Here comes Rita!

[Tarzan]

Better idea - put the meeting off 2 weeks and let's have it here in Nac when SFA plays NSU. You are riding the bus up to T-Gate right???

Bring that monstrosity of a gumbo pot and the boat paddle y'all have and we'll cook and have the meeting in the parking lot and then go to the game. Think we can get Karl to go along with it?

Buff, you make me laugh hard! Now that the Shreveport US Lacrosse clinic has been moved from that weekend to Dec 10th, I do have that date open. I just might make the trip.

FOR THOSE IN TEXAS THAT THINK YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY....WORRY AND PRAY. Katrina was weaker than this one (Rita is now gusting 200mph) and it did not slow to a tropical storm until it had gone through Louisiana and half of Mississippi. Don’t wait till Friday to get prepared…Get the heck out of dodge now!!! Go North!!

Good place to track:

http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropical/

[lil lady lax fan]

Folks further inland might also want to take precautions. One thing most people don't take into consideration is the amount of tornadoes generated by these hurricanes when they start breaking apart. If this stays a category 5 you can be sure there will be quite a few, plus LOTS of torrential rain and flooding for quite a distance inland. Good luck to everyone in Texas. Hope y'all make it through this safely.

[Tarzan]

You are exactly right lil lady. Computer models have Rita going all over the place now that it has already started to turn northward:


Also, notice the sustained wind estimates...Even 3 days out they are predicting it will be 83 mph!!! Get out now!!!

[Sonny]

It is definitely moving more North:

[lil lady lax fan]

I had a feeling that was going to happen yesterday when I was watching the satellite image tracking the storm. It could turn back west, though. Hurricanes are capricious things.

Hey Brent,
Did you HAVE to mention Isaac??!

[Brent Burns]

I had a feeling that was going to happen yesterday when I was watching the satellite image tracking the storm. It could turn back west, though. Hurricanes are capricious things.

Hey Brent,
Did you HAVE to mention Isaac??!

I don't have to mention this because the folks in Galveston would not want to be reminded about that. The majority of those folks have already evacuated their dear Galveston. I believe after seeing the simulation of what that area would be like if a Cat 5 hurricane pays a visit to the Galveston Island and other areas. The author of "Issac's Storm" was on C-Span last night, and he was talking about the 1900 storm. I will stop right there now.

[Brent Burns]

Judging from the projected Rita path once it makes the landfall, I would expect that where I am right now (Waco, Temple, Belton, Killeen, Hillsboro, Georgetown, Austin, etc), we may be spared Rita's path, but lil lady lax fan is correct that we would never know that it may shift to the west side. If it stays that course, East Texas is going to get good amount of winds. It is going to be interesting to see how many pine cones are going to be on the ground. I can imagine those piney trees flaying. Well, I gotta pray for my mother, my sister and my grandmother as they are in that area. We will of course pray for Mike Buff and his SFA boys. As for my area, we would probably get a lot of rain and winds. I would still watch out for any potential tornado.

I have not been on Route 7 for a long time, but it would be interesting to see how the Davy Crockett National Forest would hold up. mbuff, what do you think about that?

[Brent Burns]

[mbuff]

Gah!!!! Damn that BushCheneyHalliburton weather machine!!!

Now it looks like it's comming right up Hwy 59 to our backyard and the estimates have it still producing huricane force winds when it hits us.

Man, we had a storm that made 50 mph winds and it blew over 3 hangers at the airport and tossed around some Cessnas. This is going to be much worse. Pine trees don't do well in big winds and we're surrounded by the things. SFA alone is covered by 83 acres of them.

My office building is really just a fancy metal building with some brick veneer slaped on the outside so we're kinda worried about the roof now. We've been backing up servers since last night and carting tapes to secure storage in case the roof decides to fly and the water gets in. We may lose our fiber loops to the hospital but we've had a truck take out one loop before so we're good as far as our no IT procedures go. Our main hospital building should be fine. We've received a few patients from the evacuated areas so far but still have bed capacity. EMS says the ambulances can't run in winds above like 45 or they'll tump over!?!

Methinks (is that pirate talk?) were all going to be on the chainsaw birgade before this is over. Never paid $3.00 to fill up the chainsaw tank with gas.

Brent -- maybe you should make room for your family in Waco. With this turn, Broadus and Lufkin don't seem like good choices now. I'm pretty sure that if we get 75+ winds, communications in the area are going to be little to none. There is alot of fiber that went in between here and Houston but off the backbone, a lot of stuff is still above ground and when the tress fall, so do the wires. We're telling staff and outside businesses that our VPN and internet connections may be down following storm passage. So if you can't get ahold of anybody over this way, don't be suprised. Tarzan can probably tell you what and how far from center the cell towers can survive.

I guess we're going to seperate the real SFA Lumberjacks from the posers on Sunday!

[Tarzan]

Buff, I am really worried about you....Get West or North!!

Cell towers need two things:
1. the local wired telephone netwok to work (calls/text messages go from your cell to the tower and then into the local wired network)
2. the commercial power grid (they have generators, but they aren't always reliable)

Even though the tower withstands the wind the power/telephone lines might not.

Outside of the "impacted area" you will see more traffic on the roads and on the cell/wired phone networks. When this happens you will find it hard to travel and communicate.

If you are in these areas, make sure you have an old style home phone (not a cordless or one that relys on power to use it). You can get one at Walmart for about $5. A redial button will be your best friend. Phone networks can still work dispite lossing power at your house, but congestion on the network might make it hard to get out (why you will need the redial button)

If you have only a cell phone, learn how to text message (if you don't have it add it to your cell phone). Because of network congestion, text works better. Texting sends a small amount of data vs a voice conversation. If you have VOIP...When the power goes out you are SOL...No power = No modem = No VOIP

Congestion on the roads and on the phone networks will be a problem for a while. Our phones here are still FUBAR. Good luck!!!

[mbuff]

Billy,

Don't worry about me. All we're in for here is wind and rain; no storm surge. I have to stay to keep the systems up or get them up if they go down. The only thing that would ruin that is if our gigabit fiber goes down and breaks. Tried to get them to bury it 4X now but it's still on poles. I've also got a dedicated gas fired generator that's tied into our cold room and we wahooed a 21" TV and stashed it in there 2 years ago. I also have the venerable $5.00 phone in there and I think there is a lineman's butt set in one of our cabinets. Now if we only had a 19" rack mounted margaRITA machine we'd be set.

If things get really bad, I can hole up in the hospital. The orginal part is 75 years old and made out of solid brick. The newest tower is prestressed concrete slabs with brick. There is a whole empty 2nd floor that's not finished out yet in the new tower. I've seen Nac flood but not 12ft.

[Tarzan]

The wind and rain has already started to pick up here in Thibodaux. The bands are already touching Louisiana. Gona be a bumpy ride from here on out!

[Sonny]

Latest track:

[CP18]

Guys, I am witnessing all of this first hand! I live right off of I-45 in Huntsville and the chaos is nuts. People running out of gas, staying on the side of the road, the lines for gas go on for blocks, if there is gas. McDonalds ran out of burgers, people have no where to go. I let a family use my house to go to the bathroom, get some water, let the kids run around etc and they told me it was the first time they had been out of their car in 20 hours, and they were just escaping the south side of Houston, only 80 some miles from me!

Unbelievable, thoughts and prayers everyone!

[Rob Graff]

My Mom lives in the Woodlands, and I've not been able to call her for the last two days - what's up with the phone system? I could call NY on 9/11!

Anyway, she's decided to ride it out at home, she is a veteran of a few LI hurricanes and I think it gave her too much courage. If it's bad, I may be visiting y'all next week to help her get on her feet again.

I'm hoping though that the current track which puts houston on the "west" side of the hurricane (less intense) will hold and thus she will be fine.

Good luck to all.

Rob