida in a six-week period. U.S. energy companies said U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude oil output was cut by more than one-third on Saturday as Hurricane Katrina appeared poised to charge through central production areas, much like Hurricane Ivan did last September. The Gulf of Mexico is home to roughly a quarter of U.S. domestic oil
and gas output, and the storm's impact could well be felt at gas station
pumps by U.S. car drivers already struggling with soaring gasoline
prices. (Additional reporting by Mark Babineck and Erwin Seba in
Houston, and Michael Christie in Miami) |
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Posted on Sun, Aug. 28, 2005
More than 500,000 remain powerless in Miami-Dade, BrowardMore than 500,000 people in Miami-Dade and Broward are still without electricity in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Florida Power & Light reported. As of 9:30 a.m. Sunday, some 341,200 customers in Miami-Dade and 176,400 in Broward were still in the dark. Since 2 p.m. Saturday, some 218,000 had their power restored. Since FPL crews began working, they have restored electricity to a total of 374,500 in Broward, 449,400 in Miami-Dade. Katrina Regains Hurricane Strength as it Moves Over Gulf of Mexico By VOA News The 11th named storm of this year's Atlantic hurricane season came ashore Thursday between Hallandale Beach and North Miami Beach, packing 130 kilometer-per-hour winds. It knocked down trees, flooded streets and left more than one million people without power. The U.S. National Weather Service says Katrina temporarily lost some strength early Friday, but regained hurricane status as it moved over the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters anticipate the storm will turn north in the Gulf as it strengthens and could strike Florida's panhandle in the coming days.
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| New Orleans Ordered to Evacuate as Hurricane
Katrina Approaches
Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- New Orleans residents were ordered to evacuate the city today as Hurricane Katrina, the strongest storm of the Atlantic season, approached the U.S. Gulf Coast with 160 mile-an-hour winds. Mayor Ray Nagin said only essential personnel and individuals unable to travel can remain in the city of 500,000. He spoke at a press conference. There are 1.3 million people in the greater New Orleans area. Thousands of people already have left the city and other parts of southern Louisiana, Thirty-three of the state's parishes declared a state of emergency, and mandatory evacuations were in place in parts of at least nine of those, according to the Louisiana State Police Web site. About 30,000 people evacuated yesterday, and thousands more are leaving southern parts of the state today, state police spokesman, Lieutenant Lawrence McLeary said in a telephone interview from Baton Rouge, the state capital. Oil companies also evacuated workers from Gulf facilities. Katrina was upgraded to category 5 earlier today, U.S. National Hurricane Center spokesman David Miller said in a telephone interview from Miami. Such storms, with winds greater than 155 miles an hour (249 kph) can tear roofs off homes, blow down all trees and shrubs, and cause flooding. Only three Category Five hurricanes have hit the U.S. since records began. ``Katrina continues not only grow stronger, but it continues to grow larger,'' the city of New Orleans said in a statement posted before Nagin's press conference on its Web site. ``Everyone along the northern Gulf of Mexico needs to take this hurricane very seriously and put action plans into play now.'' Gulf of Mexico Katrina, with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, was over the Gulf of Mexico, about 250 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi river at 7 a.m. local time, according to an advisory posted on the Hurricane Center's Web site. The storm was moving toward the west-northwest at 12 mph, and forecast to make a ``gradual turn'' toward the northwest and north-northwest over the next day. ``We're very concerned about the possible damage to ?New Orleans and to the entire southern region,'' Mark Smith, a spokesman for the Louisiana Security and Emergency Preparedness department said in a telephone interview from Baton Rouge. ``We strongly recommend evacuation from New Orleans,'' he said, adding that it's ``likely'' the evacuation will become mandatory in the city and surrounding areas, an order that would affect 1.3 million people. Port A direct hit by Katrina could be devastating to New Orleans, a port in the Mississippi River delta that depends on a series of pumps and levees to keep the city dry. Some neighborhoods lie as much as 20 feet below sea level. Mandatory evacuations were in force in the whole of St, James, St. Charles, Plaquemines and Assumption parishes, and for parts of Orleans, Jefferson and Lafourche parishes, he said. The police Web site said forced evacuation was also in force in parts of St. Bernard and Terrebonne parishes. Katrina swept through Florida last week, killing four people and cutting out power for more than a million homes. A hurricane warning, meaning hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours, was in effect from Morgan City, Louisiana, to the border between Alabama and Florida, according to the advisory. A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch were in place from the state boundary to Destin in Florida, and from Morgan City to Intracoastal City in Louisiana. Katrina is a ``potentially catastrophic'' storm, the center said. ``Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.'' Hurricane-force winds extended 85 miles from the storm's center, with tropical storm-force winds stretching 185 miles, according to the advisory. Storm Surge Coastal storm-surge flooding of as high as 25 feet is possible in areas, with ``dangerous battering waves,'' the center said. Isolated tornadoes are also possible later today in southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle, according to the statement. Only three category five storms have made U.S. landfall since records began, according to the hurricane center: The Labor Day hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Andrew, which hit southern Miami-Dade county in August that year, caused $26.5 billion of losses, the costliest hurricane on record. Oil touched a record $68 a barrel last week in New York on concern Katrina might disrupt supplies from the Gulf of Mexico. Prices fell Friday, when early forecasts of the storm's path had it missing most of the Gulf's production platforms. The projected path has shifted west since then, making it a greater threat to oil and gas rigs, which are mostly off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. Oil Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's second-biggest oil company, evacuated 465 offshore personnel as of Aug. 26 and was to remove another 554, according to the company's Web site. All of Shell's central and eastern Gulf of Mexico facilities were expected to be shut, affecting production of about 420,000 barrels of oil and 1.35 billion cubic feet of gas a day, the company said. Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil company, is evacuating workers and has shut daily production of about 3,000 barrels of oil and 50 million cubic feet of gas, spokeswoman Susan Reeves said. BP Plc has evacuated rigs and platforms in the Gulf as a precaution, spokeswoman Ayana McIntosh-Lee said yesterday. Output hasn't been affected, she said. Transocean Inc., the world's biggest offshore driller, is evacuating four semi-submersible rigs in the Gulf: the Transocean Amirante, the Falcon 100, the Transocean Marianas and the Deepwater Nautilus, spokesman Guy Cantwell said yesterday. Two other semi-submersibles and two drill ships have disconnected from their wells and are moving out of the hurricane's path, and two more drill ships are disconnecting and may move if they need to, Cantwell said. The driller has evacuated 289 workers, and expects to evacuate another 193 by the end of the day, he said. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest U.S. oil import terminal, stopped unloading cargoes from tankers at noon New Orleans time yesterday, spokesman Mark Bugg said. The port's onshore facilities, where crude is stored and dispatched to pipelines, may be shut tomorrow, he said. The port is about 20 miles off the Louisiana coast and handles
about 1 million barrels of crude oil a day, or 11 percent of U.S.
imports. It consists of mooring buoys, platforms and pipelines.
Unloading of a tanker carrying west African crude oil was stopped
earlier yesterday, Bugg said. | |||||||||||||||
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: August 28, 2005 10:35 EDT Katrina Heads for Gulf Coast at 160 Mph
TURNS TO THIS
Sunday August 28, 2005 By MARY FOSTER Associated Press Writer NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Hurricane Katrina strengthened to a dangerous Category 5 on Sunday with 160 mph sustained wind as residents of south Louisiana jammed freeways in a rush to get out of the way of the powerful storm. The National Hurricane Center put out a special advisory on the hurricane's gain in strength just before 8 a.m. EDT. The boost came just hours after Katrina reached Category 4, with wind of 145 mph, as it gathered energy from the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. ``People need to take this very seriously and get to a safe area while they can,'' said State Police Sgt. Frank Coates. Katrina, blamed for nine deaths in South Florida, was expected to hit the Gulf Coast early Monday and a hurricane warning was in effect from Morgan City to the Alabama-Florida line. At 8 a.m., Katrina's center was about 250 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the hurricane center said. It was moving west-northwest at about 12 mph. Hurricane force-wind of at least 74 mph extended up to 85 miles from the center. The storm had the potential for storm surge flooding of up to 25 feet, topped with even higher waves, as much as 15 inches of rain, and tornadoes. Hurricanes as powerful as Katrina usually make unpredictable fluctuations in strength, but all the conditions are there for the storm to still be a Category 5 when it hits the coast, said Chris Sisko, a meteorologist at the hurricane center. Even if Katrina weakened slightly, it didn't bode well for New Orleans. ``With them sitting well below sea level, this is a potential set up for a catastrophic event that has never been seen before,'' Sisko said. New Orleans is especially vulnerable because it sits below sea level, and needs levees and pumps to keep out water. ``I've been here 33 years, and we've always been concerned about New Orleans,'' National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield said before Katrina reached Category 5. ``I had to let the mayor know that this storm has the potential not only to cause large property damage, but large loss of life if people don't make the right decision.'' New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin was exploring the idea of ordering a mandatory evacuation. President Bush had already declared a state of emergency in Louisiana. Katrina formed in the Bahamas and ripped across South Florida on Thursday as a Category 1 storm before moving into the Gulf of Mexico where surface water temperatures were as high as 90 degrees - high-octane fuel for hurricanes. Nagin said he spoke to a forecaster at the hurricane center who told him that ``this is the storm New Orleans has feared these many years.'' ``Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a test. This is the real deal,'' he warned Saturday. ``Board up your homes, make sure you have enough medicine, make sure the car has enough gas. Do all things you normally do for a hurricane but treat this one differently because it is pointed towards New Orleans.'' Making matters worse, at least 100,000 people in the city lack the transportation to get out of town. Nagin said the Superdome might be used as a shelter of last resort for people who have no cars, with city bus pick-up points around New Orleans. ``I know they're saying `Get out of town,' but I don't have any way to get out,'' said Hattie Johns, 74. ``If you don't have no money, you can't go.'' Louisiana and Mississippi made all lanes northbound on interstate highways. Mississippi declared a state of emergency and Alabama offered assistance to its neighbors. Some motels as far inland as Jackson, Miss., 150 miles north of New Orleans, were already booked up. ``We know that we're going to take the brunt of it,'' Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. ``It does not bode well for southeastern Louisiana.'' Some tourists heeded the warnings and moved up their departures, and lines of tourists waited for cabs on New Orleans' famed Bourbon Street. ``The problem is getting a taxi to the airport. There aren't any,'' Brian Katz, a salesman from New York, said Saturday. But plenty of people in the French Quarter stayed put, and bars were rocking Saturday night. ``The only dangerous hurricanes so far are the ones we've been drinking,'' said Fred Wilson of San Francisco, as he sipped one of the famous drinks at Pat O'Brien's Bar. ``We can't get out, so we might as well have fun.'' New Orleans' worst hurricane disaster happened 40 years ago, when Hurricane Betsy blasted the Gulf Coast. Flooding approached 20 feet deep in some areas, fishing villages were flattened, and the storm surge left almost half of New Orleans under water and 60,000 residents homeless. Seventy-four people died in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Katrina is the 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. That's seven more than typically have formed by now in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center said. The season ends Nov. 30. On the Net: National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov | |||||||||||||||
New Orleans orders evacuationHurricane Katrina's winds nearly 175 mphSunday, August 28, 2005; Posted: 10:59 a.m. EDT (14:59 GMT) 
This animated satellite image shows Hurricane Katrina approaching the Gulf Coast Sunday morning. 8 a.m. ET Sunday NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared a state of emergency on Sunday and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city as Hurricane Katrina churned toward the city with maximum sustained winds of nearly 175 mph. All of Orleans Parish falls under the order except for necessary personnel in government, emergency and some other public service categories. People who are unable to evacuate were told to immediately report to a designated shelter. "I wish I had better news for you, but we are facing a storm that most of us have feared," Nagin said. "I do not want to create panic, but I do want the citizens to understand that this is very serious and it's of the highest nature." Traffic out of the city was bumper to bumper -- but officials said that it was moving. A shelter has been set up at the Superdome for people who cannot leave the city for medical or other reasons. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast could expect storm surges of up to 25 feet as the Category 5 storm makes landfall early Monday. Officials fear New Orleans is vulnerable because it sits an average of 6 feet below sea level. (Watch video of how New Orleans reacted to warning) Nagin said the storm surge would likely topple the levy system that protects the city. "It has the potential for a large loss of life," said Max Mayfield, director of the NHC. (Watch CNN meteorologist explain storm outlook) Katrina is blamed for at least seven deaths in Florida, where it made landfall Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane. As much as 18 inches of rain fell in some areas, flooding streets and homes. (See video of the damage floodwaters left in one family's new house) "The time has come to evacuate," Louisiana National Guard Lt. Col. Pete Schneider told CNN on Sunday. "This is a dangerous, dangerous hurricane, and it poses a huge threat to southeastern Louisiana." (See video from New Orleans, where not all are ready to leave) At 8 a.m. ET, Katrina was centered about 250 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was moving to the west-northwest at about 12 mph. NHC forecaster Ed Rappaport said Katrina's strength could fluctuate before it reaches shore but noted the difference between a high Category 4 and a low Category 5 was practically inconsequential. "There will be extensive to potentially catastrophic damage to many structures ... and inland," he said. "We'll have a lot of trees that are going to come down, perhaps millions of trees. But the first threat is going to be the storm surge. You must get away from the coast now." By 8:30 a.m. ET, the first bands of rain were falling over southeastern Louisiana. CNN meteorologist Brad Huffines said the Katrina would come ashore "sometime between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m." Monday. "The news doesn't get good, unfortunately," he said. "These rain showers will slow down the evacuation process, and that means you need to hit the road quickly, very quickly." Worst case scenarioIn worst case scenarios, most of New Orleans would end up under 15 feet of water, without electricity, clean water and sewage for months. Even pumping the water out could take as long as four months to get started because the massive pumps that would do the job would be underwater. "People in New Orleans tend to think that the storm we've always planned on would never come," Schneider said. "But people need to heed that warning." Rappaport cautioned that New Orleans was not the only area threatened -- the storm's hurricane winds spread out as far as 100 miles. As far east as Mobile, Alabama, warned of storm surges reaching 8 to 10 feet. Hurricane warnings were posted from Morgan City, Louisiana, eastward to the Alabama-Florida state line, including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions, including winds of at least 74 mph, are expected in the warning area within the next 24 hours. A tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch from the Alabama-Florida state line eastward to Destin, Florida, and from west of Morgan City to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. Another tropical storm warning was issued Sunday from Intracoastal City, Louisiana, west to Cameron, Louisiana, and from Destin, Florida, eastward to Indian Pass, Florida. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions, including winds of at least 39 mph, are expected within 24 hours. A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions are possible, usually within 36 hours. Governors of both Louisiana and Mississippi declared emergencies Friday in anticipation of the strengthening storm. Robert Latham, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said the state was recommending evacuations along the coast "and even several counties inland." Mandatory evacuations could follow later, he said. Category 5 is the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. Only three Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the United States since records were kept. Those were the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, 1969's Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the Miami area in 1992. Andrew remains the costliest U.S. hurricane on record, with $26.5 billion in losses. Camille came ashore in Mississippi and killed 256 people. Oil rig evacuationsSome oil platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico have been evacuated. Six oil companies operating offshore facilities evacuated a total of at least 150 people. Most of those employees were described as "nonessential" to production, and rigs and platforms continued to operate.(Watch the video of drilling crews securing rigs and seeking safety.) Two companies -- Newfield Exploration and Murphy Exploration -- said they may pull out production workers and shut down some facilities Saturday, depending on the hurricane's path. At least 12 platforms and nine oil rigs in the Gulf have been evacuated, a small portion of the 953 manned rigs and platforms operating there, according to the Interior Department's Mineral Management Service. CNN's David Mattingly, Susan Candiotti, Jacqui Jeras and Rob Marciano contributed to this report. Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved. |
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| 'The
whole damn city is under water'
Families driven from New
Orleans by the impending storm struggled to get back to their houses
yesterday, only to find their way blocked by floodwaters covering much
of the city's surrounding suburbs.
"It looks to me like the whole damn city is under water," one rescue worker told the Guardian, standing by a flooded freeway close to the city limits. "That should be flowing the other way," said another, pointing to the 17th Street canal. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said there had been reports of more than 20 buildings collapsing in the city, while offshore at least two oil rigs were adrift in the Gulf of Mexico. The weather knocked out power to about 1.3 million people in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, and analysts estimated the damage could top $26bn (£14.4bn).
Residents were asked to
stay away from New Orleans and the state governor Kathleen Blanco said
she had ordered police to block re-entry routes to all but emergency
workers.
Ivor van Heerden, director of the Centre for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes in Baton Rouge, told CNN that people should stay away from the city for at least a week. "If you came back, you would be coming literally to a wilderness," he said. "If your house is gone, it's gone. If you come back in a day or a week, it's not going to make any difference." But by 4pm local time dozens of cars were parked next to the flood waters, with passengers trying to find a way to get back into the city. Rain had died down but strong gusts still whipped the residents gazing towards the New Orleans skyline across the floodwaters to the south-east. "Man, I have never seen anything like this before," said Ken Porter, 46, who was trying to make his way back to his home along the lake shore. "I was just a kid when [Hurricane] Betsy came through but that wasn't anything as bad as this. It's going to be days before this water gets out of here." Many had been driven to return home because of the impossibility of finding accommodation elsewhere. Tomesha Carter, 35, had been with her husband, Bruce, 32, and children Bryce, five, and Bruce, 18 months, on the road for 24 hours. "We left here yesterday and we drove for nine hours. We got as far as Orange in Texas but we weren't able to get a hotel room anywhere. "We slept in the truck last night but we didn't know what to do, so we thought we had to head back here." Felix Saland, 39, a truck driver from the St Bernard district, said: "I've never seen it this bad." He had slept in a car-wash the previous night after driving as far as Mississippi without being able to find a place to stay. "I have got | |||||||||||||||
