A Local Forecast You Pray Never To See

[pontalba]

Reading this thread reminds me of Hurricane Rita... Our neighbors across the street moved here (Beaumont, TX) from Orlando in 2003. When Rita was in the gulf, and forecasts were getting closer to us, we asked if they were leaving. They said, "No, we've weathered so many in Florida, it shouldn't be a problem."

The next day when Rita was a category 5 in the gulf and barreling toward us, I went across the street to ask them again. This time they said, "Yeah, we're leaving now, but the closest hotel we could find was in Little Rock." I immediately offered them one of our hotel rooms in Lufkin, TX. Unfortunately, Lufkin wasn't far enough away, as we were w/out power for over 48 hours at the hotel. They went home ASAP, and found their roof had been peeled off their 2nd story. They were glad they left...

[Frank P]

They forgot to add that Monday morning commuters on HWY 90 should expect a storm surge exceeding 25 feet over most parts of the road... expect extremely rough travel conditions, massive and damaging waves, large portions of the hwy to be missing, potential for enormous debris impact and a strong probability of drowning...

That video brought back a weird feeling for me.. something that I hope I never see again... NEVER....

[Berwick Bay]

I know its not funny, but Frank, I really had to laugh at your last post. 'Storm surge of 25 feet may make for a difficult commute to work."

[Frank P]

Yeah Berwick Bay, certainly tongue in cheek... I think I've done my share of crying... but just reading the forecast off the video it was perhaps the only doom and gloom missing from it ...

would make that morning commute a little tough though huh...

[AnnularCane]

In cases like that, it's probably a good idea to leave for work a little earlier than usual.

[BigO]

In cases like that, it's probably a good idea to leave from work a little earlier than usual.

Fixed that for ya...

[Extremeweatherguy]

Reading this thread reminds me of Hurricane Rita... Our neighbors across the street moved here (Beaumont, TX) from Orlando in 2003. When Rita was in the gulf, and forecasts were getting closer to us, we asked if they were leaving. They said, "No, we've weathered so many in Florida, it shouldn't be a problem."

The next day when Rita was a category 5 in the gulf and barreling toward us, I went across the street to ask them again. This time they said, "Yeah, we're leaving now, but the closest hotel we could find was in Little Rock." I immediately offered them one of our hotel rooms in Lufkin, TX. Unfortunately, Lufkin wasn't far enough away, as we were w/out power for over 48 hours at the hotel. They went home ASAP, and found their roof had been peeled off their 2nd story. They were glad they left...

The funny thing is that Orlando had not seen a "true" hurricane since 1960 (until 2004 and Charley that is). So obviously those neighbors, like many, falsely assumed that the weaker storms they had experienced were going to be as bad as Rita. Good thing they finally left!

[Blown Away]

Reading this thread reminds me of Hurricane Rita... Our neighbors across the street moved here (Beaumont, TX) from Orlando in 2003. When Rita was in the gulf, and forecasts were getting closer to us, we asked if they were leaving. They said, "No, we've weathered so many in Florida, it shouldn't be a problem."

The next day when Rita was a category 5 in the gulf and barreling toward us, I went across the street to ask them again. This time they said, "Yeah, we're leaving now, but the closest hotel we could find was in Little Rock." I immediately offered them one of our hotel rooms in Lufkin, TX. Unfortunately, Lufkin wasn't far enough away, as we were w/out power for over 48 hours at the hotel. They went home ASAP, and found their roof had been peeled off their 2nd story. They were glad they left...

The funny thing is that Orlando had not seen a "true" hurricane since 1960 (until 2004 and Charley that is). So obviously those neighbors, like many, falsely assumed that the weaker storms they had experienced were going to be as bad as Rita. Good thing they finally left!

Charley had much higher winds at landfall than Katrina, Rita, Frances, Jeanne, Wilma. Most people experienced Cat 1,2 sustained winds w/ Cat 3 gusts during the Katrina, Rita, Jeanne, and Wilma. The surge w/ Rita & Katrina is what separted these storms from the others, obviously. The winds experienced in Orlando from Charley were probably similar to Rita's landfall winds.

[Berwick Bay]

I don't know "Blown Away". That seems to be the recent consensus though. But for some landfalls in La. in very low lying areas such as where Katrina and Rita made landfall, there were very few residents present to actually observe conditions. Oh heck, I'm still of a mind that at landfall in Plaquemines Parish La. (50-75 miles SSE of the French Quarter) that Katrina was still at least a CAT 4 Hurricane as many on this site label these phenomena. As for Rita, landfall in Cameron Parish La. site of the disaster of 1957 (I'm sure you've heard of Audrey--500 drowned in storm surge there), I had heard that exactly TWO people stayed in Cameron!! To stay in that low-lying coastal community was a death sentence, and basically no one did. Storm surge there destroyed everything, making it difficult to look at the actual effect of the wind. Considering what my Texas friends tell me about Rita's power there, many miles inland too, I have to think that 125 mph were happening along the coast. But just my opinion though.

[Extremeweatherguy]

Reading this thread reminds me of Hurricane Rita... Our neighbors across the street moved here (Beaumont, TX) from Orlando in 2003. When Rita was in the gulf, and forecasts were getting closer to us, we asked if they were leaving. They said, "No, we've weathered so many in Florida, it shouldn't be a problem."

The next day when Rita was a category 5 in the gulf and barreling toward us, I went across the street to ask them again. This time they said, "Yeah, we're leaving now, but the closest hotel we could find was in Little Rock." I immediately offered them one of our hotel rooms in Lufkin, TX. Unfortunately, Lufkin wasn't far enough away, as we were w/out power for over 48 hours at the hotel. They went home ASAP, and found their roof had been peeled off their 2nd story. They were glad they left...

The funny thing is that Orlando had not seen a "true" hurricane since 1960 (until 2004 and Charley that is). So obviously those neighbors, like many, falsely assumed that the weaker storms they had experienced were going to be as bad as Rita. Good thing they finally left!

Charley had much higher winds at landfall than Katrina, Rita, Frances, Jeanne, Wilma. Most people experienced Cat 1,2 sustained winds w/ Cat 3 gusts during the Katrina, Rita, Jeanne, and Wilma. The surge w/ Rita & Katrina is what separted these storms from the others, obviously. The winds experienced in Orlando from Charley were probably similar to Rita's landfall winds.

Yes, I know. However, the neighbors mentioned above (in pontalba's comment) had moved from Orlando in 2003...meaning before Charley...so they would not have had that experience. I just thought it was somewhat comical to hear that they said they had weathered so many storms in Orlando, which prior to 2004 had not seen a "true" hurricane experience since Donna in 1960.

[jasons2k]

My uncle lives in Dunedin, FL, in an old neighborhood, a few blocks from the water. I've asked them before if they would evacuate and his answer is always "Not unless it's a Cat. 5. Our house has survived 60 hurricanes and has never been damaged".

I keep trying to explain that the last time their location experienced true hurricane conditions was 1921, and since the house was built in 1926, it technically has never survived a single hurricance. It always goes in one ear and out the other...

[pontalba]

My uncle lives in Dunedin, FL, in an old neighborhood, a few blocks from the water. I've asked them before if they would evacuate and his answer is always "Not unless it's a Cat. 5. Our house has survived 60 hurricanes and has never been damaged".

I keep trying to explain that the last time their location experienced true hurricane conditions was 1921, and since the house was built in 1926, it technically has never survived a single hurricance. It always goes in one ear and out the other...

Because of the initial projected landfall closer to Galveston with Rita, we honestly thought we would be losing our house (according to storm surge maps). After seeing the destruction in SW Louisiana, we would have had extreme damage if not complete destruction. We felt horrible for friends who lost their office in Gulfport, MS to Katrina, lived on Pleasure Island (Port Arthur, TX) and have another office in Port Arthur. We were also sure they would lose their house and office in Port Arthur too. I would feel downright cursed if that happened to me. Luckily, they had minor damage to their Port Arthur properties. After seeing the storm surge with Katrina and Rita and what it can do, we won't be sticking around for anything larger than a category 2.

I also believe the winds at landfall with Rita were higher than reported. We were in Lufkin, TX (140 miles inland), and we had extremely high winds that far inland.

[jasons2k]

Just my $.02 - a point that Derek makes repeatedly every season and I wholeheartedly agree with him on: windspeeds are almost always, always, always actually lower than what people perceive them to be. The general public & emergency officials usually overestimate windspeeds. Sometimes even trained Mets overstimate them as the power of them is simply overwhelming.

The true power of hurricane or major hurricane force winds are almost impossible to comprehend until one actually witnesses it, and those winds are generally confined to a very small geographic area.

[KWT]

Yeah thats very true jschlitz, over here in the UK we do sometimes see baroclinic stors that can give cat-1 gusts (tohugh some exposed palces in Scotland can get far higher) and its quite amazing to see. For example we had winds which were gusting upto 50mph and i seriously thought it was about 65-70mph gusts, it wasn't till we had a extreme storm this Jan with winds that truely did gust close to category-1 winds did I see just how powerful those winds are, needless to say many many fences were on the floor after that storm!

I couldn't imagine gusts higher then 90mph though, and the power of a category 3-4-5 is completely unreal.

[CrazyC83]

Reading this thread reminds me of Hurricane Rita... Our neighbors across the street moved here (Beaumont, TX) from Orlando in 2003. When Rita was in the gulf, and forecasts were getting closer to us, we asked if they were leaving. They said, "No, we've weathered so many in Florida, it shouldn't be a problem."

The next day when Rita was a category 5 in the gulf and barreling toward us, I went across the street to ask them again. This time they said, "Yeah, we're leaving now, but the closest hotel we could find was in Little Rock." I immediately offered them one of our hotel rooms in Lufkin, TX. Unfortunately, Lufkin wasn't far enough away, as we were w/out power for over 48 hours at the hotel. They went home ASAP, and found their roof had been peeled off their 2nd story. They were glad they left...

The funny thing is that Orlando had not seen a "true" hurricane since 1960 (until 2004 and Charley that is). So obviously those neighbors, like many, falsely assumed that the weaker storms they had experienced were going to be as bad as Rita. Good thing they finally left!

Charley had much higher winds at landfall than Katrina, Rita, Frances, Jeanne, Wilma. Most people experienced Cat 1,2 sustained winds w/ Cat 3 gusts during the Katrina, Rita, Jeanne, and Wilma. The surge w/ Rita & Katrina is what separted these storms from the others, obviously. The winds experienced in Orlando from Charley were probably similar to Rita's landfall winds.

Charley was more like a large F2-F3 tornado than a "traditional" hurricane...

[MGC]

Thanks for posting. First time I got to see these clips. I didn't watch too much TV on Sunday. We were busy making final preparations for Katrina. We left home around 1pm and caught the first feeder band in Mobile....MGC

[Blown Away]

Where do they get these weather channel clips? How can I find clips of Frances, Jeanne, Wilma hours before landfall?

[jinftl]

I agree....these clips are amazing....does anyone know of any compilations of news clips and weather reports before and during storms like these...or where is a good place to find such clips?

[rlltex]

there are some on YouTube.