a PSA: hurricane Laura upgraded to Category 4
BREAKING: #Laura has just strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane, with wind speeds of 140mph. We're LIVE as this storm nears the Gulf Coast. pic.twitter.com/7rx2aucYus
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) August 26, 2020
It really doesn't get much more real than this. 140mph Hurricane #Laura will make landfall after dark likely near Cameron, LA. If you are in Beaumont or Port Arthur, TX go west. If you are in Cameron or Lake Charles, LA go east. Go now. pic.twitter.com/06MFIvu2gr
— Mike Bettes (@mikebettes) August 26, 2020
Incredible to see this -- while such eyewall structure & mesovortices in the are common in very intense typhoons & hurricanes in the Pacific and sometimes elsewhere in the Atlantic basin, that's not the case in the NW Gulf & making a beeline for the coast #Laura #StaySafe pic.twitter.com/r75rit3tHT
— Stu Ostro (@StuOstro) August 26, 2020
BREAKING: #Laura has strengthened, and is now forecast to have sustained wind speeds of 150 mph at landfall. This will make it just 7 mph shy of being a Category 5. pic.twitter.com/2DYacgeq2o
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) August 26, 2020
Only 4 hurricanes have struck in East Texas/Southwest Louisiana in recorded history. The strongest was Rita in 2005 with 115mph winds. Laura's winds are 140mph. This may be an unprecedented storm for this area. A new advisory will be available any minute with updated wind speed. pic.twitter.com/HZQr60tLyT
— Mike Bettes (@mikebettes) August 26, 2020
Please feel free to add updates at will. Our hearts go out to all in her pathway, especially C99ers and their loved ones.
Comments
The projected path
making landfall is the TX / LA border
low lands and swamp
oil refineries west
lots of drilling platforms offshore
pumping stations and pipelines
supposed to swing northeast once inland
good luck
question everything
seems so, and thanks.
our neighbor's sister is in beaumont, says she'll ride it out. here's hoping it's a wise decision.
the surge
Laura winds may miss us,
but I suspect some hard rains, some some impassable low bridges here and there.
It is unusually cool. We are sitting on my porch, listening to music, and whatever noise weather may make.
I have friends down in Galveston, Kima, and Padre Island, and I am hoping they all evacuated and are safe.
My tiny town is on the evcuation route, and we had lots of Louisiana license plates coming through yesterday.
Hope they took all precautions.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
i'd known you're in texas,
but i'd forgotten where. this un seems to be packed with power, so it's good to hear she'll be missing you in the main.
hard to even imagine...
i'm out for the night; morning will tell the tale, i guess.
Isn't there another one coming in
right on its ass as well. Folks down there will probably have to stay gone for a while.
They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway
They say that life's a game and then they take the board away
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story
And leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret-- A. Moore
Not any more, fortunately
You're probably thinking of Marco. It was supposed to be a one-two punch, but Marco fell apart over the weekend.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
I think Laura ate Marco's lunch
The somewhat unpredictable Fujiwhara effect that was pulling both storms around.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
The only hurricane I've seen
with a larger and more well-developed eye was Katrina. As a Katrina survivor, my heart goes out to the people in Laura's path. It's going to be a long road for them.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Devastation
A little over a year ago, I was working for a helicopter operator. I retired (given an offer I couldn't refuse) last March. This operator had bases across the Gulf of Mexico. Our helicopters were the taxis and buses for the offshore oil platforms and rigs.
The base I was working from when I retired was Cameron, Louisiana, and I'd been there for about three years. Just before that, I spent a few years working at Lake Charles, Louisiana. I spent a little over 35 years with this company and know many, many folks from Louisiana. A good number of those people live in the path of Hurricane Laura. Some are directly in the path ...more than I can count with the fingers of both hands.
Cameron is right on the water. As we would do maintenance on our helicopters during the nights, one could easily hear the surf from the beach. How close? Maybe a quarter of a mile or a tad more. Close. No dikes, no levees anywhere in Cameron.
In 2005, Cameron took a direct hit from the most powerful Gulf of Mexico hurricane ever recorded, Hurricane Rita. It was devastating. Years later, after I came back to Cameron, I didn't even recognize it. Most of the town was simply not there. There were concrete pads with pipes sticking up where buildings had been. One hundred year old oaks with nothing left but a ragged stump. Around 80% of the population never returned.
So, now it's 15 years later and it looks as though Hurricane Laura is going in for the coup de grâce.
I can name around ten of my friends who are going to lose everything they couldn't pack into pickup trucks and SUVs. Most of these live closer to Lake Charles, but some are in the plains closer to Cameron. The whole area is flat as a pancake and the storm surge is going to go over them like there's nothing there ...because there isn't anything there.
Some of the little towns and bergs that will be destroyed: Cameron, Creole, Oak Grove, Johnson's Bayou, Holly Beach, Grand Chenier, and on and on ...and these are just towns along the coast. Lake Charles, which is a little over a 20 minute drive north of Cameron, will get heavy damage. Lake Charles is so low that even a normal, moderate rain shower will produce flooding in many areas of town. Right now, the NWS is predicting pretty much the same storm surge for Lake Charles that they have predicted for Cameron. It's bad, really bad.
Just to the west of Cameron is Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas. Those may fare about as badly as areas just to the east. The entire area is laced with petrochemical plants and refineries (as is the Lake Charles area). Some of these are massive, some of the largest in the world. Much of Port Arthur is quite low and many poor people live in these areas.
It will take the area a long time to dig itself out. Some of it will never recover. Cameron Parish - the largest parish in the state - is almost completely rural. They do not have the tax base that some other nearby parishes have, so it's going to be tough. The federal government stepped in after Hurricane Rita and spent funds for schools and governmental buildings, but who knows what our current government might do.
It's hard for me to write this. Although I believe all my friends and old co-workers have evacuated (I hope), many of them are going to find themselves starting over and it's not a good time to be starting over. I guess there never is a good time for that.
Thank you
for your personnal, in depth remarks. I feel for those in this predictament.
I also wonder why so many will chose to rebuild instead of getting the hell out.
Mother nature will not be kind to those who ignore her warnings.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
oh my here you are!
and thank the gods, buster keaton. i'd lulled myself into a false sense of security mistakenly thinking that houston was inland quite a way. a stunning and breath-taking personal account you've given us. thank you for now; i'll have to read it again later to absorb more of it.
the gov said over 400,000 folks have no electrical power, and they'd be digging for survivors (or not, i suppose was the subtext) for days. laura's down to a category 2 now, and the surges weren't quite as high as they'd anticipated.
Southwest Louisiana's three historic #hurricane landfalls:
- #Laura: First SW Louisiana Cat. 4 landfall on record (938 mb)
- Rita 2005: Cat. 3 (937 mb)
- Audrey 1957: Cat. 3 (946 mb)
tornadoes, too: ay yi yi.
Category-4 Hurricane Laura makes landfall in Louisiana as authorities warn of ‘catastrophic’ destruction (VIDEOS) , 27 Aug, 2020, RT.com
i'll be back in a bit, but thanks again for such a wooosh-worthy personal and emotional account. i know we'll all be sending good thoughts and prayers their way.
(it's tough not to wax cynical +++ at your Q as to what the gummint/s will do.)
The storm is bad, sad, and will cause
permanent damage.
By the time it gets to Beaumont and Port Arthur, rips through the oil fields and refineries, expect fuel prices to surge.
It is cool outside. The rains will come in a few hours. Winds are gentle but fairly steady. The skies toward Houston are oddly alight, like the ambient light of a city, or a stadium. Except there is none of that under those skies.
I parked my vehicles in an open field away from trees. I have a bathroom that is interior and away from windows.
I hope the power lines stay up. It was not possible to buy a generator.
Anyway, my heart goes out to the people and places being battered by this monster storm.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
still sorting out messes here,
but two additions.
the National Hurricane Center is here.
my email provider shut down again, i clicked in and found: 'The New York Times:
Hurricane Laura Live Updates: Gulf Coast Lashed by High Winds and Flooding
28 mins ago, msn.com, with photos, including this one: 'The beginning of the storm surge from Hurricane Laura at Sea Rim State Park near Port Arthur, Texas'
all this i'll add may be silly to add
now, as i can't even say anyone's still reading. but i'd got to thinking about the refineries, the chemical plants in...didn't they used to call it 'cancer ally' or 'chemical alley'? anyhoo, i found a a few things, and they may be out of order or doubled up given my crap Microsoft Mouse, but here goes:
Texas Refinery Spewed Pollutants Before Storm: Hurricane Update
Bloomberg News, 37 mins ago, via msn.com
@markknoller
2h @PressSec says Pres Trump will be visiting @fema
HQ today for an update on the damage inflicted by Hurricane Laura and the response so far. @KellyannePolls says people in the storm zone should stay inside until all clear is given. She warns that the danger is not passed.
i need some rest; i get up way before dawn so i can milk the chickens, etc.
a bit more news, more photos:
ah, it was a chlorine plant that caught on fire. jeebus.
@samkarlin 3h
2,100 people are currently in shelters, the vast majority (1,900) in hotels/motels. The rest are in congregate shelters. The state has 800 more hotel rooms under contract and can get more, JBE says.
.@LouisianaGov
confirms four deaths from Hurricane Laura. He said he's worried they'll find more as they do search and rescue
i need to shut down for the night,
and had tried and failed to find music from treme, post when the levies failed in the 9th ward esp. Katrina.
but: will there be mutual aid societies built again post-Laura? we can only hope that it might be so, even as those won't serve the purpose that state aid and the federal govt. SHOULD offer.
i haven't discovered if there are public schools still standing now, but some Qs are for another day, such as: how large will the diaspora be?
good night. put a candle in the window (at least metaphorically) tonight for those suffering thru no fault of their own.
Some likely up
My guess is that those buildings are still up. After Hurricane Rita, the Feds came through with funds to build new governmental buildings in the area: schools, police/sheriff/jails headquarters (of course...), some county/parish buildings. These new buildings were really built well – like the proverbial brick shit-house. No doubt they're still up. Whether there will students for the schools, or money to pay for the expensive sheriff SUVs is another matter now.
I've seen some pix and video of Lake Charles, but not of any of the coastal towns. I don't think you can get there yet unless it's via helicopter. Maybe in a few days...
thanks for that info,
and for your wonderings as well. cameron is part of the lake charles 'census area' now, but it's on the coat, yes?
this is a slideshow of aerial views from the lafayette daily.
wonder who the head of FEMA is now? i keep hearing Dubya: 'hekkuva job, Brownie!' guess who hired him later? Colorado. are the formaldehyde trailers still around?
and have you heard from any of your friends? you must be soooooo worried for them.
Big mess
Yes, Wendy, Cameron is right on the Gulf of Mexico. During the nights, when we did maintenance on the helicopters, we could easily hear the surf from the beach.
I've been in contact with only one of the affected folks. He called me Friday evening. He'd bugged out to Natchez, MS, and had just returned. Said he couldn't believe the destruction he'd seen so far. Mind you, this fellow lives a good distance east of the Lake Charles area. He'd only lost some shingles and a fence. Another co-worker of ours showed up with a generator and lots of gasoline for him as he has no power.
This man's son lives in the north part of Lake Charles. His son told him that their house has severe structural damage from high winds. Two other friends live near this man's son, but we haven't heard from them. I think most – if not all – cell phone towers are down in the area. We'll know more in the days to come. Yes, we're worried, but so far everyone we know of evacuated, so there's that.
I did see the photos from the Lafayette Advertiser. I saw a before/after shot using satellite photos of the airport I worked at for a couple of years in Lake Charles. The two hangars we used at the time are rubble. I'm not surprised.
I've seen some photos of Cameron and it's a wreck. Pretty much the only buildings left standing straight are the ones I'd mentioned earlier – ones put up with federal funds after Hurricane Rita. I noticed the water tower made it. It survived Rita, too. I've not seen photos of our old heliport at Cameron, but I doubt it's still there.
There haven't been photos of the other little towns nearby that I've seen except Holly Beach. It looked wrecked, but I did see at least one structure standing ...somewhat.
good to hear that a few are
okay even if their houses aren't. some hella wind it was! some high rises were totally gutted by the wind; it's hard to imagine. i'm glad that your other friends evacuated, though, and yes, i'd think cell towers would be out.
but speaking of generators, UPI’s reporting this a.m. that: Trump's on the way, and
now i'd think that plenty would have been hospitalized aftr breathiing the smoke from the burning chlorine plant, but who knows?
UPI'd linked to this aerial footage of cameron:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku6AvbOY2IU&feature=youtu.be]
on the rt. sidebar, holly beach.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR9nisAFejE]
thank you again for providing such personal info and history, my friend. your first one made me cry.
Soggy, hot mess
Thanks for those videos, Wendy. I was surprised to see that there were as many places standing in little Holly Beach as there were. Evidently the mandate that any new structures built after Hurricane Rita had to be at least ten feet above ground (stilts, etc.) made quite a difference. Same seems to be true in Cameron.
Sad to hear that so many didn't read the instruction manual for their generators and (apparently) ran them indoors. That can do you in quickly.
Almost all my friends and co-workers have checked in through various means now. Lots of that checking-in has been face-to-face as electronic communications are disrupted. So far, all those I know, or know of, in the area have damage. Some of it is pretty bad, others we don't know yet. No one hurt, as everyone left the area.
it's good to hear that
all of your friends and co-workers have checked in, even if their places have been damaged. at least they're alive.
i'd tried to put in a bunch of Fema tweets, albeit some were rather ludicrous. but even though i couldn't spot any strange characters in the lengthy embed codes, they wouldn't take, so i bailed. some of them indicated that one might call some numbers to see if they might qualify for disaster relief.
best to you and your friends.