Hurricane Ida

Bonnie said:
They have hospitals full of Covid patients in N.O., and they don't plan on moving anyone from those locations.
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Heard this on the radio this morning. Apparently the hospitals are pretty full but there is nowhere to evacuate the patients to given that all nearby hospitals are equally full. However all of the hospitals have their own generators. I just hope they have enough fuel to keep them operating.
 

Warrigal said:
all of the hospitals have their own generators. I just hope they have enough fuel to keep them operating.
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And that the fuel and generators are above flood level. Being from Louisiana I don't have a lot of faith. New Orleans best hope lies in a weaker storm than we are talking about. That is what usually happens.
 
Kaila said:
Do take care, and let us know how you are doing, when you are able to.
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Thank you, ((( @Kaila ))). We'll have a few casualties due to downed trees, power lines and human error with generators and chainsaws ...but nothing like the people on the coast. Extended power outages are expected which won't be fun in Mississippi in August, but again, it's hard to complain knowing what people to the south of us are facing. The main concern throughout the entire area impacted are our already overburdened hospitals.
 
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Thank you, ((( @Kaila ))). We'll have power outages here and a few casualties due to downed trees, power lines and human error with generators and chainsaws ...but nothing like the people on the coast. Extended power outages are expected which won't be fun in Mississippi in August, but again, it's hard to complain knowing what people to the south of us are facing. The main concern throughout the entire area impacted are our already overburdened hospitals.
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Another issue ... this from the Houston Chronicle tonight ...

Meteorologist Jeff Masters, who flew hurricane missions for the government and founded Weather Underground, said Ida is forecast to move through “the just absolute worst place for a hurricane.”

The Interstate 10 corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is a critical hub of the nation’s petrochemical industry, lined with oil refineries, natural gas terminals and chemical manufacturing plants. Entergy, Louisiana’s major electricity provider, operates two nuclear power plants along the Mississippi River.
 
AnnieA said:
We'll have a few casualties due to downed trees, power lines and human error with generators and chainsaws ...but nothing like the people on the coast. Extended power outages are expected which won't be fun in Mississippi in August, but again, it's hard to complain knowing what people to the south of us are facing. The main concern throughout the entire area impacted are our already overburdened hospitals.
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Anne, where are you located? From your post it sounds like Mississippi. Hope this thing doesn't do you too much damage.

Just checked water levels at Port Fourchon only looks to be about 1 ft of surge so far. Port Fourchon should see some of the worst of it, and its the closest tidal station I can find to the relatives in Houma. Tomorrow should be a more interesting story... https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/map/index.html?id=8762075
 
Don M. said:
This hurricane is shaping up to be very strong....perhaps as bad as Katrina or Harvey from a few years ago. Those hurricanes killed over 3,000, left thousands homeless, and caused over 200 billion in damages.

Even if this one isn't among the worst in intensity, the damages will likely be extreme, and those injured will have few options for medical care, as the Louisiana hospitals are already full of Covid patients.

Our State emergency teams are already geared up to head that way as soon as the storm passes, and they are filling trucks with tents and medical gear.
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I can remember heading west on I-10 a couple of days after Katrina hit and seeing miles of service trucks alongside the road, electrical trucks, cherrypickers, boom trucks, heavy earth movers, bulldozers, emergency services, etc. from states all along the eastern seaboard.....waiting for the signal to head out to N.O. There was a whole crew of emergency personnel and deputies from our county on busses heading up.

It's good that we can pull together at times like this.
 
Ida is expected to make landfall on Sunday as a cat 4 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale for those of you using different wind scales). It's scheduled to arrive in New Orleans at 7:00 PM GMT, which is 3:00 EDT. The water in the Gulf is a refreshing 90° F.
 
Looking at the map of its movement, shows that it
will come ashore at 8.00 EST, but if the predictions
shown are correct, it won't reach Washington DC
until about Thursday.

Is it normal for a hurricane to travel slowly, or are they
all different and have varying speeds?

Mike.
 
Mike said:
Is it normal for a hurricane to travel slowly, or are they
all different and have varying speeds?
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Typically they last 12-24 hours but Emerald Isle had one that lasted 3 days and included an area of tornado destruction. Most damage elsewhere was due to rain after siding or shingles from roofs were blown off. But Hardie Plank siding (which I have) will last even with a Hurricane 4 (and 5?) but they have to be installed properly. Metal Roofing (which I have) is also extra hardy in a strong hurricane and must also be installed properly.

New Code requirements for builders have gotten tougher over the years for hurricane prone areas.
 
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Mike said:
Is it normal for a hurricane to travel slowly, or are they
all different and have varying speeds?

Mike.
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All different and have varying speeds, yes, just like other Mother nature turbines, typhoon, monsoon, cyclone, water spouts, tornadoes. Hurricanes range in speed on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the worst. Tornadoes are measured on the Fujita scale, 1-5, 5 being Catastrophic in damage, lives and property.
 
This goes out to all those in harms way. It’s all I have to offer….Pappy
Heavenly Father, You are our hiding place from the storm and the rain. You are our shelter and our covering. We ask You for preservation from this raging tempest. Please keep all those in the path of this storm safe and defend their homes from damage. Bring peace and protection and provision, we ask. Thank You for Your great compassion and mercy for Your children. Amen.
 
It doesn't look good this morning, winds are up a little and the worst case path continues. Landfall is about 8 hours away and conditions along the coast in particular are deteriorating, not life threatening yet but that may come. The forecast peak surge is now up to 16 ft. Surge is already about 3 ft between Fourchon and the River https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/inundationdb/storm/Ida.html is a good site for following conditions along the coast.

No increase in the surge forecast for New Orleans, if it's right the levees should hold. For the threat to NO look at the forecast and conditions for Lake Pontchartrain. Things look worse to the south of town... Still headed for my relatives home in Houma, that could be the worst place, fortunately I think all are evacuated to Baton Rouge.
jujube said:
I can remember heading west on I-10 a couple of days after Katrina hit and seeing miles of service trucks alongside the road, electrical trucks, cherrypickers, boom trucks, heavy earth movers, bulldozers, emergency services, etc. from states all along the eastern seaboard.....waiting for the signal to head out to N.O. There was a whole crew of emergency personnel and deputies from our county on busses heading up.
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Yep, one of the better things FEMA does is fund all of this. Once a disaster is declared the check book is open and anyone with the proper equipment is assured of being well paid. I am sure some of it is altruistic, but the money makes a big difference. When we were hit by Dennis in 2005 at first we were inundated by help, unfortunately that was just before Katrina hit NO, when Katrina hit we were abandoned, literally within hours. It took 2 months for us to get power. FEMA came in and talked to us, and because of the damage to our house we qualified for one of those FEMA trailers to live in, it was supposed to arrive about the time Katrina hit, we are still waiting...

Mike said:
Is it normal for a hurricane to travel slowly, or are they
all different and have varying speeds?
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Speeds can vary a lot from dead stop to 25 mph or more. In the "typical" path hurricanes and tropical storms move from east to west in the tropics with some northerly trend and then turn to the east and more northerly when they move out of the tropics. Generally they move more slowly in the tropics and subtropics and speed up as they move north into the temperate zones. A hurricane moving up the Atlantic coast to New York, New England, or Canada will usually move much faster than one in the tropics or Gulf of Mexico. They are usually moving pretty fast by the time they cross the Atlantic towards you.

And in general tropical storms (winds below 74 mph, 64 kts) move more slowly than hurricanes. That is why some of the heaviest rain comes from tropical storms, they stick around longer. This is all generalized and not all hurricanes follow the "general" path, they are unpredictable. Though I can say predictions have improved a whole lot since I was a kid. My descriptions only apply in the northern hemisphere, the opposite happens south of the equator.
jujube said:
I'm trying to remember which hurricane it was some years ago that came ashore, meandered inland, made a big circle, went back out in the Gulf and came back ashore for a double-whammy.
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Has happened more than once, you may be thinking of Harvey in 2017. Harvey made landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas coast as a category 4 storm. That did plenty of damage but then it stopped and went back out into the Gulf drifting eastward as a tropical storm. Second landfall was near the Texas/Louisiana border as a tropical storm. That was the more damaging one, from the incredible rainfall, the worst damage was in the area around Houston. It was caused by the slow movement, Harvey sat for days just dumping rain.
 
Mike said:
Is it normal for a hurricane to travel slowly, or are they
all different and have varying speeds?
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Yes they are all different, Mike....
But in addition, they slow down considerably, once they are moving over land, instead of over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
And, also, they will slow down more, when they encounter hillier terrain, which there is not any, near the shore that this one is coming onto, unfortunately (it's all low and flat thereabouts)

but it will start crossing higher and more hilly land, while the storm moves across the land in the USA, and toward Wash.D.C. and other places North of there along the East USA coast.
This is why it will take days, for the storm to reach Wash D.C. as you mentioned in your post.
 

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