Yes, it was astounding that so much was ignored, also including information from ship captains, and others who saw catastrophe coming. Do you happen to know @jcostiones, when they started naming hurricanes here? Realize I could google it up…
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4a CDT update from NHC says “potentially catastrophic damage from San Luis
Pass, Texas, to the Mouth of the Mississippi River, including areas
inside the Port Arthur Hurricane Flood Protection system.” The storm system is about 300 miles wide. Don’t confuse the error cone for the predicted path of the eye with the width of the storm.
Complete discussion here https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDAT3+shtml/251505.shtml
Note that like other NOAA weather products, individual forecasters put their names on their work. How’s that for accountability?
At sea, I keep track of the individual forecasters and sometimes give more credence to yesterday’s 48 hour forecast over today’s 24 hour forecast. I won’t bore you with that rationale.
Laura, like Marco, is relevant to COVID-19 as evacuation where ordered will make good public health practice extremely difficult to maintain. I’m sure @shrinkrap experienced similar issues with evacuation from CA wildfires.
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@Auspicious - thank you for this information, very interesting about NOAA and accountability - love it.
Also funny you should post this now, as I just finished reading a long, detailed article about Hurricane Laura, as well as the impacts of dealing with a natural disaster during a pandemic. It was pretty sobering. Hoping for the best outcome, but Laura is a powerful storm.
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Lastest data I have is that Laura is likely to hit near the LA-TX border as a Cat 4 hurricane and near high tide. Flooding from storm surge and inland rain is likely to be near Katrina levels. If that comes to pass we have a disaster on our hands and can expect substantial CV-19 outbreaks among evacuees.
“ If that comes to pass we have a disaster on our hands and can expect substantial CV-19 outbreaks among evacuees.“
Makes me wonder about the CDC’s sudden about face recommendation that not everyone needs a virus test even if they’ve been in direct contact with a COVID-19 person. I don’t believe in coincidences. Not quite sure what to make of this.
Let me say this about tides down here. Having fished hundreds of times always checking tides the highs are not very substantial, a bit over two feet during new/full moons and a bit over a foot during quarter moon phases which we’re in now.
I’m opening the living room command post which hasn’t been used since Ike in 2008. Since I have an upstairs south facing patio and we’ll have north winds I can go outside.
With landfall 5 hours away it looks like Houston has dodged a major bullet but you never know.
I fell for the people of LA. Not only tonight and tomorrow but the cleanup with water everywhere, temperatures in the 90’s and stifling humidity.
Hurricanes are a part of life on the Gulf Coast and when one blows up people get hit.
Folks love living down here. Heck, I’m less than an hour away from great fishing, beaches, and restaurants.
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I don’t know about Louisiana but in Texas there are extra buses, shelters, and hotel rooms none full and practicing social distancing masks of course.
It does look like Houston is about to dodge it. Unexpectedly though we in East Texas have had torrential downpours for the last 5 hours. Don’t get me wrong, the rain is most welcome. Good luck down there and take care.
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No coincidence.
As luck would have it, I ended up in a fairly empty shelter, while the other one of two was overcrowded and turning people away!
Later several more opened, but I had already snuck back home.
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We could use some of that rain down here.
We’re not gonna get a drop, might get some after the storm.
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12 AM. Is that more rain heading your way?
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Poor Stephanie Abrams of the Weather Channel is being pummeled by 80 mph gusts in Lake Charles at 1245 am.
At times she can barely stand letting out OWs!
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Stephanie and Jim Cantori have been shuffled to safety as the eyewall approaches at 1 am.
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Understood. Our normal lunar tides are only about a foot on Chesapeake Bay. Only inches may make the difference between a home being flooded or not.
What we do get are wind-driven tides of four to six feet. Winter North winds for a week or two blows all the water out of the Bay. South winds common in Spring and Fall blow water up the Bay.
I hope you manage to get some sleep.
I saw picture from Corpus Christi of all the USCGC 87s usually stationed as far as Gulfport all tied up waiting for conditions to clear enough for them to get back out for rescue. CG small boats have mostly been trailered out (which means they can get back faster) although skeleton crews are apparently still in place. Not sure wear the helicopters have been staged.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/health/covid-schools-legionnaires-disease.html
Par for 2020’s course, I guess!
@shrinkrap – Yikes, just getting caught up in this thread and didn’t realize you had such a close call! I’m sorry about the lost fence, but I’m glad that you and the family are safe overall.
I’m lucky that life since quarantine and shut down has been pretty quiet. Aside from the occasional grocery store panics, we’ve lucked out of major problems here (so far – that’s a not challenge to you, year 2020!). I did have to go get a new work laptop this week and made a trip back into the office for the first time in 5+ months. I actually enjoyed the commute, and even took the subway - but offpeak -and everyone was socially distanced and problem-free . Turns out the issue with my laptop was that the fan was clogged with cat hair, the one casualty of work from home. 
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Doesn’t everyone open up their computer three or four times a year and vacuum it out? grin
Don’t look now but there are two tropical disturbances in the Atlantic with at least one heading for the Caribbean and all that implies. Stay tuned.
