Schooled by Katrina, Gulf Coast Awaits Rita

It took a massive hurricane named Katrina to get people along the Gulf Coast fully aware of the dangers of living on the coast where hurricanes are regular visitors. Now, local, state, and federal agencies are all working to figure out how to get more than a million people out of the way of Rita, which is now a strong category 5 storm, with winds of more than 165 mph.

There are a bunch of bloggers covering this, including:
~Prarie Pundit;
~Charles Johnson;
and
~Laurence Simon.

To track the storm, you can go to any of the major news sites, or check out:
Weather Underground's modeling. This is a predictive tool to see where and how the storm will come ashore.

To recap, Hurricane Rita has experienced a massive intensification over the past 24 hours. It is now a massive Category 5 storm, with a central pressure of 898mb (26.52 inches), which makes it the third most intense storm in the recorded history of the Atlantic Basin. Typhoon Tip in the Pacific is the overall recordholder with a central pressure of 870 mb.

THE PRESSURE HAS BEEN FALLING RAPIDLY DURING THE DAY AND THE LATEST MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE RECENTLY REPORTED BY AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT WAS 898 MB...26.52 INCHES. THIS MAKES RITA THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE IN TERMS OF PRESSURE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN.

TIDES ARE CURRENTLY RUNNING NEAR NORMAL ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA COASTS IN THE AREAS AFFECTED BY KATRINA. TIDES IN THOSE AREAS WILL INCREASE UP TO 3 TO 4 FEET OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS WITH LARGE WAVES ON TOP AND RESIDENTS THERE COULD EXPERIENCE FLOODING.

In other words, even if this storm doesn't target Louisiana for landfall, it could still experience serious flooding due to increased wave action.

Galveston Mayor's Office official site. The Mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas, had declared a state of emergency as of September 20, 2005. This is a list of Galveston's public safety officials.

Emergency email is a service that provides notification of local, regional, national and international emergencies utilizing the Internet and electronic mail (email) in a secure and expedient manner. It lets you pull homeland security notifications, amber alerts, and other pertinent information.

This is the current Galveston evacuation map.

City of Corpus Christi website has up links to evacuation routes, and other pertinent information. Corpus Christi's Mayor is Henry Garrett.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; hurricane rita; katrina aid; new orleans, rita, galveston, corpus christi,