No Longer Tropical Storm Erika, now Invest 90

Good evening, Morons and Moronettes, and this should be the final post about Erika (and, God willing, any tropical system that should threaten to hit the continental United States). If the long-range forecasting is correct, as El Nino gets going, that should inhibit tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic, and as such, restrict my posting to the odd overnight thread.

More below the fold...

So Erika didn't like running into the mountainous terrain of Hispaniola and Cuba, and has dissipated to an extremely poorly-organized low pressure center between the Bahamas and Cuba. Thank God for friction.

If you're in central Florida, you've still got a pretty good rainmaker with possibly three to five inches of rain forecast for the area. As such, please remember that flooding is the biggest threat with any tropical system, and that threat will remain inland in Georgia, Alabama, and other states in its path.

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the media's annoyance with their planned news cycle not working out.

A brief thought on Katrina, ten years later...

So as many of you know, I'm a New Orleans native, and I was working in Huntsville, AL when Katrina pushed ashore. It was a pretty damned empty feeling to watch my hometown flood, and to see pictures of the Mississippi Gulf Coast (where my family and I would weekend a few times a year) trashed in the worst way since Camille in 1969.

Much like living in earthquake country, you deal with the notion that at some point, that big storm or big quake is going to come, and you hope you're prepared. When it comes to the city and state leadership, New Orleans and Louisiana (under Ray Nagin- for whom I used to work- and Kathleen Blanco) couldn't be bothered, while Haley Barbour and the Biloxi/Gulfport/Pascagoula leadership were on their game.

Don't forget also that Jefferson Parish (just to the west of NO; part of where Steven Seagal: Lawman used to be filmed) Parish President had his people abandon the pumping stations in the face of the storm, which screwed up the East Bank of Jefferson Parish just as badly. I'm happy to say that Broussard and Nagin are now in federal prison.

A whole bunch of people died needlessly because of the incompetence of Louisiana's leadership, and the only silver lining that one can draw from it is that it slapped a lot of people awake along the Gulf Coast. Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi have been exemplary models of emergency preparation and management, and the same preparation and management have been hallmarks of Bobby Jindal's administration in Louisiana as well.

So, to close, y'all just please be prepared for whatever natural disasters can threaten your area- be it snowstorms, hurricanes, volcanoes, or whatever. If you're prepared for calamity, that means you don't have to rely on questionably competent elected officials and that emergency services can concentrate more fully on their gigs as well.

In the meantime, please pray for the folks affected by the western wildfires... I think they'd KILL for a tropical system to drop 3-5" of rain on their areas right now.

Thanks again for reading!

-tmi3rd

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:16 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1
And once again the climate change junkies sigh in disappointment.

Posted by: GBruno at August 29, 2015 08:19 PM (u49WF)

2
Oh sorry...First

Posted by: GBruno at August 29, 2015 08:20 PM (u49WF)

3 For what it's worth, as someone who works in Everglades Restoration I'm okay with a good rainmaker. I would appreciate it slowing down a little too.

Posted by: Big-Ed at August 29, 2015 08:21 PM (C7gEL)

4 NOLA/Katrina post without the obligatory 'Bush's fault'. Nice job.

Posted by: Burnt Toast at August 29, 2015 08:22 PM (NaeCR)

5 Ditto what tmi3rd said.

I was fortunate in that I grew up in a part of the country where it was bloody obvious that various weather phenomena would happily kill you without a a second's thought (South Dakota, in case you wondered).

Mother Nature is not to be trifled with.

No part of the country is immune. Natural disasters will strike anywhere. The particular disaster may vary from region to region but they all have one thing in common: nature is oblivious to your existence. It doesn't care if you live or die.

Earthquake. Flood. Hurricane. Blizzard. Tornado. Wild fire. Drought. Doesn't matter. Nature has no mercy.

Prepare.

And then there's your "fellow man." Yeah.

Posted by: filbert at August 29, 2015 08:23 PM (JvPqF)

6 Haley Barbour was effective as Governor handling the Katrina after math . . . too bad he was such a douche getting Thad Cochran elected.

Posted by: logprof, now hawking on Amazon at August 29, 2015 08:24 PM (vsbNu)

7 NOLA/Katrina post without the obligatory 'Bush's fault'. Nice job.
Posted by: Burnt Toast

There's plenty of that on CNN et al.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at August 29, 2015 08:24 PM (W5DcG)

8 I'm driving that way, daybreak on Tuesday morning.

Departing Galveston for Orlando, with a planned overnight in either Tillman's Crossing in AL, or pushing a bit closer to "halfway", at Pensacola.

I expect I'll run into some serious downpours as I approach my overnight goals, but also think that Wednesday morning will dawn bright, clear and sunny.

Or, do I have it completely wrong? Either way, the drive has to be made, but I don't want to have to rent an Amphibicar in which to do it.

All that said, I trust your weatherguessing more than I do the puffed pompadour pros on the teevees.

Thanks!

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at August 29, 2015 08:25 PM (McRlu)

9 Oh no Gbruno, the AGWers have the fires in the PNW to point at. They will not acknowledge that limiting land management "no logging and no nasty cattle grazing" is the huge factor with some coming from the drought and unusually hot summer.

Posted by: PaleRider at August 29, 2015 08:25 PM (iA/+T)

10 Thanks for a shout-out for the West, tmi3rd!

Posted by: JeanQ Flyover, doing a raindance at August 29, 2015 08:25 PM (rhjQp)

11 Earthquake. Flood. Hurricane. Blizzard. Tornado. Wild fire. Drought. Doesn't matter. Nature has no mercy.

Prepare.

Don't forget herpes and crabs.

Posted by: Sandy Fluke at August 29, 2015 08:26 PM (vsbNu)

12 PaleRider, don't forget lightening strikes. Funny, that causes fire too.

Posted by: Infidel at August 29, 2015 08:27 PM (PfVjp)

13 Don't forget herpes and crabs.
Posted by: Sandy Fluke at August 29, 2015 08:26 PM (vsbNu)

New York, London, Paris, Munich

Posted by: M at August 29, 2015 08:28 PM (JvPqF)

14 I suspect 3-5 inches of rain at once would cause a massive mess in the wildfire areas but I'm sure they'd love to get maybe an inch that came gently over several hours and then some repeats every few days.

Posted by: PaleRider at August 29, 2015 08:30 PM (iA/+T)

15 The chattering elites are once again disappointed. Good. After one DNC big-wig commented that hurricanes striking red states proved how god was on his side, they all can just ...

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 29, 2015 08:30 PM (JgpFm)

16 Clearcutting is right out, too, ya know-- even though it creates *firebreaks*... smh...

Posted by: JeanQ Flyover, doing a raindance at August 29, 2015 08:31 PM (rhjQp)

17
Ya...that picture of all the school busses half submerged in New Orleans and then Nagin blaming GWB. If you repeat the lie often enough...

Posted by: GBruno at August 29, 2015 08:32 PM (u49WF)

18 Global warming is real. I predict it will cause another Haiti earthquake before the year is out.

Posted by: Danny Glover at August 29, 2015 08:33 PM (vsbNu)

19 Did the rain make Cuba tip over?

Posted by: Hank Johnson at August 29, 2015 08:34 PM (vsbNu)

20 logprof, Barbour also pardoned almost 300 felons when he left office. Including a guy who drove cross-country, took hostage the wife filing for divorce because dude is crazy with her boyfriend in the guy's trailer. Then proceeded to soot his wife as she held in her arms her baby. Then shot the guy, also in the head.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 29, 2015 08:34 PM (JgpFm)

21 Infidel. Fires are going to happen, but the massive fuel loads make for the 100s of sections (square miles) burning instead of a section or less here and there.

Posted by: PaleRider at August 29, 2015 08:35 PM (iA/+T)

22 On the bright side, we've gotten a tiny bit of rain this afternoon.

As in: it *poured* for about 10 minutes and stopped as abruptly as it started. (rather like the freak windstorm we had earlier)

It's good, we're thankful, and it's a start...

Thank you for your prayers, I believe it's helping!

Posted by: JeanQ Flyover, doing a raindance at August 29, 2015 08:35 PM (rhjQp)

23 AP, I had not heard of that. The Cochran shit he pulled was bad enough, but *that*?! He's right on my shit list.

Posted by: logprof, now hawking on Amazon Kindle at August 29, 2015 08:36 PM (vsbNu)

24 If this storm were to be going ashore near New York right now, it would be "Superstorm Erika".

From Virginia to Florida over to Texas this is a period of "heavy rain".

Posted by: Ashley Judd's Puffy Scamper, aka MrCaniac at August 29, 2015 08:36 PM (Z7G74)

25
When the socialists think logging, they don't understand the part about good capitalists replanting the trees so as to have a continuous source for product.

Posted by: GBruno at August 29, 2015 08:37 PM (u49WF)

26 More yardwork while it's light out...

Seeya later.

Posted by: JeanQ Flyover, doing a raindance at August 29, 2015 08:38 PM (rhjQp)

27 I know PaleRider. Lived in the NW for a while. Logging made the earth more stable. The forests need cleaned up once in a while. If we don't do it, Mother Nature will in her own special way.

Posted by: Infidel at August 29, 2015 08:39 PM (PfVjp)

28 Season 5 finale of Hell on Wheels coming up!

Posted by: logprof, now hawking on Amazon Kindle at August 29, 2015 08:40 PM (vsbNu)

29 So we'll get to see Thomas Durant, Brigham Young, and President Grant tonight.

Posted by: logprof, now hawking on Amazon Kindle at August 29, 2015 08:41 PM (vsbNu)

30 tmi3rd - are you still within the shadow of the mighty Saturn V?

Posted by: Duty Corpsman at August 29, 2015 08:44 PM (brIR5)

31 Duty Corpsman

Out, out, damned sock.

Posted by: Fox2! at August 29, 2015 08:45 PM (brIR5)

32 Pro forma,

NOOD!

Posted by: Fox2! at August 29, 2015 08:46 PM (brIR5)

33 Infidel I'm sure the native americans that the socialist eco-facists claim to adore did a whole lot of forest management via logging and controlled burns for 100s of years before Starbucks came into existence but "its better to leave it to *mother* nature"

Well nature is a cruel beyotch of a mother, she will correct things that have gotten out of balance but she don't care what dies and its often sledge hammer vs scalpel.

Posted by: PaleRider at August 29, 2015 08:46 PM (iA/+T)

34 logprog, its a pretty grisly story.

She married him, all love and such. Then finds out about his darker side. Starts proceedings for divorce, but can't until the baby is born. So she finds a nicer guy. Gives birth. Divorce proceedings go forward.

Her husband buys a gun. Travels across several states. Buys firecrackers. Nice guy opens door to trailer to find homicidal guy with gun. Thug forces him back in. Confrontation happens in bedroom. Woman is holding newborn and telling husband no. Thug tells nice guy to turn up the radio and to light the firecrackers. So husband then shoots wife, baby still in arms.

As nice guy freaks, he is shot in the head. Thug then rips out phone cords and leaves. Nice guy wakes up a couple hours later, the bullet had gone through his jaw. He manages to splice a phone to call 911.

Thug turns himself into the police. Claiming heat of the moment passion as to why he killed them and saying his wife tried to use the baby as a shield. At the arraignment hearing it all falls apart as the very much alive nice guy, with wounds to his face, recounts exactly what really happened.

Thug got sent to prison. But managed to get on a prison detail at the Governor's mansion. So when Barbour was hanging out pardons like candy, this vicious murderer got pardoned.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 29, 2015 08:47 PM (JgpFm)

35 And I need to do some yard work. Probably catch the night walkers on the ONT.

Posted by: PaleRider at August 29, 2015 08:48 PM (iA/+T)

36 Always pray for gentle rain. And mild short droughts. And pleasant breezes. In the long run you get what you pray for. Be precise. God knows what you need and what but he gives you what you pray for. Free will and all that.

Posted by: remember at August 29, 2015 08:50 PM (PGh+Q)

37 Is any of that moisture going to wander into NJ? We need the rain!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at August 29, 2015 08:59 PM (Zu3d9)

38 I wouldn't call a winner quite yet on the "most annoyed with Erika" competition.

That's still up for grabs until Monday. It all depends if most Floridians still have to go to work or get a "extended weekend".

Anyway, got my hurricane kit restocked, and looks like the 'glades will get a few inches. Couldn't ask for much better than that.

Posted by: bigpinkfluffybunny at August 29, 2015 09:05 PM (vzZyu)

39 25
When the socialists think logging, they don't understand the part about good capitalists replanting the trees so as to have a continuous source for product.
Posted by: GBruno at August 29, 2015 08:37 PM (u49WF)

Listed a property this spring that had been logged about 10-12 years ago, and the only way you would know the land had been logged is the roads that the logging company had built.

And the land is absolutely beautiful. Nice creek that runs through it, and if I had the money for it, I would buy it an build a nice escape cabin on it.

Posted by: Ashley Judd's Puffy Scamper, aka MrCaniac at August 29, 2015 09:08 PM (Z7G74)

40 Greetings:

Is it just me of has the 10th anniversary of hurricane Katrina turned into a tsunami of Bathos for Negroes ???

Admittedly, I can't watch very much of the approved Media-Governmental Complex coverage at one sitting, but I don't seem to have come across any mention at all of Ray Nagin former chocolate MAyor of Chocolate City and now Prisoner Numero Uno in the House of the Rising Sun.

And equally benefited seems ot be one Marie Landrieu, perhaps the firs female Governor of the Sportsmen's Paradise with the most submerged cities in the USofA and whose birth brother is now Mayor of enn ohh ell ay NOLA.

Stalin, no doubt, would have to smile.

Posted by: 11B40 at August 29, 2015 09:12 PM (evgyj)

41 37 Is any of that moisture going to wander into NJ? We need the rain!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at August 29, 2015 08:59 PM (Zu3d9)

Once those things get over land, they get very unpredictable.

Hurricane Camille in 1969 was moving north up from the Gulf and was over Kentucky when it decided to turn about 90 degrees and head out over Virginia instead of continuing on it's NW direction. The result?

http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Hurricane_Camille_August_1969#start_entry

Posted by: Ashley Judd's Puffy Scamper, aka MrCaniac at August 29, 2015 09:16 PM (Z7G74)

42 Alabama Public Television recently aired an excellent documentary about
the Coast Guard rescues that occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina.

You can stream it here:

http://tinyurl.com/paratus1450

I just watched it. It is pretty good.

Stay Turgid, Morons

Posted by: SnakePlizzken at August 29, 2015 10:55 PM (7uLtM)

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