Eerie Hurricane Isaac engulfs New Orleans on 'Katrina Day'

Hurricane Isaac grows and grows into what may end up being a massive storm the size of Texas that's also feeling the storm's impact

Then Tropical Storm Isaac yesterday., making its way to New Orleans

CNN reports from Grand Isles and the city of New Orleans.  Isaac's hurricane storm surge already reaches levies just outside the $14 billion main levy built after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.  Let's hope the levy 'doesn't run dry' on the people of 'The Big Easy'.  The dude on the right of Anderson Cooper is Rob Marciano. Any relation to Rocky?  A million people are expected to lose their power and Isaac may dump 20 inches of rain or more on the 'Crescent City'.

Eye of Isaac blurs half of the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast before fateful dawn of August 29th

 

3.25 pm Tuesday, August 28, 2012 

Hurricane Isaac begins to strike the coast of Louisiana at 3:25pm CDT.

Bands of thunderstorms from the giant Hurricane Isaac begin to hit New Orleans.

Isaac will lash the city of New Orleans with hurricane force winds for the next day and a half, 24-36 hours of 85 mph plus winds, of an ocean surge twelve feet high and tornadoes; the massive storm, thought by some to be the size of Texas, so far isn't packing 95 mph plus winds weathermen had feared.  

Heavy rains are striking Grand Isle and Lake Pontchartrain at this moment, not any extreme bands, yet. 

Hurricane warnings are up from New Iberia and Jeanerette, Louisiana to the barrier islands off Pensacola in Florida's Panhandle.  Flood warnings are up from Orange, the first town across the border in Texas, on the Sabine River stretching east into parts of southern Alabama, reaching toward Montgomery.  Tropical storm watches and warning reach west to around Port Author and Beaumont, Texas east to Chattahoochee, Florida and Lake Seminole in Georgia. 

Isaac's width stretches more than 300 miles from the Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana border to more than 100 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico.

But Isaac's clouds size is enormous, a hurricane stretching along a line from Padre Island, Texas to Fort Myers, Florida.   

The storm now crawls northwest, hugging the coast of Louisiana, at 8 mph, slowing down but gaining strength with sustained winds of 80mph and gusts of 125mph.  Forecasters believe Isaac may reach Cat 2 force winds of 100 mph with greater gusts. Isaac will raise havoc for the next day or so. 

New Orleans and Louisiana were spared another Hurricane Katrina, as Isaac traveled over "cool eddy’s" of the Gulf waters, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology.  Thanks, Cool Eddy.

Meanwhile, Isaac pushed gas prices in Butler County, Ohio this morning from 3.67 to $4 a gallon.

 Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology story on why Isaac may not be another Hurricane Katrina

Cooler Waters Help Diminish Isaac's Punch

Color-enhanced image of sea surface heights in the Gulf of Mexico, showing Hurricane Isaac's path through the Gulf and around its warmest waters. Image credit: LSU Earth Scan Laboratory/U. of Colorado CCAR/NASA-JPL/Caltech
› Larger view

2

August 28, 2012

Seven years after the powerful Category 3 Hurricane Katrina caused widespread devastation along the Gulf Coast, a Category 1 Hurricane Isaac, with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (70 knots), is making landfall today in southeast Louisiana. And one of the reasons why Isaac is not Katrina is the path it took across the Gulf of Mexico and the temperature of the ocean below, which helps to fuel hurricanes.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina's maximum wind speeds increased dramatically as the storm passed over a warm ocean circulation feature called the Loop Current that is part of the Gulf Stream. The storm evolved quickly from a Category 3 to a Category 5 event on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale in a matter of nine hours as it drew heat from the Loop Current. It subsequently dropped in intensity to a Category 3 storm at landfall.

Because the Loop Current and its eddies are warmer, and thus higher in surface elevation, than the surrounding waters, they are easily spotted by satellite altimeter instruments, such as those aboard the NASA/French Space Agency Jason 1 and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellites. Scientists use the latest satellite measurements of sea-surface height from these and other satellite altimeters to create maps showing the location, direction and speed of currents in the Gulf of Mexico.

This color-enhanced image of sea surface heights in the northeastern Gulf, produced using data from available satellite altimeters, including NASA's Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites, shows Isaac's path through the Gulf. The storm skirted around the Loop Current, then caught the outer edge of a warm eddy before passing directly over a cold eddy. The storm's track away from the Gulf's warmest waters has helped to keep Isaac from intensifying rapidly, as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did in 2005.

Warm eddies have high heat content and great potential to intensify hurricanes, whereas cold eddies have low heat content and may even cause hurricanes to weaken, as was the case with Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Latest Public Advisory from the National Hurricane Center in Miami

 

000

WTNT34 KNHC 290058

TCPAT4

BULLETIN

HURRICANE ISAAC INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER  31B

NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       AL092012

800 PM CDT TUE AUG 28 2012

...ISAAC MOVING SLOWLY NORTHWESTWARD ALONG THE COAST OF SOUTHEAST

LOUISIANA...DANGEROUS STORM SURGE CONTINUING ALONG THE NORTHERN

GULF COAST...

SUMMARY OF 800 PM CDT...0100 UTC...INFORMATION

----------------------------------------------

LOCATION...29.0N 89.6W

ABOUT 30 MI...50 KM WSW OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

ABOUT 75 MI...120 KM SSE OF NEW ORLEANS LOUISIANA

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...80 MPH...130 KM/H

PRESENT MOVEMENT...NW OR 315 DEGREES AT 8 MPH...13 KM/H

MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...968 MB...28.59 INCHES

WATCHES AND WARNINGS

--------------------

CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY...

NONE.

SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT...

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...

* EAST OF MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA TO THE MISSISSIPPI-ALABAMA BORDER...

INCLUDING METROPOLITAN NEW ORLEANS...LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN...AND LAKE

MAUREPAS

A HURRICANE WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR...

* INTRACOASTAL CITY TO MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...

* THE MISSISSIPPI-ALABAMA BORDER TO DESTIN FLORIDA

* MORGAN CITY TO CAMERON LOUISIANA

A TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR...

* EAST OF HIGH ISLAND TEXAS TO JUST WEST OF CAMERON LOUISIANA

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE

INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY

YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST OFFICE.

DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK

------------------------------

AT 800 PM CDT...0100 UTC...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE ISAAC WAS LOCATED

BY NOAA DOPPLER RADAR NEAR LATITUDE 29.0 NORTH...LONGITUDE 89.6

WEST. ISAAC IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 8 MPH...13 KM/H. A

NORTHWESTWARD MOTION AT A SLIGHTLY SLOWER SPEED IS EXPECTED OVER

THE NEXT DAY OR TWO. ON THE FORECAST TRACK...THE CENTER OF

HURRICANE ISAAC WILL CONTINUE MOVING NEAR OR OVER THE SOUTHEASTERN

COAST OF LOUISIANA OVER THE NEXT FEW HOURS...AND MOVE FARTHER INLAND

OVER SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 80 MPH...130 KM/H...WITH HIGHER

GUSTS. ISAAC IS A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON

HURRICANE WIND SCALE. SOME SLIGHT STRENGTHENING IS POSSIBLE

BEFORE ISAAC MOVES INLAND...WHILE GRADUAL WEAKENING IS EXPECTED

AFTER THAT.

HURRICANE-FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 60 MILES...95 KM...

MAINLY TO THE NORTHEAST AND EAST OF THE CENTER. TROPICAL-STORM-FORCE

WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 185 MILES...295 KM. TROPICAL STORM

CONDITIONS ARE OCCURRING ALONG THE COASTAL AREAS OF SOUTHEASTERN

LOUISIANA...MISSISSIPPI...AND ALABAMA. A SUSTAINED WIND OF 52 MPH

WITH A GUST TO 64 MPH WAS OBSERVED WITHIN THE PAST HOUR AT

LAKEFRONT AIRPORT IN NEW ORLEANS.

THE MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT WAS

968 MB...28.59 INCHES.

HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND

----------------------

STORM SURGE...THE COMBINATION OF A STORM SURGE AND THE TIDE WILL

CAUSE NORMALLY DRY AREAS NEAR THE COAST TO BE FLOODED BY RISING

WATERS. THE WATER COULD REACH THE FOLLOWING DEPTHS ABOVE GROUND IF

THE PEAK SURGE OCCURS AT THE TIME OF HIGH TIDE...

* MISSISSIPPI AND SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA...6 TO 12 FT

* ALABAMA...4 TO 8 FT

* SOUTH-CENTRAL LOUISIANA...3 TO 6 FT

* FLORIDA PANHANDLE...3 TO 6 FT

* APALACHEE BAY...2 TO 4 FT

* REMAINDER OF FLORIDA WEST COAST...1 TO 3 FT

THE DEEPEST WATER WILL OCCUR ALONG THE IMMEDIATE COAST IN AREAS OF

ONSHORE WINDS.  SURGE-RELATED FLOODING DEPENDS ON THE RELATIVE

TIMING OF THE SURGE AND THE TIDAL CYCLE...AND CAN VARY GREATLY OVER

SHORT DISTANCES.  FOR INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...PLEASE

SEE PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE.  NEAR THE

COAST...THE SURGE WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY LARGE AND DANGEROUS WAVES.

A STORM SURGE OF 9.5 FEET WAS RECENTLY REPORTED AT A NATIONAL

OCEAN SERVICE TIDE GAUGE AT SHELL BEACH LOUISIANA.  A STORM SURGE

OF 5.7 FEET WAS OBSERVED AT A NATIONAL OCEAN SERVICE TIDE GAUGE IN

WAVELAND MISSISSIPPI.

WIND...TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD ACROSS THE

WARNING AREA THIS EVENING...AND HURRICANE CONDITIONS SHOULD SPREAD

ONSHORE ACROSS SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA DURING THE NEXT FEW HOURS.

WINDS AFFECTING THE UPPER FLOORS OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WILL BE

SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN THOSE NEAR GROUND LEVEL. AT ABOUT THE

30TH STORY...WINDS WOULD LIKELY BE ONE SAFFIR-SIMPSON CATEGORY

STRONGER THAN AT THE SURFACE.

RAINFALL...ISAAC IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF

7 TO 14 INCHES...WITH POSSIBLE ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 20

INCHES...OVER MUCH OF LOUISIANA...SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI...SOUTHERN

ALABAMA...AND THE EXTREME WESTERN FLORIDA PANHANDLE. THESE RAINS

COULD RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT LOWLAND FLOODING.

TORNADOES...TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE ALONG THE NORTHERN GULF COAST

THROUGH TONIGHT.

SURF...DANGEROUS SURF AND RIP CURRENT CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO

AFFECT THE WEST COAST OF FLORIDA AND PORTIONS OF THE NORTHERN GULF

COAST FOR THE NEXT DAY OR SO.

-------------

NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY...1000 PM CDT.

$$

FORECASTER BROWN/KIMBERLAIN/BERG

I don't know what those two dollars signs are for, but thanks "Brown Kimgerlain and Berg for a very cool Hurricane Isaac Public Advisory.

Debby spawns Katrina flashbacks: "Hurricanes of humanity"

Tropical storm Debby meanders, daily paper's death slams recovery in New Orleans 
by Mike Marcellino


As Tropical Storm Debby slashes the Florida Gulf Coast, unsure of just which direction to go, east or west back toward New Orleans, it brings back memories of Hurricane Katrina.

The latest forecast, as of 5:21 pm, EDT, Sunday, has Debby "meandering" in the northeast Gulf of Mexico for the next 3-4 days.  


But hold on as the forecast keeps changing.  Two hours earlier the National Hurricane center had the tropical storm with winds up to 60 knots headed for the coast of Louisiana.  

Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive natural disaster in United States history.  From conception over the Bahamas on August 23 to August, 29 2005, the killer storm caused $96 billion in damage, wrecked 300,000 homes and took the lives of 1,883 people, including 1,464 in Louisiana.

Hurricane Katrina Damage Facts from Fox News

Tropical storm Debby Threatens Louisiana coast

Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:25pm EDT

1 of 1Full Size

By Chris Baltimore

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Strong winds and heavy rain from Tropical Storm Debby reached the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday as the storm meandered on an uncertain track toward the Louisiana coast with 60 mph winds, the U.S. National Hurricane Service said.

Debby, the first named storm of 2012 to enter the Gulf of Mexico, was centered about 200 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and was moving slowly northeast at around 5 mph at 1 p.m. CDT (1800 GMT). The storm was expected to strengthen into a hurricane by Tuesday night, the Miami-based center said.

The NHC predicted that Debby will turn west and come ashore on the eastern Louisiana coast early Thursday as a weak Category 1 hurricane. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, citing possible inland flooding in some coastal parishes.

Routers story, Sunday, June 24, 2:25pm

Hurricanes of humanity

By Mike Marcellino

Hurricanes of humanity.
Weathermen called the wind Katrina.
Her blow, overwhelming waves covered New Orleans,
leaving in her wake a city never the same.
She left them Cajuns reeling -
mumbling 'bout their old homes,
dying for MEMA cottages
out of reach, south of highway 90.
“Sold ‘em to contractors.  We’re
building casinos for the poor
working families without homes.”

Hurricanes of humanity.
Brass of Army sergeants homeless in uniform
swept from the streets, no need for assessment.

Giv’em an offer they can’t afford -
habitat for five hundred dollars a month
plus flood insurance.
Churches turned some gold to straw,
parish people say.
Wonderin ‘bout their government
before, during an after the nation’s greatest disaster
when a category 5 hit the Gulf Coast
on that August day 2005.


Hurricanes of humanity.
Homes not jails, food not bombs.
Five hundred city kitchens cross country,
twenty two to thirty two percent

of our kids going to school homeless,
Arizona to Detroit.

Hurricanes of humanity.
Subjects of FEMA, New Orleans to Brooklyn.

Armies on the street to college.
What went wrong? they ask.
Not the people? they say.
Must of been the leaders, some say.

Hurricanes of humanity.
Bayou grits, southern accents let’s see

before, during and after Katrina.
Try disability.
Hope a leg’s missing, never mind.
Speakers in the woods -
tents of seven hundred survivors
of the bitter winter 2009.

Hurricanes of humanity.
Like Dorothy upside down -
Hope for a soft landing on a bed of change.
Deportees from a 20 megaton daydream.
Two gallons left.
Lost out on fifty fifty -
miles, dollars away

from New Orleans and Black Bay.

Copyright Hurricanes of humanity by Mike Marcellino 2009. 

Death of daily paper rips New Orleans recovery

And, New Orleans is still reeling, as folks await the death of their daily newspaper, The Times-Picayune.  New Orleans will become the largest city in America without a daily newspaper when it begins publishing only three days a week this fall. 

Advance Publications, owned by the wealthy Newhouse family, strategy is for readers to get their news from the paper's Internet version.  Trouble is 39% of New Orleans residents don't have access to the Internet. Founded in 1837, The Times-Picayune was named after a Spanish coin worth, at the time, 6 cents.  There's a certain irony in the name "Advance Publications."  In other words, advance and make more money no matter the cost to humanity, in this case the people of New Orleans and the newspaper's employees.

Writers William Faulkner and O'Henry worked at The Times-Picayune, a paper that's won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for coverage of Hurricane Katrina.  

How well the three-day a week Times-Picayune serves New Orleans remains to be seen, but one thing for sure is the Newhouse family will continue to pile up the dough.  The Newhouse family's wealth hasn't suffered along with the fall of Times-Picayune and newspapers across the country. The family fortune has climbed from a whopping $8 billion in 1988 (Fortune magazine) to $12.5  billion in 2011 (Forbes magazine). 

Look out Cleveland!

The family, through Advanced Publicans, also owns The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Sun Newspapers, once the largest paid weekly newspaper chain the the country.  The Newhouse family is well known for its anti-union and union-busting tactics, at least in Cleveland where I worked for a decade as a two-time national award winning reporter with Sun Newspapers.  

Here's an excerpt from the McClatchy News Service story on the death of the daily paper in New Orleans.  It captures the impact on the recovery of New Orleans and the health and well being of the city and its citizens:

Martha Kegel, who leads a consortium of nonprofit agencies that fight homelessness in New Orleans, said it was “infuriating” to watch what was happening.


“The paper has its faults, but has been absolutely essential to the city’s recovery,” she said. “If ever a city needed a daily newspaper it is New Orleans.”Clearly, the Newhouses could care less what happens to New Orleans."

The rest of the McClatchy News Service story on the death of the daily Times-Picayune -

Death of the Times-Picayune daily

Hurricanes of humanity, a poem

Hurricane Katrina, NOAA Satellite image

Hurricanes of humanity
By Mike Marcellino

Hurricanes of humanity -
Weathermen called the wind
Katrina,
her blow overwheling
waves
covered New Orleans,
leaving in her wake
a city never the same.

She left them cajuns
reeling,
mumbling 'bout
their old homes
dying for MEMA
cottages
out of reach
south of highway 90
sold ‘em
to contractors
building
casinos for the poor
working
families without homes.
Hurricanes of humanity -
Brass
of Army sergeants
homeless in uniform
swept from the streets,
no need for assessment.
Giv’em an offer they can’t afford -
habitat for five hundred dollars
a month
plus flood insurance
Churches turned some gold to straw,
Parish people say,
wonderin ‘bout their government
before, during an after
nation’s greatest disaster,
when a category 5
hit the Gulf Coast
on that August day.
2005.

Hurricanes of humanity -
Homes not jails
food not bombs
500 city kitchens
cross country and
twenty two to thirty two
percent of our kids -
going to school,
homeless
Arizona to Detroit
Hurricanes of humanity -
subjects of FEMA
from New Orleans
to Brooklyn,
armies on the street
to college.
What went wrong?
they ask.
Not the people?
they say.
Must of been the leaders,
some say.
Hurricanes of humanity -
Bayou grits,
southern accents
let’s see
before, during and after
Katrina.
Try disability,
Hope a leg’s missing,
never mind.
Speakers
in the woods,
tents of seven hundred,
survivers
of the bitter winter
2009.
Hurricanes of humanity -
Like Dorothy
upside down.
Hope for a soft landing,
bed of change,
deportees
from a 20 megaton daydream,
two gallons left
lost out by fifty fifty -
miles
dollars
away
from New Orleans
and Black Bay.
Copyright Hurricanes of humanity by Mike Marcellino 2009.