Hurrican Rita on track to Crawford

[Sigma]

I've made it to my parents

hospital, and I feel better off here than most people right now....shatter proof windows on the third floor, back up

generators, a broadband connection, and a cafeteria downstairs. Not too shabby if I don't say so myself.

The

streets were eeriely quiet on the way here. It wasn't completely empty, but I-10 east, which is usually jammed

with traffic all day on Fridays, was clear enough to pull a 120 mph stunt on the way over here. Westbound was clear

as well. I think everyone that had any intention of evacuating has made their way out of Houston, and are stuck in

traffic on the outskirts if at all.

Still worried bout my dog though.

[Mtnjim]

And as

usual, keep a pound of salt handy:
" National Emergency imminent!

Relevant URLs are at the bottom of this

posting, along with an
outline of the immense powers FEMA will be exercising when the
national emergency is

declared.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the
Office of Emergency Planning and

gives authorization to put
all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased
international tensions

and economic or financial crisis.

Rita is now heading for America's densest concentration of oil
rigs and

refineries off the Texas coast, and in particular
directly for the huge refinery complex at Port Arthur. Not

the
eye of the hurricane mind you, but even worse: the
north-eastern edge of the hurricane, where the strongest

winds
occur. As a result of Rita, which will hit late today (Friday)
or early Saturday, we are likely to lose not

only many of the
refineries, but also critical pipelines to the North East, and
many rigs that produce oil and

natural gas. Of particular
importance, we are likely to lose nearly all of our refineries
that produce diesel

fuel, and most that produce heating oil.
With Katrina we lost rigs and, perhaps more important, there
was

significant damage to Louisiana ports, where most imported
petroleum is brought into the U.S.

Not only will

gasoline prices soar, but we'll be critically
short of diesel fuel for truck transport and grain harvesting
-

leading to a major food supply and distribution crisis. Lack
of heating oil and natural gas will cause havoc when

winter
comes. With imports made more difficult by the damage in
Louisiana, it will be difficult and expensive to

supplement
our crude supplies with imports, regardless of how much the
Saudis increase their production. And even

if we can increase
imports, we'll be drastically short of refinery capacity.
Furthermore, our meager emergency

reserves of refined
petroleum were tapped in the wake of Katrina, so there are no
more of those available.

All

of this appears now to be completely unavoidable.
Understandably, the media is focusing mostly on the threat

to
Houston and Galveston, and the mass exodus of residents. But
in terms of national significance, the threat to

our fuel
supplies is far more important than the local devastation,
formidable as that may be.

Regardless of

any pre-arranged agendas that may exist, we can
expect a national emergency to be declared very soon, as that
is

what we are indeed facing. The emphasis at first may be on
the massive refugee problem, as millions from Texas join

the
hundreds of thousands from New Orleans who must find
accommodations elsewhere. There are also hundreds of

thousands
who have been unable to leave the Texas coastal areas - many
of these stranded on freeways in blistering

heat - and this
will require massive relief efforts. The fuel crisis will also
hit the headlines shortly after

Rita passes as well, turning
the situation into a perceived national emergency very
quickly.

This will be a

multi-faceted emergency, drastically affecting our
whole society, our fuel, our food, and our economy.

I

strongly urge everyone, wherever you are, to immediately
stock up on non-perishable food, and whatever else you

think
you'll be needing, before the rush which will begin next week,
and before price gouging and the FEMA

takeover begin.

good luck,
rkm


Relevant URLs.

re/ Rita &

Oil:
http://rense.com/general67/rita.htm
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-energy22sep22,0,134

9813.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/21/news/economy/rita_threat/index.htm[/ur

l]
[url]http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/092105_rita_storm.shtml
http://www.cyberjournal.org/c

j/show_archives/?id=593&lists=newslog

re/ FEMA:
http://rense.com/general67/femmsec.htm

FEMA

powers:

1. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over
all modes of transportation and control of

highways and
seaports.

2. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and
control the communication

media.

3. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over
all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels

and minerals.

4. EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to take over
all food resources and farms.

5.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize
civilians into work brigades under government

supervision.

6. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over
all health, education and welfare

functions.

7. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the Postmaster General to
operate a national registration of all

persons.

8. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to take over
all airports and aircraft, including

commercial aircraft.

9. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance
Authority to relocate communities,

build new housing with
public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish
new locations for

populations.

10. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 allows the government to take over
railroads, inland waterways and public

storage facilities.

11. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the
Office of Emergency Planning

and gives authorization to put
all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased
international tensions and

economic or financial crisis.

12. EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department
of Justice to enforce

the plans set out in Executive Orders,
to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and
legislative

liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal
and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist

the
President."

[Netghost56]

Looks like I may be taking a

hiatus from the board for a few days:


Watches and Warnings

Texarkana Forecast (http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USAR0543.html)



MILLER-CADDO-BOSSIER-WEBSTER-CLAIBORNE-LINCOLN-UNION LA-DE SOTO-
RED

RIVER-BIENVILLE-JACKSON-OUACHITA-SABINE LA-NATCHITOCHES-WINN-
GRANT-CALDWELL-LA

SALLE-BOWIE-FRANKLIN-TITUS-CAMP-MORRIS-CASS-
WOOD-UPSHUR-MARION-SMITH-GREGG-HARRISON-CHEROKEE-RUSK-PANOLA-
NACOGDO

CHES-SHELBY-ANGELINA-SAN AUGUSTINE-SABINE TX-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...TEXARKANA...SHREVEPORT...BOSSIER

CITY...
MINDEN...HOMER...RUSTON...FARMERVILLE...MANSFIELD. ..COUSHATTA...
BIENVILLE...JONESBORO...MONROE...MANY...N

ATCHITOCHES...
WINNFIELD...COLFAX...COLUMBIA...JENA...CLARKSVILLE ...MT VERNON...
MT

PLEASANT...PITTSBURG...DAINGERFIELD...ATLANTA...QU ITMAN...
GILMER...JEFFERSON...TYLER...LONGVIEW...MARSHALL.. .RUSK.

..
HENDERSON...CARTHAGE...NACOGDOCHES...CENTER...LUFK IN...
SAN AUGUSTINE...HEMPHILL
423 PM CDT FRI SEP 23

2005

...FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT UNTIL SATURDAY AFTERNOON...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SHREVEPORT HAS

ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR NORTHWEST LOUISIANA...NORTH CENTRAL
LOUISIANA...NORTHEAST TEXAS...EAST

TEXAS...AND SOUTHWEST
ARKANSAS...ALONG AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM NEAR CLARKSVILLE
TEXAS...TO FARMERVILLE

LOUISIANA

* UNTIL 4 PM SATURDAY AFTERNOON

* HURRICANE RITA IS EXPECTED TO MOVE INLAND SATURDAY MORNING NEAR


PORT ARTHUR TEXAS. HURRICANE RITA WILL PRODUCE HEAVY RAINFALL AS
IT MOVES INLAND LATE TONIGHT...THROUGH SATURDAY

NIGHT. THE
REMNANTS OF RITA WILL MOVE NORTHWEST AND NORTH TONIGHT AND
SATURDAY...BRINGING HEAVY RAINFALL TO

EAST AND NORTHEAST
TEXAS...AND PARTS OF NORTHWEST LOUISIANA...BEGINNING LATE
TONIGHT AND CONTINUING

SATURDAY.

* THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS FLASH FLOOD SITUATION. RAINFALL AMOUNTS
FROM HURRICANE RITA WILL

GENERALLY BE 6 TO 12 INCHES OVER
NORTHEAST AND EAST TEXAS...AND 4 TO 8 INCHES OVER NORTHWEST
LOUISIANA...WITH

LOWER AMOUNTS OVER NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA.
ISOLATED AMOUNTS IN EAST AND NORTHEAST TEXAS MAY APPROACH 20


INCHES...BY THE TIME THE STORM ENDS SUNDAY OR MONDAY.

A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS MAY DEVELOP THAT

LEAD
TO FLASH FLOODING. FLASH FLOODING IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION.

YOU SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE

PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION
SHOULD FLASH FLOOD WARNINGS BE ISSUED.

They're finally starting to get prepared up

here. Several gas stations have gone empty, long lines in town, there's a rush at Walmart.
We drew up about 20

gallons of water, some for drinking and the rest for other. I'll use what rainwater I catch to keep the chickens

going, gotta go take the fiberglass panels off the roof of the pen before they blow away. It's already a little

breezy, much nicer than the stagnant heat we've been having.

We can see the cloud bands outside right now. It's

cool but very eerie. I did what my aunt did- take pictures of all our furniture and my computer stuff ( :thumbsup: )

for insurance reasons . Our house is raised on blocks and it's all wood so I'm not too sure it can handle a steady

50mph wind with 80mph gusts.

I've decided to pack up my best clothes and family photos and take them over to my

grandmothers, since she lives in a cinderblock house. We may end up staying over there if it gets too bad.

[NaughtieGirl]

Netghost, I don't know

exactly where you are, but my thoughts are with you. Keep us posted as long as you have power? Then again (speaking

from experience from this neck of the woods) a power outage is more than likely, and not necessarily a reason for

concern. I know exactly what you mean about the trees though.

You sound like you really know what you're

doing. I almost wrote "and I have the fullest confidence you'll be fine" but that is presumptuous.

I don't

know if I wrote this before or if I thought of posting it and didn't get around to it: I know who I would want to

be with in a disaster situation!

Are the chickens finally laying yet? If not - Just eat them! Now's a good

time!

[koolking1]

NetGhost, good luck -

you may need it - predicting 2 feet of water up your way

[Netghost56]

2 feet of water is almost

worth it- our pond has lost almost 20 feet with this drought we've had.

No the chickens aren't laying yet- we

butchered 4 Tues and 4 Weds. We've been eating chicken for months :lol: Got probably 40 pounds in the freezer, and

I moved this grill I modified over to my grandmother's backporch today. I took a cheap grill and chopped the legs

off, and added a table on the side. We'll be able to use it when the power's out. Bought a bag of charcoal.



Naughtie: Thanks. You wouldn't believe that I'm 23, do you?

I'm in SW Arkansas, in the east center of the

"notch". I'm 45 miles northnortheast of Texarkana.

Talk about the good Lord providing- I went to the dump today

and found 2 pairs of dirty but intact chainsaw chaps, and an 8 foot retractable umbrella with a bent rod. They will

be a great help.

I've been out snapping photos- we've been getting some incredible cloud formations- you can

actually see bands of the hurricane. This one band filled the sky, it started out yellow and by the time it was on

the horizon with the sun, it was unbelieveably a deep fuschia. I also saw a B52 bomber flying north, out of

Barksdale AFB in Shreveport for sure. Didn't have the camera though.

The weather outside is very pleasant

right now, but like my grandmother says- the calm before the storm.

There's talk of tornadoes, but there's no

way to protect against them, so that's the only fear. We're high and dry for floods, being on hills. My driveway

will flood and might cut us off, but we'll be parking the vehicles on the northern hills, which is near the

highway.

I think we have about 20 gallons of water, and I have enough buckets set up to catch 42 gallons of

rainwater. That should give us a week.

I wonder about my friend in Texarkana, I might call him later and see

what he's doing. He'll probably leave and come down here to his parents for the weekend, which he does often.



Oh and we also have 7 gallons of gasoline in containers, since there's hardly any left in town.

[Sigma]

2 feet of water

is almost worth it- our pond has lost almost 20 feet with this drought we've had.

No the chickens aren't

laying yet- we butchered 4 Tues and 4 Weds. We've been eating chicken for months :lol: Got probably 40 pounds in

the freezer, and I moved this grill I modified over to my grandmother's backporch today. I took a cheap grill and

chopped the legs off, and added a table on the side. We'll be able to use it when the power's out. Bought a bag of

charcoal.

Naughtie: Thanks. You wouldn't believe that I'm 23, do you?

I'm in SW Arkansas, in the east

center of the "notch". I'm 45 miles northnortheast of Texarkana.

Talk about the good Lord providing- I went to

the dump today and found 2 pairs of dirty but intact chainsaw chaps, and an 8 foot retractable umbrella with a bent

rod. They will be a great help.

I've been out snapping photos- we've been getting some incredible cloud

formations- you can actually see bands of the hurricane. This one band filled the sky, it started out yellow and by

the time it was on the horizon with the sun, it was unbelieveably a deep fuschia. I also saw a B52 bomber flying

north, out of Barksdale AFB in Shreveport for sure. Didn't have the camera though.

The weather outside is very

pleasant right now, but like my grandmother says- the calm before the storm.

There's talk of tornadoes, but

there's no way to protect against them, so that's the only fear. We're high and dry for floods, being on hills.

My driveway will flood and might cut us off, but we'll be parking the vehicles on the northern hills, which is near

the highway.

I think we have about 20 gallons of water, and I have enough buckets set up to catch 42 gallons of

rainwater. That should give us a week.

I wonder about my friend in Texarkana, I might call him later and see

what he's doing. He'll probably leave and come down here to his parents for the weekend, which he does often.



Oh and we also have 7 gallons of gasoline in containers, since there's hardly any left in town.

Wow.

Well good luck anyway man. I sure got lucky, since I live on the west end of town and Rita made a last minute shift

eastward while downgrading the a category 3. Damage to our area was no worse than a bad thunderstorm. A few broken

limbs and leaves everywhere, but everything else seems fine.

I'm sitting at home right now. Electricity

running, water running, and my dog, who got picked up by my uncle yesterday, is doing fine. So yeah I feel blessed.



I just had an unexpected vacation from work and school. sweet.

[NaughtieGirl]

Hi Netghost,


Your

last post was on 9/23 and it's now 9/25 so I'm assuming you did lose power. Aren't you glad it's not winter yet!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

[Netghost56]

No, we didn't lose power, I

just took advantage of the weather to get alot of things done outside. I was so tired yesterday I went straight to

bed and slept til 11 today.

To tell you the truth, I was kinda disappointed. We did get rain- it started about 1

pm yesterday and kept up steadily until after midnight- however we only got a few inches. I was out most of today

picking up small limbs and light debris. We got some pretty strong gust (up to 30 mph) in the afternoon, and

apparently some at night. Suprisingly, no trees down here, and it doesn't look like any in the area at all. I was

hoping for a few trees to fall so I could get a jumpstart on firewood, but no luck.
I'll be heading into town

tomorrow for feed, so I'll look around. Texarkana and Shreveport got the brunt of it. They showed lots of trees

down but very little flooding. We've just been so dry here for so long that all the rivers and lakes are too low to

flood.

On the up side I did fill up all my rainwater buckets- got enough to bathe in- so when it dries up again

I won't run up a water bill at my grandmother's.

We'll be going to Texarkana Tues for groceries and meds, so

I'll check out the damage there. In the end it's gonna be the gas that causes us the most grief. I don't know

what the current price is in town, but after the weekend its probably scarce here and everywhere.

[Sigma]

No, we didn't

lose power, I just took advantage of the weather to get alot of things done outside. I was so tired yesterday I went

straight to bed and slept til 11 today.

To tell you the truth, I was kinda disappointed. We did get rain- it

started about 1 pm yesterday and kept up steadily until after midnight- however we only got a few inches. I was out

most of today picking up small limbs and light debris. We got some pretty strong gust (up to 30 mph) in the

afternoon, and apparently some at night. Suprisingly, no trees down here, and it doesn't look like any in the area

at all. I was hoping for a few trees to fall so I could get a jumpstart on firewood, but no luck.
I'll be heading

into town tomorrow for feed, so I'll look around. Texarkana and Shreveport got the brunt of it. They showed lots of

trees down but very little flooding. We've just been so dry here for so long that all the rivers and lakes are too

low to flood.

On the up side I did fill up all my rainwater buckets- got enough to bathe in- so when it dries

up again I won't run up a water bill at my grandmother's.

We'll be going to Texarkana Tues for groceries and

meds, so I'll check out the damage there. In the end it's gonna be the gas that causes us the most grief. I don't

know what the current price is in town, but after the weekend its probably scarce here and everywhere.



Glad you're ok man.

The part of the Houston Area that was adversely affected was the eastern portion, and

that's primarily where all the oil refineries and chemical plants reside...not to mention the oil rigs and what not

that got taken out in the gulf. Gas prices are going to soar.

I'm fine with paying an extra 30 bucks for gas a

week. It sucks, but what else can you do right?..just gotta tighten the budget a bit.

What worries me about

gas prices though, and this was a topic that was brought up at a risk management society luncheon i was at earlier

this week, is how the effects of high gas prices trickles down the economy and adversely affects everyone else.

Sharp increases in the price of gas (doubling in less than a month) means increases in the cost of shipping

inventory and raw materials. That translates down the line into increases in prices of various products at the

retail level, or forces companies to look to other means to make up the revenue lost to increase shipping/production

costs. If that means a company has to lay off workers (in extreme cases), or downsize products, thats how its going

to go down.

We also have a potential increase in insurance rates, which admittedly was expected to be much worse

when Rita was headed towards the heart of downtown houston. A lot of insurance companies were forced to dump their

reserves to cover the damages their clients recieved in Katrina, and now whatever comes from Rita. Increased

insurance expenses could trickle its way down the economy as well.

Those are the projections anyway. We won't

know how badly this hurricane will affect things until we have a better idea of how much damage was done out here,

and how long itll take to recover.

[Netghost56]

Well, I said after Katrina

that the effects will spread like wildfire all over the country, and that it could signal a change in the way things

are run. But the fact is that everyone will be affected. In one way or another.

[Sigma]

Well, I said

after Katrina that the effects will spread like wildfire all over the country, and that it could signal a change in

the way things are run. But the fact is that everyone will be affected. In one way or another.



Definately. While I don't think the effects will be permanent (these things can be rebuilt afterall) it will,

like you said, affect everyone.

[DrSmellThis]

I'm happy all of you are OK!

Hope the rest of hurricane season is reasonably kind to us.

[Sigma]

I'm happy all

of you are OK! Hope the rest of hurricane season is reasonably kind to us.

Only two more months. What

are the odds that two major hurricanes will find their way to the gulf. *knock on wood.

[Netghost56]

I got my pictures in today. I

put this one together, it's 2048x600, so it might take a while for you to load:



http://img101.imagevenue.com/loc7

6/th_519_hurricane.jpg (http://img101.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc76&image=519_hurricane.jpg)

I didn't quite capture the grandure of the actual scene, but you can kinda

make out the bands. The upper band went from the west to the north, all the way across my horizon. It would've

taken 5 pictures to cover the whole thing! I haven't seen any hurricane pictures, so I can't compare.