Rita Ahead

I lived on Galveston Island for over thirty years and really feel for the folks that were stranded on I-45. Was there myself evacuating for Hurricane Allen and remember how helpless I felt stranded in that mess. And we left far in advance of the evacuation orders! Once Houston decides to evacuate, the roads clog and nobody south of it can get out. I remember you couldn't change lanes, couldn't get off, couldn't get to a bathroom. I truly felt "trapped" and fully expected to be sitting there in my car in Conroe when Allen hit. At that momemt I said to my husband, never again. We're moving off the coast and we did when we retired two years ago. Houston and the coastal cities said they learned they would have to open all lanes to outbound only next time, but they apparently forgot this lesson. Should have opened up lanes Tuesday, not Thursday!

I live in Temple, just north of Austin, now. We could lose power and see some wind or rain flooding, but will fare much better than Galveston and Houston. I offered refuge to my friends evacuating, but no takers yet. Guess everyone is going to relatives homes. That may change in the next 12-18 hours if the roads don't improve. Heard this morning they are beginning to clear out in the southern areas and around Houston. Still heavy traffice towards Dallas, though.

I've been making block ice in my chest freezer all week to avoid frozen food spoilage if we should lose power. Have a solar powered radio, lots of drinking water and stockpiled water in containers for cooking/laundry/hygeine use. I remember Katrina damage was pretty bad as far inland as Jackson, Miss. halfway up the state, so I prepare for that eventuality. I always have a well-stocked pantry of canned goods and we have full ensemble of camping gear, so I could live without city services for a long time.

We did this evac thing so many years we have it down to a fine art! Plus my husband was a survivalist in his previous live. It's amazing, but with a little forethought, preparation and planning at the beginning of each hurricane season, coastal residents can do a lot themselves to reduce the discomfort these things cause. You just can't wait until the storm threats occur. Some things you can't avoid, but many you can. But as we all know, few folks do this.

I pray the storm surge doesn't whip around the back bay side of Galveston or she will be under water. Drains off quickly, but I fear the island would lose it's east and west ends if submerged as it was in the 1900 storm. They's just wash away. The island has always feared this possibility.

Say a little prayer for all the coastal evacuees. May their damages be minimal.

 

A sad repeat for New Orleanians

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/23/D8CQ2R2O1.html

 

For Rita, evacuations were done in stages with Galveston being first. People complied with orders, but the total number of people to evacuate and the limited concrete on which to do it is a problem that has been defined for decades but never solved. The continued development of the coastal areas, especially in Brazoria county far outstripped the evacuation capability growth.

In general. living on the Island is questionable in any event. It doesn't take an actual hurricane to wield devastation to the Gulf Coast

 

To say this whole situation is a mess would be a grouse understatement. I now fear for all those people stuck on the freeways and roads, I pray for all of them. I also urge all of us to get on our soap boxes and come up with a better plan than apparently is the current situation. Perhaps we should be looking toward how the area(s) can be fortified or retrofitted to withstand these monsters. I am no expert in this stuff, but I do know that what we have now is not sufficient. Money is going to be spent, of that there is no doubt, so lets try and get the best we possibly can for any future occurrences.

Thanks
Wildman

 

There are ways to build tornado/hurricane proof structures, houses, other buildings (w/solid concrete walls 1-2 feet thick), however the builders and the public would never opt for the safety of these structures vs. the cost unless the Gov. were to pay for it all.

 

I would think the first thing they should do is somwhow replace the marshlands(natural barrier to bad weather) in these areas that have slowly been destroyed by good old urban sprawl....


snowbound

 

The building codes in this area and inmuch of Florida incorporate standards that make structures hurricane-resistant to a certain extent, However in the real world there is a limit.

Remember, in the course of its brief life, a typical Caribbean hurricane releases the destructive power of 100,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs.

Of course you are aware of the efforts to restore much of the beaches, etc., but it's hard (impossible?) to overcome Mother Nature. As to building in such area in the first place, perhaps that should have been condered by the Allen brothers who founded Houston a couple hundred years ago. Many similar statements could be made about Louisiana or Homestead Airforce Base in Florida (demolished by Andrew in 1992) or various wonderful cities along the eastern seaboard.
Over the ages, mankind has continued to live in areas which would otherwise defy rational explanations, whether it's for the wealth of natural resources from which everyone derives benefit. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, unbelievably cold or hot environments. And then there's exploration of outer space.
Having spent a couple of weeks assisting evacuees from Katrina and now having to face a major hurricane within the next few hours myself, I'll leave the philosophizing to others.

Rob

 

I will recommend thses two blogs -
For general info -
http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/

For great graphics that showcase the tornado potential of Rita, which is significant-
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/SteveGregory/show.html

Two hits on the petroleum industry accounting for a substantial part of the nation's petroleum supply - from exploration to production to refining - be ready for the impact of it on our lives, from gasoline to natural gas to heating oil to petrochemical to rust belt manufacturing

Rob

 

Clouds roll in over a staue commerating the 1900 hurricane, before Hurricane Rita approaches in Galveston, Texas. Hurricane Rita roared toward the US coast with 205 kilometer (125 mile) an hour winds, having claimed its first deaths and inflicted renewed flooding on storm-stricken New Orleans(AFP/James Nielsen)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050923/photos_wl_afp/050923084118_bzexwqcp_photo3

 

hmm... to much turmoil on the eastern seaboard. Anything on the west coast Ron?



snowbound

 

http://img282.imageshack.us/img282/9742/image11wx.jpg

​

 

LOL,

i bet.


snowbound

 

Contrary to initial reports by many media outlets, Rita had a considerable effect on the petroleum exploration & production industry-
http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwd...720050928&feed=dji&date=20050928&cat=INDUSTRY




NEWS WRAP:Rita May Have Damaged More Oil Rigs Than Katrina

Wednesday September 28, 6:12 PM EDT

DALLAS (AP)--Hurricane Rita may have caused more damage to rigs and platforms than any Gulf of Mexico storm - even its formidable predecessor Hurricane Katrina, oil and gas analysts said on Wednesday.

The double-whammy of those hurricanes has already cost the Gulf almost 7% of its annual oil production and 5% of its yearly natural gas output, according to a report Wednesday from the U.S. Minerals Management Service.

"The impact on the rigs is something that's never been seen by this country before," said Daniel Naatz, director of federal resources for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

ODS-Petrodata, which provides data and information to the industry, reported 13 rigs already seriously damaged or destroyed by Rita. Platform damage still is being assessed, said Tom Marsh, ODS analyst.

"You may think that 13 is not a significant amount, but this is 10% of the contracted fleet out of service for various lengths of time or in some cases permanently," Marsh said.

Meanwhile, 9 of 12 pipelines that move gas and oil onshore remain shut down or operate at less than 100% capacity, according to the latest report by the Association of Oil Pipelines.

Refineries in the hardest-hit area of Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, plus Lake Charles, La., still are not operating, costing about 1.7 million barrels a day of refined products, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

They include:

- Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s Lake Charles 324,000-barrel-a-day facility.

- ConocoPhillips (COP) Co.'s (COP) West Lake, La., 239,000-barrel-a-day refinery.

- Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM)'s (XOM) 348,000-barrel-a-day Beaumont plant, the largest producer in that area.

- A 285,000-barrel-a-day joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell PLC's Shell Oil Co. (RD, RDSB.LN) and Motiva Enterprises LLC (RD).

- Total SA's (TOT) 233,500-barrel-a-day Port Arthur facility.

- Valero Energy Corp. (VLO)'s (VLO) 255,000-barrel-a-day plant in Port Arthur.

The slow pace of recovery for the Gulf refineries, rigs and platforms, and concerns about demand for heating oil this winter and for gasoline as the economy bounces back from Katrina and Rita, drove up oil futures on Wednesday.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.28 to $66.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas futures for October rose more than $1 to $13.907 per million British thermal units.

Heating oil gained more than 7 cents to settle at $2.1411 a gallon, while gasoline gained more than 17 cents to settle at $2.3393 a gallon - an increase of about 8%.

Industry executives and analysts say consumers and companies should brace for an expensive winter. And natural gas prices could soar more than fuel oil because, unlike crude oil, there are no natural gas reserves to tap.

Since Katrina struck, the country has received an occasional oil injection from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Paris-based International Energy Agency.

"This would be a good time to have a warm winter," said Ron Gold, vice president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation.

Assessing damage is taking longer than post-Katrina efforts with some findings not expected until late this week or early next week.

Companies were still evaluating the damage wrought by Katrina when Rita bore down on the country's energy hub.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service reported that 593 platforms and 64 rigs still remain evacuated. That's 72% of the 819 manned platforms and 48% of the 134 rigs with operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rigs are tethered to the Gulf's floor and not nearly as secure in storms. They typically are evacuated before platforms, which are used to pump the oil once the well has been drilled.

"I hate to say with absolute certainty that this is the worst storm damage we've seen, but we have had more rigs reported with severe damage than any other storm I can recall in the last 15 years," said Marsh of ODS-Petrodata.

Marsh said the company's pre-hurricane projections had already called for a rig shortage by early next year, but the back-to-back storms could push that shortage to as early as November.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

09-28-05 1812ET

Copyright (c) 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

© 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.




related quotes
Symbol Last Trade Change
XOM
64.70
+0.08
VLO
116.12
+3.54
RD
63.83
+0.08
TOT
137.23
+1.81
COP
69.50
+0.52

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· 2nd UPDATE: Gulf Gas Outages Persist, Raising Concerns - (Dow Jones)
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· NEWS WRAP:Rita May Have Damaged More Oil Rigs Than Katrina - (Dow Jones)
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http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwd...120050928&feed=dji&date=20050928&cat=INDUSTRY

2nd UPDATE: Gulf Gas Outages Persist, Raising Concerns

HOUSTON -(Dow Jones)- Volumes of U.S. oil and natural gas production shut down in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina failed to show any improvement Wednesday, according to the Minerals Management Service, even as companies said they were restarting some output.

One hundred percent of oil production in the region, or 1.5 million barrels a day, remained off line, the MMS said. Suspended natural gas volumes actually worsened, with 8.02 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas shut in, or 80% of total gas production, up from 78.56% on Tuesday.

Delays in restoring production are having a sharp impact on the natural gas market, where traders are concerned persistent outages will eat into inventories needed for the winter, when demand significantly exceeds supply.

The supply gap yawns so widely that some traders are saying prices will have to rise much higher to destroy enough demand to balance the market.

"You're just not building storage," says George Speicher, a gas futures trader at Dow Inc. "I don't care how much demand destruction there is if 75% of the gas is down in the Gulf."

 

New Orleans ready to re-open this Friday. Man, I'm ready.