Katrina - Ground Zero at home

[Lindaloo]

Chris, with all due respect, I have been through a CAT2 named Georges. No comparison to the winds during Katrina.

[HurricaneGirl]

Hi Linda! Thank God you're safe! Welcome back..

[skysummit]

The true wind data we need will probably not be found. The strongest winds will be in southern Plaquemines Parish and St. Bernard Parish....both areas completely wiped out so even if there is evidence of Cat 5 winds, I doubt we'll find it. I've worked Andrew recovery in Florida, and I've worked Ivan recovery. I've also worked many other recovery efforts from many other intense storms and Katrina is beyond comparison in every aspect. For those of you who only see what the news is showing, that does not even come close to justice. I was in Covington, La. for the storm and our anemomether broke at 141mph....this was well WEST of where the eye came ashore. All along the Miss. Gulf Coast you can see clothes, sheets, and other objects well into the trees. Like another poster mentioned, there is debris from the surge along I-10 in Mississippi and if you look at the water line in the underpasses, it's an easy 20 feet deep. I say that surge was somewhere around 30 feet in most areas.

[Steve]

>>Just from seeing video of Katrina in NOLA and MS, areas close to the eye didn't get as much wind as a Cat 5, maybe not more than Cat 3. Parts of the Garden District and CBD were very close to the western eyewall; even with those shattered windows on the Hyatt, 5-10 stories up, wind damage could have been at lot worse.

The Garden District and CBD weren't anywhere near the western eyewall. My brother in law lived the western eyewall in South Slidell about 20 miles east of the 1/4 and CBD. That's a big difference (as you also noted that 15 miles either side of an eye is a big difference).



Hey Linda.

Steve

[f5]

I know Charley was a small compact storm but his strongest winds were confined to a 5 to may be 10 mile area

[timNms]

I have heard of at least one unofficial reading of a 160 mph gust in Laurel. Timnms told me about it but didn't give any other information so I have no idea how it was obtained. Lindaloo in Pascagoula said they had Cat4 winds in that area and she says she is guaging it by the damage, not just what she saw happen. She does know the difference between surge and wind damage too. Some of the pictures and video I have seen tell me there were Cat4 winds along much of the MS Coast. I do have to say that at this point the pictures and video I have seen do not seem to bear out Cat5 winds except possibly in a very small area right at landfall, but I am not sure how much of what I was seeing was surge damage and what was wind damage in those video/pictures. It was very hard to discern, but there were certainly trees snapped en masse and what was left standing was stripped. As was stated, it really doesn't matter what the intensity was at this point because down the road that will all be "officially worked out and reported. What matters now is getting everyone back on their feet.

David, the 160 mph gust in Laurel, MS was reported in the News Commercial (Covington County's local newspaper) They don't have a website to link to. You know how those small town papers are! I'll try to figure out a way to copy the article and send to you.

Regardless of what the intensity of Katrina was at landfall, I have NEVER seen such destruction in my area before. I was only 7 when Camille went through this area, so I don't remember a lot about what things looked like. But my Mom says that Katrina was worse than Camille here. Trees are stripped (those still standing) others are broken or uprooted or left leaning toward the SW and West. Our house shuttered and shook. The house would actually vibrate as we heard the wind roaring in the distance. Then it would begin to shake and quiver as the wind slammed against it. I was amazed! Never frightened, but amazed. It was something that I had never experienced before. Oddly enough, my son, daughter, and I stood on my front porch thru most of the storm watching the trees almost touch the ground as the wind whipped thru them.

This, by far, is the greatest natural disaster Mississippi has seen. Camille, while devastating, was small in comparison to this one. The storm surge in Katrina was even greater than that in Camille, which leads me to believe that she was doing something that Camille didn't do. I'm not sure I understand how her surge could have been greater than that of a stronger storm. Anyone who can explain that?

[Radar]

For those who don't believe Dh's claim that Katrina may have been a Catagory 5 I would like to invite you to my neck of woods and just see the houses demolished, whole fields of trees snapped like tooth picks, huge trees literally uprooted. One house down the road from me you can barely see for all the trees on the roof. I say this was a HUGE wind event and unfortunately all you are seeing on National Television is the storm surge area you are not seeing the devastation this storm did inland. I live about 7 miles off the Gulf and I can tell you this is Cat 5 damage. Glad to hear that so many are OK and reporting in from around the storm ravaged region....

[oneness]

I went through a large cat 4 eye when young and I can tell you it does not take Cat 5 winds to destroy every tree, and I mean EVERY tree, well inland. The trees don't just topple over like they do in a 2 or 3. At first the branches start to come off then the bigger boughs and larger trees go down, then all, and I mean all leaves are stripped off, then when the sustained cat 4 winds arrive any remaining thus shredded trunks are violently smashed-off at about 12 to 18 inches above the ground. They don’t even have time to become uprooted when the cat 4 winds arrive. All bark is sand-blasted off of the smashed stumps creating a white fibrous pulp. The smashed-off upper part is GONE, never to be seen again. Not a single tree anywhere survives genuine sustained cat 4 winds. Unless your trees are in that state you did not get genuine sustained cat 4 winds.

[Radar]

Well, I dont want to argue about it certainly the National Hurricane Center will be taking a long hard look at Katrina and make an accurate decision as to what catagory she was. However, like I said before it wouldnt surprise me to find that Katrina was a cat 5 because in some areas she definately did Cat 5 destruction (which could also be contributed to small tornados she was spawning).... Needless to say she was one heck of a storm and one that will be talked about and anaylized for years to come!

[timNms]

I went through a large cat 4 eye when young and I can tell you it does not take Cat 5 winds to destroy every tree, and I mean EVERY tree, well inland. The trees don't just topple over like they do in a 2 or 3. At first the branches start to come off then the bigger boughs and larger trees go down, then all, and I mean all leaves are stripped off, then when the sustained cat 4 winds arrive any remaining thus shredded trunks are violently smashed-off at about 12 to 18 inches above the ground. They don’t even have time to become uprooted when the cat 4 winds arrive. All bark is sand-blasted off of the smashed stumps creating a white fibrous pulp. The smashed-off upper part is GONE, never to be seen again. Not a single tree anywhere survives genuine sustained cat 4 winds. Unless your trees are in that state you did not get genuine sustained cat 4 winds.

Odd that you'd mention bark being sand blasted off of trees. There are several trees around my area that have no bark left on them. And we're 90 miles inland!

[oneness]

Keep in mind, the gusts in a 4 transiently reach well into cat 5 strength, so you get what looks like cat 5 type damage levels in some areas. A downdraft gust (like 180-190 mph) from a cat 4 is more than enough to take most buildings back to bare slab and some of those explosive gusts last several seconds. Tornados may have occurred in places but you don’t need them to get that sort of damage from a no-BSing cat 4.

[f5]

i'll let the NHC make the"OFFICAL" call

[f5]

For those who don't believe Dh's claim that Katrina may have been a Catagory 5 I would like to invite you to my neck of woods and just see the houses demolished, whole fields of trees snapped like tooth picks, huge trees literally uprooted. One house down the road from me you can barely see for all the trees on the roof. I say this was a HUGE wind event and unfortunately all you are seeing on National Television is the storm surge area you are not seeing the devastation this storm did inland. I live about 7 miles off the Gulf and I can tell you this is Cat 5 damage. Glad to hear that so many are OK and reporting in from around the storm ravaged region....

your area looks like Hiroshima