(From the diaries -- Plutonium Page. Please note DarkSyde's comment regarding posting images. Thanks!)
Hurricane Rita roared onto the gulf coast between Texas and Louisiana as a powerful category 3 storm at 3:36 AM Saturday morning. The storm center is now moving north at 12 MPH over East Texas just past Jasper and is expected to further weaken. Rita is still classified as a borderline Category 1 Hurricane with winds of 75 mph and gusts of 90 mph extending for 50 miles to each side of the storm center. A flash flood warning and wind advisory is in effect for this vicinity. Officials are asking evacuees to stay out of the area for now.
[NWS Link] RITA LOSING PUNCH FAST...EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TORRENTIAL RAINS DURING THE NEXT FEW DAYS... AT 10 AM CDT...1500Z...THE HURRICANE WARNING FROM HIGH ISLAND TEXAS TO MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA HAS BEEN DOWNGRADED TO TROPICAL STORM WARNING. [NOAA Track]
Houston Real Time Traffic Info; Local Houston News w/streaming video link; NOLA Local news w/streaming video link; KTRH 740 Houston streaming AM radio
Regional Advisory: The storm is still raging in places while reports of
serious flood and wind damage are already filtering through from the battered communities of Beaumont, Port Arthur, Cameron, and Lake Charles. Galveston was spared the dreaded surge that could have topped the city's storm wall, but
reverse wind and water coming from the North may have inundated parts of the island and the causeway is considered closed at this time. NOLA is reporting several breaches in the levees and rising water.
State, Local, and Federal officials are asking that evacuees with a reasonably comfortable place to stay remain there until government emergency teams can make damage and threat assessments, clear roadways, and restore power where possible.
In particular, evacuees who choose to return using the I-10, HWY 290, and I-35 Corridors going into the Texas-Louisiana Border and Greater Houston area could place undue stress on already short supplies of gas, food, and water. Motorists could well end up in a reverse situation of the same cluster f*cked gridlock that gripped the area on Thursday and Friday. Upon arrival residents might be left without essential services for days or weeks.
Remember-- The first video of the catastrophic damage from Katrina wasn't available for 12 hours or more after the storm passed. Don' t pull a Chertoff and assume we 'dodged a bullet'. Don't be a Brownie ...
Energy Advisory; At this time it's a guess, but Rita probably spared the large refineries in the Houston area the worst of her wrath. However, she couldn't have taken a more damaging path through the critical gulf shore production region. On Wednesday Prof Goose from The Oil Drum posted:
One of our industry insiders said: "The worst tracks are those which put landfall between Freeport and Sabine Pass Texas. [...] The big concentrations of platforms are in the West Cameron, High Island, Galveston, and Matagorda Island offshore areas. If you want to know what these areas look like and where they are geographically, try the map resources below. Landfall just east of Houston's center will be right up refinery alley. Another bad spot is right up through Port Arthur and Beaumont. (Emphasis original)
Well, that's exactly where she went. The Oil Drum has an updated resource page for energy related storm issues here and I couldn't possibly improve on that.
I'm counting on other members to provide links to relevant blogs and information in comments. But, PLEASE, check if someone has posted a given image already and PLEASE reduce them to a modest size or use the thumbnail and click format to help out our readers with slower connections. I get complaints about the large images and I can't edit comments, nor do I have the time or the bandwidth at image hosting sites to go back in there and reduce images if I could edit them.