TimberWolf
08-28-2005, 11:37 AM
Well folks. The hurricane Katrina has now reached wind speeds of 175 mph. Well into a category 5 hurricane. They suspect it will weaken to only 160 mph winds when it hits land. If you live a little inland and are thinking this storm is going to be a wimpy storm, you are wrong! On land it is going to be a category 2 strength through the bottom part of Louisiana/Mississippi then become a rainmaker as they put it. If you are in the upper half of those states you are in for flooding and winds. Not as bad though as the people closer to the water. All this is assuming the storm is going to go where they predict and keep up it's strength. It has nothign to stop it so they dont' think it will make any significant change in direction or wind speed.
Still though, be careful everyone. This storm looks to being quite bad. Hurricane Andrew was a fast storm so the damage was only based on wind and not as much on flooding, not to mention it hit a city area so more stuff to knock down. Here you have a slow moving storm at similar wind speeds. So now you have to worry about surge, flooding, AND extreme winds. The storm is large in size so this might even be considered worse than Andrew. Especially if it hits just west of New Orleans. That would be catestrophic. You can say bye bye to those little islands off the state at that point.
So please consider leaving. I went through Hurricane Andrew while in Coral Gables and it hit just north in Miami. There has been other category 5 storms that have hit the US but because of Louisiana's low lying land, this can become a serious concern. The storm last year that almost hit Louisiana could have been worse, but here they are predicting it may be a closer hit to New Orleans. I hope it doesn't.
Still though, be careful everyone. This storm looks to being quite bad. Hurricane Andrew was a fast storm so the damage was only based on wind and not as much on flooding, not to mention it hit a city area so more stuff to knock down. Here you have a slow moving storm at similar wind speeds. So now you have to worry about surge, flooding, AND extreme winds. The storm is large in size so this might even be considered worse than Andrew. Especially if it hits just west of New Orleans. That would be catestrophic. You can say bye bye to those little islands off the state at that point.
So please consider leaving. I went through Hurricane Andrew while in Coral Gables and it hit just north in Miami. There has been other category 5 storms that have hit the US but because of Louisiana's low lying land, this can become a serious concern. The storm last year that almost hit Louisiana could have been worse, but here they are predicting it may be a closer hit to New Orleans. I hope it doesn't.