Hurricane Katrina

The governor of Louisiana has just gone on the air to let people in New Orleans know how serious the hurricane threat is to their city. Apparently, large numbers of people are simply refusing to heed warnings. President Bush has apparently taken the unprecedented step in issuing a pre-emergency alert for the state of Louisiana. The Mayor of News Orleans has gone on the air to plead for people to get out, calling this "the real deal, and not a drill."
I just saw another weather expert get on Fox to warn the people of New Orleans to get out. He is saying this is a doomsday scenario! Jeff Marlow of TWC is warning that it is a real bad hurricane. The expert from Fox is saying it is heading for waters that are at 91 or 92 degrees F. This is the warmest they have seen these waters in many years. He is predicting that this thing will equal Camille which hit Biloxi with 200 mph winds around 1969. "We think the storm is going to 150 or 160 mph." He says there will be hurricane force winds all the way to Mobile, Alabama.
Jeff Morrow of TWC said the monster keeps on growing and developing continually throughout the evening. Every report that he sees shows more development and lower pressure, which is now down to 936 mb at 12:00 CST. I watched Jim Cantore a couple of nights ago when Katrina went through Florida(6th hurricane in 1 year). He was saying that this is more than a cat
1 hurricane as he bucked the winds during his report. I got a funny feeling then about this whole thing. I stay tuned to the telecast for some time after and noticed that the hurricane actually strengthened while still over Florida. It is growing stronger which each passing hour-at night. That pretty unusual. TWC says it will reach a cat 4 storm, but the Fox expert says way up there into a cat 5! They keep talking of a doomsday scenario. One of the bouys out in the gulf read 34 feet on wave height a few minutes ago.
In Florida, 700,000 people are still without power in the wake of Katrina.
ADDENDUM 8.28.05 09am pacific:
What can I say about this monster. With winds of 175 mph sustained and only 225 miles sse of New Orleans, the thing continues to grow. It grew all through the night. Before I went to bed at 1:30 a.m. last night, I turned on the news to find that the storm was at 145 mph or only 6 mph from cat 5 at that time. I just woke up a few minutes ago to find that this thing has gone to 175 mph sustained. It is approaching Camille's intensity. It is still growing and the water temp where it is approaching is at 90+ degrees F. The peak winds are above 200mph I would imagine. I heard someone on the news say that there is no veering away for this storm as it's now too large to make much of a difference in direction, only a slight change in its direction. They also said that only an act of God could make a difference here. Its funny that they would even mention Him but at least they did on Fox News. President Bush is expected to make a speech on the Iraqi Constitution and its expected he will make a few statements about the situation in the gulf also. This will happen about 11:00 a.m. or so CST or 9:00 a.m. on the West coast. The energy this thing will put into the area will be enormous and something might break loose somewhere else.
Take care and may the Lord be with us all through this.
Ray Ward
ADDENDUM 8.31.05 06pm pacific:
The governor of Louisiana is saying now that there are 1000's of deaths. This has truly become a catastrophe of Biblical proportions. The very scary thing is that the temperature is still higher than normal and the hurricane season may have more than six weeks to go - maybe more. And there is a developing tropical storm in the Atlantic heading this way.
ADDENDUM 9.1.05 05pm pacific:
The power was out to 2.4 million customers after Katrina. 70 percent of Mississippi's power grid has been destroyed. Right now, power has been completely restored in Florida and a good part of Georgia. Power remains out for 1.2 million people. The authority who talked of the power situation said that trucks will soon be pouring into Alabama and Mississippi. Georgia is rapidly coming under control and only New Orleans will be the real problem due to the standing water. This is the biggest power outage ever. This came over fox news.
FEMA has told EMTS that its too dangerous to work in New Orleans. This situation there has certainly deteriorated badly and I wonder if all this is the result of drugs and all the other turf wars that occur. I also heard reports of gangs in the Superdome and some stabbings that may have occurred.
We are certainly witnessing some of the worst behavior that human beings are capable. You would think that the people would be grateful for rescue, yet others still seek to control them.
Over in New Orleans this morning, a military rescue chopper was hit by gunfire and apparently one man was hit. The evacuation has been suspended because of this event. The Astrodome over in Houston,Tx has taken in perhaps a few thousand, but most of the people are still in New Orleans. Its like a gang of thieves and smugglers are being dismantled one by one in that city. The mayor has ordered 1500 officers to quit looking for survivors and to concentrate on restoring law and order in the city. That leaves only 200 or so to continue looking for those in great distress.
May the Lord be with all who are trying to help and are trying to restore order in the city. I just heard that many boats and people waiting to go into the city have been ordered to stand down because they have also been shot at. What a sad situation when people who may be at death's door cannot be rescued because others want to retain control for their own evil purposes.