is now a Category 5. Good Lord. This is depressing.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/21/rita/index.html

that bitch is as big as the gulf. good thing houston isn't right on the ocean.

they say gas will hit $5 a gallon next week (on cnn.com), so filler up now.

gas never really spiked here - remained pretty much at the 275-280 level which is pretty expensive still.

you are slightly closer to Alaska. Isn't there some pipeline there?

Edit: 90% of the people in that quick vote said they would flee the area. I wonder what that percentage would have been before the New orleans disaster.

I seriously wish I wasn't even going to Austin City Limits now. If I hadn't spent $250 on a plane ticket, I'd totally back out.

not really sure. i know there aren't any refineries around here - there are some in the bay area though.

just read on weather.com that for a hurricane to stay at cat. 5 it takes perfect atmospheric conditions and those conditions don't tend to last very long - they seemed to be saying that the hurricane will probably get weaker by the time it hits land but will still be strong.

Yeah, but hurricane-force winds extend 75 miles out from the eye of the storm, and tropical storm-force winds got out 140 miles in all directions. And while a tropical storm sounds tame compared to what we've recently had, in 2001 a tropical storm parked over Houston for 2-3 days, flooded the whole town, killed like a dozen people and caused a couple billion in damage.

Rita will still be a hurricane when it hits Houston. Shit is gonna be bad.

I'm cancelling my trip to Austin for ACL Fest. I don't want to, but it wouldn't be any fun anyway if it's pouring and blowing everything all over the place.
Fuck.
This is 2 cancelled trips in as many weeks. God doesn't want me to leave this state.

Underground weather said they expect Rita to be about 90% of Katrina.

[totally goony logic]can't we just drop a nuke in the middle of the storm and watch it dissipate?[/totally goony logic]

Underground weather? Is that like the Pitchfork for weather, with weather.com as the Rolling Stone.
Do they spend idle time debating how Rita was so much better in the early days when it was a Category 1 and its jump to Cat. 5 now is just an empty attempt at world-wide fame?

Do you realize how big Texas is? It's like 3 Michigans. Austin is 220 mi. from the coast. Bring a raincoat and flip-flops and enjoy ACL.

I chuckled.

We're all fucked
Yes we are
We're all fucked
In the Lone Star

Why are hurricanes hitting Texas? I thought Florida was the state always effected. I can understand Louisiana, but I didn't realize hurricanes hit that far west.

anywhere along the Gulf of Mexico is fair game

Al Queada must be right. God is punishing us.

My part of Texas (Houston) hasn't had a proper hurricane since Hurricane Alicia in 1983. She was a 3. I don't remember being all that phased by her impact, but I was only 9 years old. The next thing that hit us was Tropical Storm Allison - which flooded the fuck out of Houston.

They have a weather machine, and President Bush would now prefer you to call them 'COBRA' and refer to Osama Yo Mama as either "Cobra Commander" or "Serpentor" and Abu-Musab-al-Zaqrwaa as "Destro"

Seriously. My excitement about the festival has been tainted somewhat but it's only supposed to rain on Saturday as of right now so ACL should be fine.

It has something to do with a big-ass high pressure system that's coming down from the US...it's kinda holding the Hurricane down longer than normal from what I gather. Eventually as the system moves to the East the hurricane will kinda slip up onto the left side of the system & hit land. The longer the system holds the hurricane down, the farther west it goes without hitting land.

I guess this happens once every 100 years or so, noting that Galveston Hurricane that killed thousands in I think 1905? I think the Yucatan has been hit in the recent past, but that was spawned by a system originating from the southern Caribbean sea. I hope this sucker dies out.

top-notch. Openly chuckling amongst other studiers.