The Weathervein - Episode 9

Today marks the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and in this episode of The Weathervein Greg shares his experience chasing the monstrous cyclone as it barreled into the Mississippi coastline on August 29, 2005. We'll also cover Hurricane Danielle which is racing off into the north Atlantic, while Hurricane Earl gathers strength as it approaches the northern Leeward Islands and heads towards the United States before its likely curve out to sea. Beyond Earl we still have 97L in the central Atlantic which continues to try and organize into a tropical cyclone. Will it become Fiona and could it be our next big threat? Find out here!



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NEQ Friday Review, V.6

Hurricane season is upon us and with the highly-anticipated extremes we are likely to endure over the next several months, on the forefront of everyone's minds is... will it be a repeat of 2005 – the epic season that brought us hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma?

As the first of 28 tropical cyclones to form in 2005 didn't do so until early July, all we can do now is wait and be prepared. To that extent, in this week's NEQ Friday Review, I wanted to share with you an account of Hurricane Katrina, which I received this week via email from The Northeast Quadrant fan, Ricky Duncan. With Ricky's permission, here it goes... Hold onto your hats, guys!

My wife and I decided to stay in our house during Katrina. It was a decision that would change our lives forever!

Living just 60 miles due north of New Orleans, in Bogalusa, Louisiana, at the time of Katrina's landfall, we sat directly in the hurricane's path. The winds started blowing in the early morning hours and it was accompanied by a dramatic drop in pressure. The pressure fell so quickly that you actually felt the dip.

We have a room in the center of our house, which we called the safe room – it was a walk-in closet. This is where we would go if the roof started to blow off. My wife Linda had put a bunch of pillows and blankets on the floor to protect us. You see, we had prepared for hurricanes before, so we knew to do all the steps: buy batteries, fill the car with gas, fill the tub with water, etc. What we weren't expecting was the magnitude of this storm!

The winds increased with each passing minute. From window to window we gazed out at the trees in my yard getting blown over by the roots. There was even a huge live oak in my backyard and I watched as a third of it was split off the side, probably 6 foot in diameter. Sadly, this was the focal point of our 1 3/4-acre yard. Out of 14 oak trees I had on my property, now I have 7 left.

I started hearing something in our closed-in garage so I opened the door just to see the roll-up doors bowing in. When I walked back inside I saw water coming through the dining room ceiling. At that point I climbed up in the attic to see where it was coming from. Apparently the wind was blowing the back porch so hard that the nails were trying to back out of the rafters. We were officially at the height of the storm!

We had a pretty new home that had storm windows in it, and those windows looked as if they we bowed inward, but never broke. One tree, that we watched, had been blown back and forth so much that the roots had gotten a whole carved out under it, and when the rain would fill the hole and the wind blew it again, it shot the water up from the other side.

Finally, as the winds calmed down enough we could go outside and assess the damage, and the neighbors had the same idea. Normally, we would shake hands, but after we had been through the storm together, we hugged instead.

Trees laid across the road like cord wood and the smell of natural gas filled the air. Across the road from my house our neighbor had 3 large pine trees inside her house. It was an unbelievable sight!

Since Katrina, we purchased a camper and are now spending our summers off the Gulf Coast in the state of Michigan. The joy is in the journey not the destination, or as Linda says "We're not lost, just exploring!"

Reference: Pictures from Bogalusa, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

Living With Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond

When Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi the morning of August 29, 2005, the storm caused absolutely devastating large-scale destruction. The levees failed and their collapse flooded 80 percent of the city of New Orleans. By the time the waters receded and the survivors regrouped, Katrina, and then Hurricane Rita, had claimed more than 1,400 lives and the dreams of hundreds of thousands.

Now five years later a new, $7.5 million, 6,700 square-foot exhibit titled Living With Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond, will tell the stories of real people caught in the hurricane’s wrath. It tells of their rescue, recovery, rebuilding and renewal in a way that is certain to move both those who survived the storms and those who watched them unfold on television.

The exhibit will have a series of galleries featuring sound, video and computer graphics, and it opens this fall (October 26) at the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans.

Check out this promotional, yet very moving clip of coastal Louisiana's history and the events that led to the idea as well a what to expect when you visit the exhibit.



For me this is an absolute must-see! I hope you'll also make it a point to visit the exhibit should your travels take you there.

NEQ Friday Review, V.4

Despite all the recent predictions for an extreme hurricane season ahead, never in history have meteorologists seen a run-up to a season as sobering as what we're looking at now. In fact, since the end of World War II ocean temperatures in the hurricane-prone waters of the Atlantic have never been warmer this early in the season than they currently are – not even prior to the epic 2005 hurricane season, which featured 28 named storms, including Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and several storms that pushed us into using the Greek alphabet.

With such worrisome forecasts looming, today's NEQ Friday Review will take a look back at the 2005 hurricane season to see what we might be up against over the next 183 days spanning June 1 through November 30 (and possibly longer).

• The 2005 hurricane season was the most active in 154 years of records being kept.
• 2005 hurricane season held the most named storms at 28.
• For the first time since the current naming system was introduced in 1953, all 21 names on 2005 hurricane season's list were used, forcing the National Hurricane Center to name 6 later storms after letters in the Greek alphabet.
  
• The 2005 hurricane season featured more hurricanes than any other season with a grand total of 15.
  
• The 2005 hurricane season featured the most Category 5 storms with a total of four, including Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
• The 2005 hurricane season featured the earliest Category 5 storm with Emily on July 17.
• The 2005 hurricane season featured the most retired storm names with a grand total of five, including Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma.
  
• Hurricane Katrina, the 11th named storm of the 2005 hurricane season, now stands as the costliest U.S. hurricane at $96 billion dollars. Hurricane's Rita and Wilma also made the top 10 list.
• Hurricane Wilma, the 21st named storm of the 2005 hurricane season was recorded as the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever at sea.
• The 2005 hurricane season featured Tropical Storm Vince, the only storm to ever form so far east that it actually made landfall in Spain.
• Finally, the 2005 hurricane season featured tropical storm Zeta, which was only the second storm ever to bridge December and January.

Whew! What staggering facts! It seems that any of these would be hard to beat, and hopefully we won't do it!

Meanwhile, enjoy your Memorial Holiday Weekend and remember, hurricane season begins Tuesday, June 1!

New Hurricane Wind Scale for 2010 Season

Beginning the 2010 hurricane season, which runs from June 1 – November 30 for the Atlantic Basin (i.e. Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico), the National Hurricane Center will be categorizing storms using a new version of the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The new Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale will keep the same wind speed ranges as the original Saffir-Simpson Scale for each of the five hurricane categories, but no longer ties specific storm surge and flooding effects to each category.

The modification to the previous scale comes as realizations were made that storm surge values and associated flooding are dependent on a combination of the storm’s intensity, size, motion and barometric pressure, as well as the depth of the near-shore waters and local topographical features. The National Hurricane Center says storm surge forecasts will continue to be included in hurricane advisories.

If you live in a hurricane prone area, below are the categories you should become familiar with:

Category One (Sustained winds 74-95 mph) – Severe winds will produce some damage and minor flooding is possible. Example: Humberto, 2007

Category Two (Sustained winds 96-110 mph) – Dangerous winds and moderate flooding will cause extensive damage. Example: Dolly, 2008

Category Three (Sustained winds 111-130 mph) – Extremely dangerous winds and significant flooding will cause devastating damage to occur. Example: Fran, 1996

Category Four (Sustained winds 131-155 mph) – As a result of destructive winds and flooding catastrophic damage will occur with very few structures remaining. Example: Charley, 2004

Category Five (Sustained winds greater than 155 mph) – Unfathomable winds speeds and flooding will cause mass catastrophic damage to occur and structures will be left in ruins. Example: Katrina, 2005

Stay tuned! In early April the official 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season forecast will be released. You can bet The Northeast Quadrant will be on top of it!