I hope cat sailors in the area are getting out of town -- or setting up tents on their boats. 
Sounds like you either have to leave or float. Very scary when you see tourists still in the streets of New Orleans.
Mary and all,
It is when a Hurricane goes real slow, like this one, that they produce alot of rain damage.
I just saw footage on The Weather Channel of sailboats piled up in the Miami area. These boats never had their mainsails taken off or roller furling headails dropped,...makes one kinda wonder..
Best to all.
Bruce
St. Croix
Those boats still had head sails on furlers and mains wrapped. I'm guessing it was out of town folks who spend winters in Florida and summers up north somewhere away from the three H's (Heat, Humidity, and Huricanes). They probably had no one to go prep their boats for the storm and will just rely on insurance to cover the damages. I guess that is why insurance is getting so rediculous. Hmmm, that might be a good business idea... hurricane boat prep. It would probably be a pain in the butt as far as liability is concerned.
-Rob V.
Katrina pulled a "Crazy ivan" on us and caught Miami sleeping. It was heading for the West Palm / Lauderdale border and then hung a left at the last minute and hit south Miami. It just goes to show you, the weather guys can't be certain, nature is not predictable. Cover up and dig in if a hurricane is anywhere close to you.
The "stuff" I look at suggests a landfall east of the big easy. All interests along the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Panama City should prepare for Katrina.
Bob
How FAR east?
I'm told that the server computers for this web site are located on the third floor of a building in New Orleans, so if we are out of commission for a while, you can guess why. 
What a great term. I just love it; Used to use it when telling my Hurricane crew that I tought a wild gybe was coming.....
Has anybody heard anything from the cat sailors on Lake Pontchartrain? How do you prepare for a 20-foot storm surge except by trailering out of the area? But what do the bigger boats do? I think there is a fleet of Stilettos on the lake.
I like the term too. i stole it from "Red October". I use it to describe any event or behavior that is radically different from what is expected. The scene in the move; Sean Connery pulls a maneuver where he orders the submarine to steer a head on course for torpedo thereby closing the distance between the U boat and the torpedo faster that the detonation timer can adjust. Totally unexpected behavior for a submarine, Crazy Ivan.
No, IIRC the crazy Ivan is where the Cap goes hard to port or Stbd every now and then to check that there is not another sub in his baffles; the reason for the crazy bit is that if the following sub is not on their toes they might go into the back !
You see a couple of times in the film where this is quoted; once when the "Dallas" is following and one is started; Jonesey called out "crazy Ivan"; Later in the film when Ryan is on board Dallas, he says "at the bottom of the hour he will....."
Driving into and down the incoming path of the torpedo was just a known technique of the Russians (and is in fact true).
Yes, I remember, thats right.
This making me want to watch the movie again. Once I clear these trees off my yard.
Not too far. Our friends in the Biloxi area need to evacuate now while the roads are not too congested. A 30-45 mile jog to the east would be very good for the N.O. area. However, someone will get slammed! Better to get ready and get out than to wait and oops, it's too late. The Eglin AFB planes have already evacuated. We are expecting 50kts gusting to 60 in the Ft Walton Beach/Crestview area. Per the Weather Channel, this could be the second coming of Camille(1969).
Bob
Hello All,
check out this updated sat. view
http:/
..if this does not begin 'breaking up' by a miracle,.. 🙁
..I bet the Gulf is real warm too, heck when I was in Tampa in July, the water temp was 91 - 94 f !
..if the pressure drops below 900 mb, which is what we watch down here,..it is a mega-storm.
...this storm passed us last weekend, as a tropical wave...it was north of St. Thomas and Puerto Rico then..
..our prays to all.
Bruce
St. Croix
Weather channel is saying that we will be getting 60 mph gusts as far east as here (Panama City). I just hope Katrina doesn't pull an Opal and vear east at the last minute. We are barely out of the way of this one, if it comes much more east I'm going to be running around like a wounded moose trying to get the boards up.
-Rob V.
Good luck folks. Our thoughts are with you.
Good luck everyone
This one is going to be real ugly. I really hope everyone is getting out of the way. I don't think there will be much left afterwards.
-Rob V.
Panama City
Nacra 5.2
From watching the reports today:
55 foot waves recorded in the gulf
Hurricane force winds 110 miles out from the eye
The highest point in New Orleans is 13 ft above sea level.
Computer models are predicting some areas will be 30 ft under water
161mph sustained winds, 191mph gusts
This is expected to be the worst natural disaster in US history.
I think a lot of people were not as concerned due to the huricane being "only a Level 1" hurricane when it hit FL. I can't remember a hurrican ever crossing Florida and then increasing in strength as much as this one has.
Due to the Geography of New Orleans and the brute strength of this storm the only logical thing to do is get out of it's way.
I hope everyone stays safe,
Holy smokes thats incredible.
Thoughts and Prayers are with you guys down there.
Hello From Louisiana!
From this end the main evac. seems to have really helped out so far. They devised a system of gettng people out with out the virtural gridlock that occured the last time. Only about 200K people couldn't get out but mostly not because of traffic. We're still waiting for the center to pass. As Bob said it will pass east of N.O. At this point I feel for the MS coast as they will be just to the east of the eye. As anyone familiar with hurricanes we pray not to be on that side. I'll take the eye any day over the east side.
Replying to Mary, several Stiletto's that were in the Lake are not there anymore. But those that are still there are probably like mine, broken down and stored on the trailer with everything lashed down. If you can't haul it off then find the lee side of a big building if you can and high ground (if you can find any here!) As most know here in S. Louisiana there is not much in the way of high elevations. My house at the lake is at 15' above sea level (and that is 9' off the ground). Fortunately we're west of the storm system. We were not so lucky a couple of years ago, they eye passed right over us then.
JUST IN! It seems that a couple of holes have developed in the roof of the Super Dome. There are about 15 - 20K people taking shelter there. Lets pray that is all that happens.
Clayton
S27, H16