Hurricane Gustav headed for the Gulf




Posted by n64 man

I've been keeping up on this story. Earlier CNN said that they expect it land around New Orleans sometime on Tuesday


Quoting "http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axPRWharxy_Y&refer=home": Gustav returned to hurricane strength after it moved west of Jamaica with torrential rain today, picking up speed as it headed toward Cuba and the U.S. Gulf Coast cities that were ravaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Cuba issued a hurricane warning for its western areas, which the U.S. National Hurricane Center forecasts Gustav will hit tomorrow. The storm may then reach central Louisiana as a hurricane on Sept. 2 before moving northwest into areas of Louisiana and Texas, the center forecast.

President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency for Louisiana, three years to the day after Katrina left more than 80 percent of New Orleans under water and caused more than $81 billion in damage. That hurricane was followed three weeks later by Rita, which ravaged central Louisiana and far eastern Texas, the same areas now threatened by Gustav.

``A land strike to the west of New Orleans will place this great city within the most dangerous part of the storm,'' said Jim Rouiller, a senior energy meteorologist with Planalytics Inc., a forecaster based in Wayne, Pennsylvania. ``Gustav has the potential to generate much more damage than Katrina did.''

Gustav will ``likely explode into a major hurricane over the next two days as it tracks on a west to northwesterly course across the northwestern Caribbean toward western Cuba and the Cayman Islands,'' said Rouiller.

Parts of the Florida Keys were put under a storm watch late today. Hurricane warnings were posted for the Cayman Islands and western Cuba including the city of Havana.

Bush ordered federal aid to supplement state and local efforts, the White House said by e-mail. Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana issued their own state emergency and disaster declarations and alerted National Guard units.

Ready for Travel

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin urged an estimated 30,000 residents needing assistance to register with a program to help them get out of the city if Gustav strikes. Louisiana has about 800 buses mustered for a possible evacuation; Amtrak trains are also available if needed.

``We have to take these storms seriously,'' Governor Bobby Jindal said at a press conference yesterday. ``We as Louisianans have to be better prepared.''

Gustav will be the first test for federal officials of new procedures since Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in Washington yesterday before flying to Louisiana. The Bush administration was widely criticized for a slow response after the 2005 storm.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had food, water and supplies ready to move into the area.

``The upper Texas coastline to Louisiana will remain most at risk to receive the brunt,'' Rouiller said today. ``Landfall projections into this high-risk target zone are expected to occur very late Monday night and Tuesday.''

Heading for Caymans

Gustav regained hurricane strength with sustained winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour as of 5 p.m. Miami time today and was centered 100 miles east of Grand Cayman, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on its Web site. It is heading west-northwest at 12 mph, about twice yesterday's speed.

Gustav is predicted to bring as much as 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on a track toward the western tip of Cuba, reaching the Gulf of Mexico by Aug. 31, the center said.

Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management warned of ``extensive flash flooding'' as heavy rainfall continues into the night, it said in a bulletin. There were no confirmed casualties caused by Gustav in Jamaica, although 60 people were reported killed when the storm hit Haiti and the Dominican Republic earlier in the week.

The storm lead to the deaths of 51 people in Haiti, Agence France-Presse reported. In the neighboring Dominican Republic, eight people died and two were hurt in a landslide, the country's Center of Emergency Operations said on its Web site.

Preparing to Move

Some southern Louisiana parishes, where several oil refineries are located, plan to evacuate civilians today or tomorrow, the local governments said on their Web sites. St. Charles Parish, west of New Orleans, accelerated its emergency plan to begin assisted evacuations today and mandatory evacuations will likely take place at noon local time tomorrow. St. Bernard Parish officials anticipate mandatory evacuations tomorrow.

U.S. oil and gas platforms and pipelines are most concentrated in the waters south of Louisiana and east of Texas. Offshore fields in the Gulf accounted for 26 percent of total U.S. crude production and 12 percent of natural gas output in April, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Producers including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc evacuated workers from platforms in the Gulf region.

Oil Prices

Crude oil for October delivery rose 42 cents to $116.06 a barrel as of 1:47 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures are up 2.5 percent this week, the biggest gain since the week ended July 4. Oil is up 60 percent from a year ago.

The hurricane center also is monitoring Tropical Storm Hanna, which was about 215 miles north-northeast of the Caribbean's northern Leeward Islands and heading northwest at 12 mph as of 11 a.m. Miami time. The system had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, and may become a hurricane over the weekend, the center said.

Hanna is predicted to turn west and then southwest toward the central Bahamas next week. Landfall isn't forecast over the next five days, according to the center's Web site.




Posted by Ant

well hey, maybe we'll actual abandon the city if it hits again and does the same amount of damage. it's a city that really isn't meant to be.




Posted by Lord of Spam

It'll be a shame if the thing that kills one of the coolest cities around is hte poor planning and emergency management that has gone on there. :(




Posted by WackoHater

I hope it visits Jezzie:jesse:DumbBell's bedroom headquarters and takes this forum down for GOOD !!!




Posted by Shin-Ra

I live in Port Arthur, so I've already packed for the inevitable evacuation. I really don't feel like "dying" again. :(




Posted by BLUNTMASTER X

Bush is gonna shaft those poor guys down in New Orleans yet again. He's only got 2 months left, why should he care? :cool:

would never happen if my boy barry was in the house




Posted by Velvet Nightmare

BRACE FOR FAIL IN NEW ORLEANS AGAIN LOL

seriously though, i was glad to see that people that wanted out got a chance to evacuate. hopefully the people that chose to stay won't be wankers if it turns out to be really similar to katrina, but here's to hoping it won't be




Posted by Foppy D

My mother-in-law is a hotel restaraunt manager in a northern Atlanta suburb and she was complaining about all of the vagabond New Orleans refugees that for some reason spent the extra dollar to drive a little further to a 4 star hotel and not tip in the restaraunt and keep dozens of wet towels in their bathrooms and use the trash can for an ice bucket. Without a trash bag liner.

I mean I've been to New Orleans...and while it does have a pretty cool scene it is not foreign enough to amount to not tipping when someone from New Orleans is not in New Orleans and is eating.

Don't get me wrong, New Orleans is a cool city. It just sucks for her that the poor-*** derelicts who live there decided to go to her expensive hotel.




Posted by BLUNTMASTER X

expecting refugees to tip you? oh wow buddy




Posted by Speedfreak

They drove further to go to a four star hotel, somehow I think they have the money.




Posted by Shin-Ra

Hurricane missed us. Back to school tomorrow. :(


Quoting Foppy D: It just sucks for her that the poor-*** derelicts who live there decided to go to her expensive hotel.


I hear a lot of similar statements every day. Quite a few people evacuated to Beamont / Port Arthur from New Orleans after Katrina - or rather after Rita hit here and royally fucked everything up. Our hospitals have financial problems because of this, since a lot of evacuated people without insurance used our hospitals and never payed - I'm assuming because the majority lost their jobs which supplied their health insurance or just didn't have insurance in the first place. Now the hospitals are laying off entire floors and pay is terrible, thus our entire healthcare system is completely crap. I mean, RN's start off at a local hospital at like $23.00 an hour. That wouldn't be too bad if Rita hadn't made it a bit too expensive to live here. Texas has helped though. Minimum wage was $5.15 in 2004 and it's risen to $6.50 this year. Still, not too many are really finding much relief. I mean, it sucks because of Katrina but it also sucks because of Rita. Healthcare is worse, crime is worse (Port Arthur / Beaumont was bad anyway) and it costs too much to live here. It's not really anybody's fault at all either. It just circumstantially sucks donkey dick. Read [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_katrina]this[/url] (especially under "economic effects", keep in mind I'm between Louisiana and Houston) and [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_rita]this[/url] if further interested.

Oh and probably the biggest bitch right now is the amount of people from Louisiana who used Texas' evacuation routes while we were in the process of evacuating. This happened during [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:RitaHoustonEvacuation.jpg]Rita[/url] too and I have to admit that something really needs to be done about that. It shouldn't take 12+ hours to reach somewhere that's only 3 hours north of us. I heard a rumor of shutting off Louisiana roads to Texas when "Mandatory Evacuation" was declared, but I have no idea if they closed off the roads, especially considering the amount of Louisiana license plates I saw while evacuating.



Posted by Shade

Hurricane Gustav was lame. Category 1? You better bring more fun with Hurricane Hannah, nature.




Posted by Foppy D


Quoting Speedfreak: They drove further to go to a four star hotel, somehow I think they have the money.


well then they're not tipping

which would make it worse?



Posted by Nazo


Quoting Shade: Hurricane Gustav was lame. Category 1? You better bring more fun with Hurricane Hannah, nature.


Predicted path is between north Georgia, and south-North Carolina. (Where I am.)

Also; Northeastern hurricanes, even if the category level is lower than a southern/southeastern hurricane, it's still more intense due to getting caught in the northeast jet-stream. I'm so fuuuuuuuuuucked if it comes this way. :(

Meh, I went through Katrina, I can go through this piece of ****. :cool: