Armchair FEMAists

[Carnak]

As of the time of this post, the weather channel forecast has a Saturday morning strikeby "Rita" in the Gulf Coast ranging from damn near Brownsville/South Padre Island Area of Texas and almost as far Northeast as to New Orleans (God Forbid).

Assume you are a Mayor, a Govenor or President, what do you do now. The clock is ticking.

[Edited by Carnak on 09-19-2005 at 01:33 PM]

[woowoo]

http://www.weatherunderground.com/tr...518_model.html
The strike zone

[Carnak]

Woo

That is not the strike zone, those are the various computer models that project the path of the eye. If you go to the NOAA site, you will notice that they draw a bubble around those models and put a line stright down the middle and call it the three day projected path. NOAA will also show a 5 day path, and this similar to what the weather channel does too.



You also have to remember that this projection, is where THEY THINK THE EYE WILL GO, hurricane and tropical storm force winds can extend out over two hundred miles.

There is less than 5 days, what needs to be happening now?



[Edited by Carnak on 09-19-2005 at 01:54 PM]

[Carnak]

Would you be telling the people of Galveston to prepare to evacuate? What about Corpus Christi?

[MadeinUSA]

My money says it hits Nawlins again, and those idiots wait till the last minute again to call for an evacuation.

[Carnak]

Do you wait and see how bad it is after it passes the Florida Penninsula, do you pray it goes and sees Castro instead? There goes 1.5 days, a third of the warning time, every hour counts.

Maybe the track will slow down, buys you more time, but by then the storm grows in strength and size before it hits.

[Edited by Carnak on 09-19-2005 at 02:03 PM]

[woowoo]

Originally posted by Carnak
Woo

That is not the strike zone, those are the various computer models that project the path of the eye.

I stand corrected.

[Carnak]

Originally posted by woowoo

Originally posted by Carnak
Woo

That is not the strike zone, those are the various computer models that project the path of the eye.

I stand corrected.

Sorry woo, I get a little anal on those paths, last year they told me a monster was going to miss me by 120 miles.

[gruvn]

I would watch the weather channel for another day and get a better idea of where it is going to hit. Then if ti looks like it's going to hit Louiosiana, I'll go to texas on vacation or something.

[MadeinUSA]

Let it go hit NO again, then we won’t need any more evidence for reasons not to waste the tax payer’s money to rebuild it after it wipes out the levees again.

[Carnak]

You need a port down there made

[Carnak]

Originally posted by gruvn
I would watch the weather channel for another day and get a better idea of where it is going to hit. Then if ti looks like it's going to hit Louiosiana, I'll go to texas on vacation or something.

maybe that strategy will give you an "A" plus in the Nagin school of 'burying your head in the sand', maybe not

[MadeinUSA]

Originally posted by Carnak
You need a port down there made

They can have the port. Let the city be the gulf since it already took it over. They don't rebuild the beaches around beach homes anywhere along the coastline. The homeowners lose them because it is know state property. Why should tax payers absorb this expense?

[gruvn]

Originally posted by Carnak

Originally posted by gruvn
I would watch the weather channel for another day and get a better idea of where it is going to hit. Then if ti looks like it's going to hit Louiosiana, I'll go to texas on vacation or something.

maybe that strategy will give you an "A" plus in the Nagin school of 'burying your head in the sand', maybe not

I thought it would get me an "A" also, but in the Bush school of burying my head in the head in the sand.

Actually Carnak, this is a great question, everybody and there brother was on here saying what they should have done, and now they have they're chance.

Quite honestly, My first reactions would be to call a meeting of all authorities of all states that could be potentially involved and have them submit there emergency evacuation plans to me. I would then stop all people that are in the process of returning to New Orleans and turn them around, remember, the hurricane is not as devestating to most places as it is to New Orleans, so given the norm, a 72 hour evac notice will suffice for most states and cities.Then I owuld wait another day or til it crosses FL.

What would you do at this point ?

[classical]

The Mayor of Galveston has called for a voluntary evacuation starting 2:00 PM Tuesday. They have secured 80 buses that can accommodate 2300 people if needed. For the most part at least around the city officials learned allot from the screw-ups of Nagin and Blanco.

The talking heads on the news are spouting all the stuff about water emergency kits and put up the shutters or plywood.

If I lived in Galveston or along the coast I would be very prepared and vigilant. Living on the north west side of Houston I could care less. We have good storm windows trees have been groomed and it doesn't flood in my neighborhood. We didn't even know till late morning that Houston flooded during TS Allison. In fact I mowed the lawn that afternoon.

I have a very good power inverter for the truck and with a full tank I can have fans and watch the TV or work on the computer for days if power goes out. I have plenty of propane for the grill and a good tight freezer for the food. I have a second inverter to run the refrigerator or freezer off and on to keep them cold.

If the city floods I can pull out my boat a go rescue people in water as shallow as 12 inches. My daughter’s in-laws are closer to the coast so they can come stay with us.

What is funny my Mother in law who lives less than a mile from me has freaked packed suitcases raided the safe for cash and gotten all important papers together and stocked the car with bottled water. For the most part Houston really doesn’t have allot to fear from a Hurricane but high winds. For us the worst part is tornados and those can happen anytime with or without a Hurricane.

[bobby m]

Dont worry about anything, george bush talked to jesus and jesus and george and his franchises of christian churches and ministries will take care of everything.

[gruvn]

Why is it that every time George's pop poll drops below 42 we end up with his dad on Monday night football ?

[classical]

You two boobs can go (expletive deleted) and don't come back!!!

[Carnak]

I like the sound of this Mayor of Galveston classical

[Carnak]

I would bet, there will be a run on plywood and supplies west of New Orleans.

Anyways what would I do, if I was in charge of something on the gulf coast? A little different than ridng it out on an island for sure.

Frist off, I would be kicking myself in the a$$ for not having a plan in place ahead of time.

I would be telling the tourists to leave now at 4 days out, and telling the local people to get ready to secure there homes and to prepare to voluntarily evacuate. I think those who have just seen what happened in Katrina, and who do not like bumper to bumper traffic would not even have to be told.

At three days out, I would be taking a close look at the hurricane wind/storm surge forecast, and would be doing a mandatory evacuation of areas that would be prone to storm surge. Probably be gun shy and tell everyone on coast 10 feet higher than the predicted surge after what was seen with Katrina.

Two days out all the schools would be closed, possibly used as shelters. All the other designated shelters would be open. Will not be enough shelters, so I would be trying to figure out where to take people in the school buses. Please Mr. FEMA or Bush, where do I take them too? How do I secure the shelters, ensure order is maintained? Do I have enough shelters, kick myself in a$$ again.

Still two days out I would be sending the cops/fire department in to the flood prone areas to start prodding people to leave who did not listen to leave. Start
focussing on neighbourhoods on higher ground where sturdiness of homes are suspect, to urge mandatory evacuation as well. Old nieghbour hoods. Hope my City is not too big so that logistics do not defeat my
intentions.

I would have everything shut down the day before the hit, I would try to get crucial equipment on high ground. No flooded school buses here.

I would be trying to get some extra manpower lined up for immediately after wards.

Hours before it hit, I would be declaring curfews in effect ahead of time.

Hunker down and wait it out. Say a prayer.

Want my story on what I did myself as the first five named storms blew by me this year?