Badtux the Snarky Penguin

In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.

Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Out of the frying pan....

Hurricane Rita is currently churning towards the Texas coast. Thus far, people have been talking about the possibility of it hitting New Orleans. However, that is fairly unlikely right now. But what is likely is that the people of New Orleans, who largely evacuated to the west, are about to get hammered with a second hurricane -- especially the 100,000 or so Louisianians currently in Houston, who are likely to have to endure yet another hurricane only weeks after surviving Katrina. And let's not talk about the ones who evacuated to Lake Charles, or Lafayette, both of whom might also endure bad weather from Rita.

Talk about your "out of the frying pan, into the fire" scenarios... apparently swimming skills are a big plus for Louisianians nowdays. Because they sure are having to do a lot of it...

Badtux the "I swim real well!" Penguin

Posted by: BadTux / 9/20/2005 06:56:00 PM

Comments:

I read somewhere (sorry, lost the link) that the people in Houston may be evacuated again, this time to Arkansas.
# posted by TheGreenKnight : 20/9/05 7:16 PM

TGK, that is only for those who are currently in shelters. Those who are not in shelters, who are, for example, staying with relatives (a *lot* of Louisianians have relatives in Houston, when I was first starting out as a young penguin I stayed with relatives in Houston until I could pay for a place of my own) are on their own.

It is unlikely that anybody will actually evacuate Houston, other than those nearest to the coast. So they're just going to weather the storm. The only good news is that Houston is above sea level, though the southern part of Houston is likely to flood to a depth of 2-3 feet in the event of a direct hit...

- Badtux the Louisiana Penguin
# posted by BadTux : 20/9/05 8:40 PM

From http://nws.noaa.gov:

000
WTNT33 KNHC 210832
TCPAT3
BULLETIN
HURRICANE RITA ADVISORY NUMBER 15
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
5 AM EDT WED SEP 21 2005

...MAJOR CATEGORY THREE RITA MOVING INTO THE SOUTHEASTERN GULF OF
MEXICO AND CONTINUING TO STRENGTHEN...

(translation: Oh shit, here we go again)

AT 5 AM EDT...0900Z...THE TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR PORTIONS OF THE
FLORIDA KEYS IS DISCONTINUED EAST OF THE MARQUESAS KEYS...INCLUDING
KEY WEST. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE
FLORIDA KEYS FROM THE MARQUESAS KEYS WESTWARD TO THE DRY TORTUGAS.

(everybody ok over there?)

INTERESTS IN THE NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO SHOULD MONITOR THE
PROGRESS OF RITA.

(Y'al in Galveston need to read that first sentence twice. Then run. Everyone else, I suggest you buy new shoes.)

-details snipped-

The implications of this are, that alongside more pain and suffering for anyone who can't get out of the way, (or who is desperately hanging on to that "we make our own reality" thing), Rita is warming up to hit our remaining major petroleum assets in the Gulf. The island of Cuba (just as during most of the hurricanes) got a nice set of Cat One/Cat Two love taps along its whole length. Anybody remember what GITMO's architecture is? Okay, that was a rhetorical question. This one isn't: anybody hear anything about the prisoners being moved to shelters? Or anything about them at all?

Even though NO and the rest of the hardest-hit of the gulf isn't within the storm track, you can bet they have more flooding on the way, which means more of that poisonous crap in the water there will be diluted. Which really means it's going to be washed further out to sea, inland, and everywhere to hell and gone. I can't remember how to spell the name of the lake (Ponchetraine?), but that won't matter much longer, because very soon there won't be a single living thing inside it.

This is what is called a "clean sweep." Thinking about this, I suspect that the protest this Saturday/Sunday is NOT going to be very well received by the powers-that-be, who are going to be in possession of some very jittery wallets, and very few things are less tolerant than old white guys who are worried about their money, and secondarily, the poll numbers of the politicians they've bought.

Cindy Sheehan's speech got the bum-rush from the NYPD. I'm wondering why that particular moment was chosen to grab Zool, and whether it was meant to be a psychological softening-up punch for a similar move by the MPD this weekend.

Heh, I'll stop ranting now. Thank you for the link. :)
# posted by StealthBadger : 21/9/05 2:12 AM

Someone wake me when this is all over.

BTW, Badtux: I added you to my blogroll. I can't resist a snarky penguin.
# posted by Lab Kat : 21/9/05 8:12 AM

Yea, I am doing one crazy ass anti-hurricane dance right now!
Seems we can't get away from those things this year.

Hopefully it will hit low and leave us alone.
# posted by Ole Blue The Heretic : 21/9/05 8:58 AM

Honor Roll

Technorati embed?

Liberated Iraqis

Children celebrate liberation of parents
More pics of children celebrating
Liberated baby
Liberated women and children
More liberation, yessiree
More to follow, after I finish cursing SOB chickenhawks and get my breath back...

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce." -- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-- Plato

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