Hurricane Laura just upgraded to 150 mph.

[Castiel]

Hurricane hunters just flew through Laura and detected 150 mph winds and it could still strengthen.

For reference, 157 is a Category 5 and I don't think this region has ever seen over a Category 3.

[nitpicker]

1. Link to the advisory

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT3+shtml/262050.shtml

((looks to be 8 hours to landfall))

[Budi]

2. Entire Lake Charles area will look like the ocean.

Hope everyone left & found some shelter for their animals. Poor things

Catastrophic.
Was Katrina a Cat 5?
I don't recall...

[Renew Deal]

4. It was a Cat 3 when it hit Louisiana

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

[LuckyCharms]

5. Cat 3 when she hit land. 120 mph. n/t

[Budi]

7. Geezus! It is prob the 1st #5 !

Aaagh.

[LisaL]

8. It's still 4 as of now.

[Castiel]

14. It's right on the border of 4 and 5.

The Hurricane Hunters did detect some 155 mph winds at the core, which is 2 mph below a Cat 5, and it still has 6 hours to strengthen.

There is no noticeable difference between a 155 mph Cat 4 and a 157 mph Cat 5.

[csziggy]

43. Hurricane Michael was Cat 5 when it hit the Florida Panhandle in 2018

Andrew was Cat 5 when it hit South Florida.

Based on post-storm analyses conducted by the National Hurricane Center synthesizing data from several data sources, Michael made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane at Mexico Beach, near Tyndall Air Force Base at 12:30 p.m. CDT (17:30 UTC) on October 10. Its maximum sustained winds were estimated to be 160 mph (260 km/h) upon moving ashore, making it the most intense hurricane landfall on record for the Florida Panhandle.

<SNIP>

Sensor data and high water marks surveyed by the United States Geological Survey indicated that water inundation at Mexico Beach reached a depth of 14 ft (4.3 m) above ground level,[1]:8 classifying Michael's surge at Mexico Beach as a 1-in-280 year event.[50]:15 Mexico Beach was the community most heavily impacted by Hurricane Michael and experienced both the hurricane's maximum winds and surge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Michael

Mexico Beach had houses totally destroyed and washed away for over six blocks from the shore. The report cited below has extensive photographs and data about the storm's power:

Damage assessments conducted by NOAA and USGS scientists would later confirm that high water marks – attributed to storm tide – were as high as 21.2 feet (6.5 meters) in Port St. Joe. This town adjoins Mexico Beach and additionally incurred catastrophic damage. At Mexico Beach Pier – where the eye of Michael crossed directly overhead – a USGS gauge officially recorded a storm tide of 15.55 feet (4.74 meters). The peak water height was 20.6 feet (6.3 meters).
Page 19
http://thoughtleadership.aonbenfield.com/Documents/20190329-if-event-recap-michael.pdf

This is what we will see after Hurricane Laura is gone.

By the way, it is almost two years later, and much of the area is still devastated. A lot of the inland areas were in planted pines - they still look like a giant's game of pickup sticks with trees flung every which way.

[renate]

10. the human suffering will be immense, but as an animal lover my heart breaks for the helpless animals

They are so completely vulnerable.

I'm not in any way comparing human lives to animal lives or even human suffering to animal suffering. I just feel sick about the fact that we can predict what's coming, at least, and they can't even try to escape. They'll be so scared.

[misanthrope]

41. I'm with you. First thing I thought of this afternoon when they gave the storm surge warning

All those poor, unaware creatures.

[Cetacea]

13. And they aren't mentioning gusts....

But 150mph will break your arm. And surges up to 40 miles inland is crazy. Extremely dangerous storm, especially if it stalls.

[localroger]

29. Katrina was Cat 3 when it hit, but had been Cat 5

While in the Gulf Katrina piled up a Cat 5 level storm surge which didn't abate even though the storm's winds weakened a bit before it reached land. Also Katrina, Rita, and Laura are all big storms which pile up storm surge more effectively than smaller storms of the same wind strength. Laura's storm surge will probably be 20-30 feet. The usual rule of thumb is that the surge drops 1 foot per mile inland, but that's over normal terrain and what's inland between the coast and Lake Charles is mostly very flat swamp and inland waterways which won't attenuate it as much. It may still be 10 feet high when it reaches I-10.

[mainer]

3. where are the fundie preachers saying it's god's punishment for ... something or other?

We never had a Texas Cat 4 during obama, did we?

[3Hotdogs]

32. I confess. Its me, the Big Guy is pissed at.

I play with myself too much. I know I ain't s'posed to but I can't stop. Even right now, Thinking about Gerry watching the pool boy...

[LisaL]

6. 1900 Galveston hurricane was category 4.

NT

[denem]

15. In 1900, no land in Galveston

was higher than 9 feet above sea level.

A Katrina Cat 3 would have sufficed.

[TexasBushwhacker]

24. They actually raised parts of the island after the 1900 hurricane

Some buildings were raised over 15 feet! They used sand from the newly dredged ship channel.

[denem]

25. ''Some buildings were raised over 15 feet' Wow.

I knew they built a sea wall.

[TexasBushwhacker]

27. Yup, pumped the sand under them to lift them up n/t

[Susan Calvin]

35. The big thing was

That they had no way to know it was coming.

[smirkymonkey]

9. Very scary!

Stay safe, everyone!

[Cha]

11. Whoa!

[CentralMass]

12. Holy shite.

[Leghorn21]

16. Quick reference, cat 4, cat 5:

Category 4

Sustained Winds: 130-156 mph

Catastrophic damage will likely occur. Entire roofs may be blown off of homes. Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles will be down all over the place. Clean up will take weeks, maybe even months to complete. Residents who decided not to evacuate may be stranded in their homes for days without electricity or water.
Category 5

Sustained Winds: 157 mph+

Total devastation. If you own a home on the coastline, you better hope that the eyewall of a Category 5 hurricane never makes landfall near your property. Many homes will be completely destroyed. Fallen trees will be all over the place. Power outages will last for many days, and your homeowner's insurance company will be shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of money in the wake of the storm to yourself and your neighbors.

[misanthrope]

42. If "many days" means "possibly months" then yeah

A Cat 5 would require nearly a complete rebuild of the power infrastructure.

[csziggy]

44. Hurricane Michael wiped out thousands of power poles

My brother in law works for one of the electrical utilities in Bay County, Florida. A year later they were still rebuilding the power infrastructure. Christmas Day, two months after the storm had passed, crews were working to get power restored so people could have the holiday with electricity. And that was in Panama City, not Mexico Beach, which took the worst of Michael.

[misanthrope]

45. Wow, not surprising but still astounding

And to think all that power is but a fraction of what originates from the sun constantly.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

17. Water gauges are starting to rise.

Tide station - Vermilion Bay, LA - 082620, 8pm:



Tide station - Sabine Pass, TX - 082620, 9pm:

[malaise]

18. The Cat 5 Hurricanes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Category_5_Atlantic_hurricanes

[Cryptoad]

28. I remember them picking bodies out of

Pecan Trees 30 ft up. after Camille. Pray for all those who meet their Maker tonite ,,, His Will be Done!

[cwydro]

19. Where did Camille hit?

I know it was that area, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

[MarcA]

20. Camille hit east of New Orleans.

Gulfport, Biloxi, Pass Christian MS receiving severe damage. Strange times: few weeks after moon landing and around the time of Woodstock and the Tate murders.

[cwydro]

22. Thanks! Yeah, I was really young, but I remember that storm.

Pass Christian is the name I was trying to remember.

Yeah, 2020 is making 1969 look like an amateur. Smh.

[Castiel]

38. My dad was stationed in Biloxi during Camille.

He woke up at his base with dead bodies floating in the barracks and Navy ships flipped over around the base.

[GulfCoast66]

40. Little known fact. Half the deaths in Camille were in Virginia.

With their hills and mountains the flash floods came fast and deadly. They got a years worth of rain in a day.

[localroger]

37. Camille hit Gulfport, but it was also a small tight storm

Camille was incredibly powerful; we don't know just how powerful because it broke the wind gauges. But it was also small, and the worst of that power affected maybe 20 miles of the Mississippi Gulf coast. Katrina, Rita, and Laura are by comparison huge storms whose worst effects spread over 50-100 miles of coastline. Not everything about a cyclone is its maximum wind speed. These large storms can pile up a huge storm surge even without the worst maximum winds because there is so much wind moving over so much water.

[keithbvadu2]

21. Texans out sightseeing in hurricane

Donald ridiculed the job of the Coast Guard by saying they rescued folks out sightseeing during Hurricane Harvey.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/06/08/was-trump-right-about-coast-guard-rescuing-hurricane-watchers.html

[mbusby]

26. We remember Carla back in 1961...

...it was a cat 4 that hit land about half way between Corpus Christi and Galveston. 100 mph winds in Houston. I was 10 years old at the time. We evacuated up to Rockdale (central Texas) where we stayed with relatives. Unfortunately, it moved right over where we were at. A lot of wind and rain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Carla

[Susan Calvin]

31. Beat me to it.

I have a habit of posting my replies before I look at the others.

[Boomer]

33. I remember Carla as well

I was only 7 years old, so I was a bit too young to fully understand what was going on. My parents and I camped out in our living room, to get away from windows. I remember torrential rain and water on the floor that leaked through the window frames. That was in Austin, so I can't imagine what it was like in Houston.

[TexasBushwhacker]

34. One of my earliest memories

I was born in 1957 and 4 when Carla hit. Houston is about 50 miles inland, so we certainly didn't get the worst of it. We did lose power though, but losing electricity just meant lighting candles and having Jiffy Pop popcorn cooked on the gas stove.

My dad did have to go out and chop down a small tree that was hitting the power line to the house. I was disappointed because it was supposed to be MY tree, but he planted 2 more in its place. I always loved those fluffy pink blossoms.

[Susan Calvin]

30. Um. Carla.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Carla

150 miles Inland, my nine-year-old self could still lean into the wind and be held up.

If I recall correctly, his Carla coverage is where Dan Rather got started.

[ananda]

36. Yes, that was what made Dan Rather's career.

I was in Dallas at the time. That coverage
gave me a very healthy respect for
hurricanes!

[TexasBushwhacker]

39. It was his idea to put a transparency of the Texas coastline

over the radar image to give people an idea of just how big and powerful Carla was.

[ananda]

46. Thanks for that..

Rather was such a national treasure!