Gustav May Rival Katrina as It Advances Toward Gulf of Mexico

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. oil and natural gas producers are beginning evacuations in the Gulf of Mexico as Tropical Storm Gustav, which may become the costliest hurricane since Katrina and Rita in 2005, heads toward the region.

``We could see 50 percent of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production shut in,'' said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.

Energy prices rose as the storm was forecast to regain hurricane strength on a track toward Louisiana and the offshore fields responsible for about a quarter of U.S. oil production and 15 percent of gas output.

---
The Hurricane Center's five-day forecast track shows Gustav crossing western Cuba and heading up toward Louisiana.

Gustav may become a ``destructive hurricane rivaling Rita and Katrina in effect on energy,'' Joe Bastardi of AccuWeather.com in State College, Pennsylvania, said in an outlook today. ``Tracks of storms of this genre include the worst hits on Galveston and Gustav has a chance to join that list.''

Hurricane Katrina, the costliest storm ever to hit the U.S., with damage estimated at $81 billion, was a Category 3 storm when it struck along the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

MORE...

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT07/refresh/AL0708W5_sm2+gif/143014W_sm.gif

BLOOMBERG: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=a_BuajWoKet8&refer=canada

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=a_BuajWoKet8&refer=canada

[AirmensMom]

1. Oh, no!

:cry:

[Justyce]

2. Looks like Mississippi is going to take another direct hit too.

yikes

[Kittycat]

3. According to your bloomberg link, Katrina was only 3 when it hit land

Is that so? If yes, than we're in for a world of trouble down there.

[geomon666]

5. Yes it was.

And yes you are. If you're down there, you need to be ready to leave soon. Or at the very least be ready to bunker down somewhere for a while.

[Strelnikov_]

10. But it was pushing the Cat. 5 storm surge it had generated in the Gulf

Same as Rita.

Same as Gustav?

[KamaAina]

12. Actually, Katrina was a strong 4 when it *first* hit land

in Buras, La., all the way down by the mouth of the Mississippi.

Reports vary on its strength at the time of its second landfall on the Mississippi coast. I find it hard to believe that it had weakened all the way to a 3, seeing a how some areas in MS flooded in Katrina but not in Camille!

[ElectricGrid]

13. The angle that Katrina hit with amplified the wave impact. There are also far less

natural coastal barriers in place now.

[Brotherjohn]

32. K was a strong Cat 3 when it hit Buras, pushing a Cat 5 storm surge as the post pointed out above.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/TCR-AL122005_Katrina.pdf

It had been a Cat 5 less than a day before.

The surge was higher (28 ft) than Camille's, and the storm itself was bigger, which is why parts of the Gulf Coast flooded that weren't flooded by Camille.

[pitohui]

50. i heard cat 4 at buras (buras was utterly destroyed)

you may be correct that it was eventually determined to be a cat 3 at landfall in louisiana (katrina made landfall in florida, missippissi AND louisiana) but at the time we heard it was cat 4 at buras and the damage there was just, there are no words, as far as i know, no one stayed at buras and lived, just seeing the damage afterward is sobering

the damage at new orleans (where katrina was inarguably a cat 3) was deceiving because the low rising water meant that houses that were uttterly destroyed beyond repair by water were still standing (some still stand today) but what happened at buras, venice, empire was beyond that, houses tossed like boats or wiped away altogether down to the foundation

camille one of the strongest storms in history, and a cat 5, was a compact storm, but katrina was one of the largest storms in history and wiped out the most incredible amount of real estate, it's hard to get your mind around it

i also thought it was cat 4 at landfall in mississippi, again, that's what we were told at the time, and the amt of damage i saw i believe it

for instance i was looking for my friend's apartment building in gulfport (NOT where the storm made landfall) and we could not even find the foundation

from bay st. louis/waveland to point cadet in biloxi we are talking about just unbelievable
destruction that left camille in the dust


katrina was so large that it was a cat 2 when it struck jackson, mississippi, look at a map and figure out how unlikely that is!

[LynneSin]

34. The problem with Katrina was not so much the hurricane itself

but the fact that our Levees were not prepared to take a hit. The Levees were suppose to be classified for a Class 3 hurricane (and I swore that Katrina was class #4) and yet they still cracked under pressure.

[pitohui]

51. katrina was a cat 3 at new orleans so the levees were not up to spec

the problem w. katrina overall was that the storm was too big and too strong, plenty of places were outside the levee protection

however, as far as new orleans, all these years and beers we were told we had cat 3 protection and katrina was cat 3 at new orleans -- and the levees did not hold, so we are understandably a little irate and want our money back etc.

[RL3AO]

111. Katrina was a cat 3 at landfall.

Due to dry air entrainment and an eyewall replacement cycle. It still had the surge of a category 4 or 5 though, because even if the winds weaken, the surge take more time to go down.

As for landfall intensities: 110 knots (125 mph) at Buras, LA and 105 knots (120 mph) at LA/MS border. Both of those are cat 3. (cat 4 starts at 115 knots)

[geomon666]

4. People in the gulf you need to listen.

I know the storm is many days away, but you NEED to start making evacuation preparations right now. If it stays on that course and timeline, by Sunday it will be too late to leave. Do not get stuck in a potential monster.

Everybody in the 5 day cone needs to be aware. Everybody in the 3 day cone needs to be prepared.

[Frisbee]

6. I wonder if...

we'll be able to get relief supplies there as quickly as we did to Georgia?

[RedLetterRev]

22. If we'll recall

and just sayin'...

Home Depot, Lowe's, even WallyWorld and a host of other relief agencies were there immediately with water, generators, pumps, food, everything they'd've needed at least to survive and were turned back by FEMA and DHA. FEMA and DHS diddlefarted and cordoned off the area for days more, standing off people who were ready and able to help when FEMA and DHS had a thumb in each end waiting for someone to holler "SWITCH!!"

No one will ever convince me that it wasn't intentional, coming ever-ever-so-close to genocide. Nothing much has changed in the last 3 years except a lot of rich folks have snapped up some land and built on it. The stories have been trickling out about the sorry patch jobs done on the levees (some stuffed with newspapers, even, for dogsakes) and nothing much has happened in the Lower 9th at all.

I pray that those who don't have transportation start walking the 17-mile bridge to Baton Rouge now or across the causeway to Houma; something-anything, don't stay there below sea-level. If you've got transportation, don't play -- take somebody, no, take as many as you can with you and GO. Save yourselves because you know the repuke government doesn't give a damn.

[yardwork]

37. And I remember all the private boats off Florida that were ready to go

but FEMA turned them back. And the Navy hospital ship in the Gulf that was told to stay away.

[Frisbee]

49. RE: the repuke government doesn't give a damn

Well if they appear to, you can bet it's only because it's an election year.

[MaryEllen9399]

93. I totally agree nt

[cosmicone]

108. While I feel sorry for the people in the path of the hurricane

this is going to be a major distraction from McCain's convention as the media and people will be obsessed with the storm and its aftermath.

[Baclava]

7. mods we need a disaster forum or something

This is like the 47th thread on Gus in the last 2 days

[uppityperson]

25. Link to Hurricane Survivor' forum (damn, was hoping we done with it)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=360

[AnneD]

36. We tried to get one started before....

but there wasn't much interest. It wouldn't be used all the time, just when needed for hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc.....

[awoke_in_2003]

8. This is exactly why

we need more off shore drilling :sarcasm:

[twiceshy]

24. You are inadvertently correct.

If we had drilling in Alaska, the Pacific, and the East Atlantic a single storm would not shut down all our capacity - from a guy in NE with an oil furnace.

[phantom power]

9. Something else is just like Katrina:

A big juicy deep-water hot-spot.

[AnneD]

38. Now THAT....

is scary shit! Guarenteed to build it up in a hurry. Look at the upper level wind flows too. Last year, so many hurricanes were sheared off at the tops.

[yardwork]

11. kicking.

[alfredo]

14. Five day tracking Take care folks. Don't try to ride it out.

They've underestimated this storm from day one.

[bicentennial_baby]

17. Oh man...

:scared:

x(

Good luck to all the Gulf Coast peeps. We'll be thinking of you.

[humbled_opinion]

15. Yikes ...

Republican's might as well have had their convention on the Titanic.

[starroute]

30. They may be losing Bobby Jindal

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-41/1219799656201330.xml&storylist=louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal said Tuesday that he will cancel his speaking role next week at the Republican convention if Hurricane Gustav threatens Louisiana.

Jindal is scheduled to give a speech on Sept. 3, the third night of the convention. But a threat to the state would trump that plan, partly because Jindal would want to stay in Louisiana and urge residents to prepare, he said.

"If the storm continues to come this way, I'll be changing my travel plans," he said.

[Kool Kitty]

91. Damn.

And I was SO looking forward to words of GOP wisdom from Bobby the Exorcist.

[Wednesdays]

16. Hang on to your wallets

``We could see 50 percent of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production shut in,'' said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.

I remember how gas prices skyrocketed nearly 50% for the two weeks following Katrina. :scared:

[hedgehog]

21. Back in 1977 I worked at Mobil Oil's Buffalo refinery during a

severe blizzard. (The city was shut down for a week after the snow stopped falling.) We didn't miss a single hour of production. That refinery was shut down in the 80's.

[Changenow]

23. Shhh, that's a secret

The majors don't want people to know not only don't they need more refineries, they've been closing the existing ones for decades.

[denverbill]

41. They also neglect to mention they are exporting refined gasoline to Mexico and China.

Record amounts being exported, as a matter of fact.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/25518912

While the U.S. oil industry wants access to more federal lands to help reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, U.S.-based companies are shipping record amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel to other countries.

A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33 percent from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department.
<snip>

[Dover]

18. While Katrinas winds and rain were bad, it was really the breaking of the levees

that made it into the worst storm in U.S. history, as I recall.

If it weren't for that, then it would not have been nearly as devastating.


And BTW, how is the midwestern flood recovery going? Hardly a peep of followup.

[geomon666]

27. That is true. However....

The levees are still in bad shape and probably will not withstand this storm.

[shawmut]

42. The damage along the MS coast was worse than Camille

Even without what happened in NO it still would have gone down as the worst ever.

[Divine Discontent]

19. it has the ominous feeling... I hope I'm wrong

we don't need to be seeing this happen again.

MORE AT www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[Divine Discontent]

20. and PS

there's no global warming... no. none. :sarcasm:

[JonLP24]

26. I have a friend in Baton Rouge

and 2 friends in Gulfport, MI. I hope they and everyone else stays safe if this conditions worsens.

[leftynyc]

33. My cousin in NOLA

weathered Katrina well enough (lost her apartment but her house just outside city was virtually untouched) has just been diagnosed with breast cancer (she's a musician with no health insurance). This is not what she needs.

[Ex Lurker]

40. Even with a direct hit Baton Rouge will likely have

no more than wind, rain and power outages. Andrew and Betsy went right over Baton Rouge with no major difficulties. It's pretty far inland.

[JonLP24]

47. Wasn't sure how far north Baton Rouge is

I know Gulfport is on the coast.

[Phoonzang]

28. If it has to hit us, I hope it takes out some oil rigs on the way.

Nothing like a picture of a tilting oil rig surrounded by a black slick to ruin the Republican convention.

[onehandle]

29. Our fearless leader should head down there now.

Or is he a wimp. Like his father.

[LynneSin]

35. Well we know Obama will be there along with the rest of our great leaders

Obama was there helping sandbag along the mississipi when all those levee broke too

[SteveM]

43. Jesus, he should stay away! KEEP THE ROADS OPEN. (nt)

[Limelight]

31. Oh good, another chance...

To watch the substandard levees they built, you know the ones filled with newspaper, break again.

Citizens of NO, I know it's hard, but I don't care if you have to walk. Get the hell up outta there now.

[benld74]

39. We saw the first over $4 per gallon gas right after Katrina

[Kajsa]

44. Damn- this doesn't look good!

:(

[shawmut]

45. well it's 6 days out and Katrina was a very unusual hurricane

I would be surprised if this storm rivaled Katrina but obviously people along the Gulf Coast should prepare for a worst case scenario just in case.

[lastliberalintexas]

86. We had 2 more storms that rivaled Katrina in 2005

Rita and Wilma were just as strong, and at some points stronger, than Katrina was, but those didn't cause the water damage that Katrina did and so you don't hear much about them. There are still peeople in SE Texas and SW Louisiana whose houses have not been repaired from Rita, who have since been hit by Humberto and Eduoard, and could now also be facing a hit by Gustav, since they keep shifting the damn cone further to the west.

I wish people would remember that NOLA isn't the only city still recovering from 2005.

[Wizard777]

46. Is it time for ANOTHER Bush vacation already?

[indepat]

48. Another once-in-almost-500-years hurricane just three years later?

:shrug:

[lastliberalintexas]

87. How is it once in 500 years when we had 3 in 2005 alone?

Whoever calls Katrina that didn't live in the Wilma or Rita hit areas in 2005. Bless those Floridians' hearts, by the time Wilma hit, the media had moved on to the War on Christmas. I doubt most people even know just how strong Wilma was, even. I really felt for some of the Florida P & L guys who were in SE Texas working on our utilities when they got the call to head home to work on their own, without even getting a chance to check on their own homes. :(

[geomon666]

92. Yeah it was bad.

But not nearly as bad as it was to restore the power grid after Andrew and in fact had to build whole new ones. I've had the displeasure of going through both storms and if I had a choice between a kick in the ass (Wilma) or a near death experience (Andrew), I'll take the kick in the ass every time.

[indepat]

110. Was wondering that myself having lived in New Orleans at the time of Betsy

having seen three houses we had lived in during the 1960s under water during Katrina.

[Liberty Belle]

52. Fear for weekend in gulf...Major hurricane tracks to N.O. on eve of GOP convention

Source: Drudge report headline - just posted

FEAR FOR WEEKEND IN GULF...

Major hurricane tracks to New Orleans on eve of Republican Convention?

More details here: http://www.wdsu.com/news/17299534/detail.html?treets=no&tml=no_break&ts=T&tmi=no_break_1_10180308262008

Read more: www.drudgereport.com

---

I would never wish another hurricane on the poor people of New Orleans, though there would be poetic justice if the party that let a major American city drown wound up having its own convention washed out in the very same site it so shamelessly abandoned.

[LeighAnn]

53. Didn't they pray for rain

Rain, in fact, of Biblical proportions?

[jeff30997]

54. Yeah but...

God was not there that day.Some laundry to do I was told.

[pacalo]

71. Uh...no. We've had our share of rain this summer, believe me.

You may be thinking of the more eastern (& redder) states like Georgia, perhaps? I think it's been some time since they've had rain.

[loves_dulcinea]

74. yeah

atlanta is hurting bad for rain, the reservoir that they draw upon is down about 17 feet.

[Dem2theMax]

55. Would this mean that THIS time

God would be punishing the Repukes for what they have done? :evilgrin:

[lynnertic]

56. Or perhaps REMINDING us that McCain was eating cake while N.O. drowned

and will do so again.

I hope it freaks everyone out and then dissipates before it hits land. Karl Rove has NOTHING on Mother Nature. (Not even a HAARP yeah?)

[Changenow]

67. Obama must do a commercial of that and

run it during the Republican convention.

[lastliberalintexas]

88. You people sound like Pat Robertson

I don't care if it's left or right, when I hear people talking about a god punishing innocent people in order to make a political point, I think they're either assholes or crazy.

[Duer 157099]

57. Why does God hate the GOP? n/t

[Kaleko]

58. Because he's omniscient. God knows a fuck-up when he sees one.

[LeighAnn]

65. Plus you're not supposed to pray for bad things to happen to your enemies

You are supposed to pray for your enemies' blessing. These religious people might know that if they'd ever read a Bible

[Name removed]

70. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Flirtus]

73. Please familiarize yourself with our usual decorum

Atheist or no, your comments are disturbing.

[The Stranger]

76. Actually, the Bible is replete with people praying for bad things to happen to their enemies.

And their God often smites their enemies -- sometimes their friends as well. That is practically what many books of the Bible are all about. That is what you have when you have a god of war and violence.

[lynnertic]

79. LOL

:rofl:

[orleans]

59. but their convention is not in nola.....? n/t

[mwb970]

60. They'll be at the other end of the Mississippi, won't they? /nt

[northernlights]

61. what will the MSM do?

Serve their corporate masters with cameras focussed on the rethug snoozefest... and ignore the exciting storm?

Piss off their corporate masters and show the exciting storm?

Reminds me of when McKeating tried to pull off some stunt at the bottom of the Mississippi claiming how safe offshore drilling is...and concurrently a mess of slimy sludge came traveling down the Mississippi from the big upstream oilspill.

I like the thought of a split screen image -- real people struggling while chimps smirk and McKeating downs caviar.

I hope our team has booked rooms near landfall so the Obamas and Bidens can head down there immediately after our party and be ready to look presidential and helpful while the rethugs continue to look like the ignorant and narcissistic creeps they are.

[Festivito]

62. They'll look at who signs their check, then ditch us.

They made Repubs look good despite NOLA, in spite of what they did and did not do in NOLA!

It's the bottom of the paycheck that counts for them.

[Mojorabbit]

63. Well if it takes out some rigs

and causes an oil spill, I hope Obama makes an ad showing what drilling near the coast can do. At least maybe it will wake some people up.

[pacalo]

72. Did you think that out before you typed it? Or would you really hope for the worst scenario

for the sake of a campaign? What is DU becoming?!

[Mojorabbit]

77. I am not hoping for anything

They are planning to be ready to evacuate the rigs as we speak. There will be damage if the track stays as it is. I am not the Goddess and have no control over the storm nor it's damage. If it causes an oil spill I hope the fact will be used to prevent more drilling in the gulf.

[pacalo]

80. There's nothing wrong with capitalizing on their mistakes, so it's my bad. Thanks.

[Ian David]

64. See also:

http://www.TinyUrl.com/GodHatesRepublicans

[Felix Mala]

66. Not to mention, August 29 is 3rd anniversary of Let Them Eat McCake day! n/t

[yellowcanine]

68. Uh - The Republican convention is in Minneapolis.

[Name removed]

69. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Vinca]

75. If I was a religious person, I'd say this was a sign from God to the Republicans. nt

[IsItJustMe]

78. LOL, Isn't that the truth.

[Strelnikov_]

81. Models starting to trend west

Look out Houston.

0000 Zulu = 6:00 PM CDT

[Strelnikov_]

82. Right over the loop current eddy

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1043&tstamp=200808

Gustav's intensification potential in the Gulf of Mexico

As we saw in 2005 with Katrina and Rita, the large amounts of deep, warm water brought into the Gulf of Mexico by the Loop Current can help intensify hurricanes to Category 5 intensity. As explained in my Loop Current tutorial, the Loop Current is an ocean current that transports warm Caribbean water through the Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico. The current flows northward into the Gulf of Mexico, then loops southeastward through the Florida Keys. The Loop Current commonly bulges out in the northern Gulf of Mexico and sometimes will shed a clockwise rotating ring of warm water that separates from the main current. This ring of warm water slowly drifts west-southwestward towards Texas or Mexico at about 3-5 km per day. This feature is called a "Loop Current Ring", "Loop Current Eddy", or "Warm Core Ring", and can provide a key source of energy to fuel rapid intensification of hurricanes that cross the Gulf. The Loop Current itself can also fuel rapid intensification, such as happened with Hurricane Charley in 2004. When a Loop Current Eddy breaks off in the Gulf of Mexico at the height of hurricane season, it can lead to a dangerous situation where a vast reservoir of energy is available to any hurricane that might cross over. This occurred in 2005, when a Loop Current Eddy separated in July, just before Hurricane Katrina passed over and "bombed" into a Category 5 hurricane. The eddy remained in the Gulf and slowly drifted westward during September. Hurricane Rita passed over the same Loop Current Eddy three weeks after Katrina, and also explosively deepened to a Category 5 storm.

This year, we had another Loop Current Eddy break off in July. This eddy is now positioned due south of New Orleans (Figure 2), and this eddy has similar levels of heat energy to the 2005 eddy that powered Katrina and Rita. Should Gustav pass over or just to the left of this eddy, we can expect the storm to significantly intensify. There is also a weaker eddy present in the western Gulf; this eddy broke off from the Loop Current in April, and is much cooler then the eddy that broke off in July. Should Gustav pass over the April eddy, it shouldn't make much difference.

[Psephos]

85. Informative post n/t

[lastliberalintexas]

89. ugggh

Is anyone predicting when the high over Florida is going to dissipate? That would give us some idea of how far west Gus will go.

[ileus]

83. why would GW steer another one into NO?

[Psephos]

84. O.P. seems to think repug convention is in New Orleans. It's not - try Minneapolis. n/t

[harun]

90. Hanna is coming too

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT08/refresh/AL0808_PROB34_F120_sm2+gif/144212.gif

[Amonester]

94. Scary stuff. Watch it, people.

[daggahead]

95. WOW! I had no idea ...

[MadrasT]

96. OMG neither did I!

This is really scary.

[alfredo]

97. Look at the Atlantic

[Blackhatjack]

98. Hannah presents a significant risk to GA, SC & NC .... Stay Tuned! n/t

[Max_powers94]

104. and fL

[Blackhatjack]

107. Poor Florida has been like a hurricane magnet ... that goes without saying.

But Georgia, S Carolina and N Carolina have been so lucky in recent years -- we have to be wary of the odds that we will be missed again.

[Stern21]

99. I hope they have transportation ready

and will pay attention to those without the means to evacuate on their own.

Thoughts and hope to the folks in the path of Gustav.

[JeanGrey]

100. Gustav AND Hannah to strike New Orleans?

Source: 12Z euro

Latest GZ Euro. Shows Gustav striking NO followed by Hannah. YIKES! Surely to God - if I were there I'd be thinking time to run..............

Read more:

[Max_powers94]

101. Well is was nice to know NO..if this happens then that all she wrote

[JeanGrey]

116. This could be much worse than Katrina. NO really didn't get

much of a blast from Katrina, had the levees held the dangerous would have been a lot less. Biloxi, on the upper right side of the storm was basically destroyed. THIS storm might pass to the west of NO and exposure her to the real power side. MUCH worse.

[sharp_stick]

102. Hannah is way too far out to worry about yet

it can still go anywhere.

[JeanGrey]

105. True. But still, very scary.

And Ike might be bringing up the rear (the third storm behind Hannah). :scared:

Time to go.

[sharp_stick]

106. No question I'd be worried but I wouldn't panic yet

I'd be ready to panic though.

[demo dutch]

103. OMG! That's terrible for NOLA. I'm in So Fla so it will hit us first!

and talk about bad karma for the GOP that is.

[The Stranger]

109. If you can do so now, get your children, pets and supplies and start NOW.

Once everyone starts panicking and heading for the exits, it is already too late.

[LivinginLA]

112. It's already started

Last night at the grocery there was no bottled water on the shelves. This morning I went to three gas stations before I found one that still had gas for sale! The clerk said they had gotten a shipment at 3:00 a.m. and expected to sell out by 6:00 p.m. tonight. We will find out tomorrow afternoon if we are under a mandatory evacuation but the family is leaving tomorrow morning.

[RL3AO]

113. Hanna is getting shredded today.

Completely naked.

[RL3AO]

114. NHCs language getting stronger and stronger.

Now forecasted to be a strong cat 3, but at the end of the new discussion they said this.

"HOWEVER...IT WOULD BE NO SURPRISE IF RAPID INTENSIFICATION OCCURRED AND GUSTAV BECAME A CATEGORY 4 OR 5 HURRICANE BY 72 HR."

[Liberty Belle]

115. News flash: GOP has been hit by....Hurricane Obama!

Leaving Republicans in disarray, blown away by his compassion and caring.

[RL3AO]

117. Now a category 4

HURRICANE GUSTAV TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL072008
120 PM EDT SAT AUG 30 2008


DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT
GUSTAV HAS CONTINUED TO STRENGTHEN AND NOW HAS MAXIMUM WINDS
NEAR 145 MPH...230 KM/HR WITH HIGHER GUSTS. THIS MAKES GUSTAV AN
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON
HURRICANE SCALE. A SPECIAL ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED AT ABOUT 200 PM
EDT TO MODIFY THE INITIAL AND FORECAST INTENSITIES. THE SPECIAL
PUBLIC ADVISORY WILL TAKE THE PLACE OF THE INTERMEDIATE PUBLIC
ADVISORY PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED FOR THAT TIME.

$$
FORECASTER KNABB