The Inquisitr » hurricane

Hurricane Jimena Expected To Strengthen As It Bears Down On Baja California

AHN — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:32:58 +0000

Miami, FL (AHN) – Hurricane Jimena is expected to strengthen as it bears down on Baja, California, National Hurricane Center forecasters said Sunday.

Jimena is currently a category 4 hurricane and could strengthen to a category 5 storm over the next day.

The hurricane was centered about 515 miles south-southeast of Baja Sunday morning moving at speeds of 9 mph, forecasters said.

Jimena is the 10th named storm of the Pacific Ocean hurricane season and is expected to reach the tip of Baja sometime Tuesday.

Katrina and the continuing tragedy

Steven Hodson — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:39:23 +0000

Hurricane Katrina is now five years into our past and yet the cost in terms of being a social disaster and human tragedy continues on through until today and shows no sign of changing. While the hurricane itself was a brief show of strength by Mother Nature the cost in terms of lost human dignity is still climbing. In the months immediately following the hurricane the relief efforts were fraught with scandal and some of the worst examples of greed one could imagine.

Granted some of that greed and abuse happened on both sides, those needing help and those providing that help, but that won’t change how history looks upon how we treated the survivors of one of the deadliest hurricanes in US history. Now though is it only a faded memory of powerful images that flashed across our screen. Yet there are still people, mostly the very poor, who are being victimized day after day even now.

Stories of contractors who either did shoddy below standards work or just left once they had the money, to FEMA official who say one thing to the press and something totally different to the affected people are told to whoever will listen. Most of the time though it seems that no-one wants to hear because nothing changes, except maybe for the worse

Once more this horrendous treatment of Katrina survivors gets front page press not because of changes being made but because they are once more being victimized by the very agency tasked with helping them. As of the end of May FEMA will be taking back the trailers provided to survivors following Katrina, following many delays mind you. For the 3,000 people currently living in these trailers they are the only home that they have, or will have. In turn FEMA will be either selling off the trailers for a fraction of what they are worth or – scrapping them.

Of those in trailers, more than 2,000 are homeowners who fear that the progress they are making in rebuilding will come to a halt if their trailers are taken.

“They had helped me out up until this point, and I couldn’t believe that they suddenly decided, no, we’re not going to let you finish the house, we’re just going to take the trailer, and you can sit here on an empty lot,” said Philipp Seelig, 70, a retired handyman. He said he was about two months from being able to move back into his duplex in the Broadmoor neighborhood. A grant to elevate his house to the required height did not come until December.

Source: Shaila Dewan – New York Times

As we head into another hurricane season I can only hope that we don’t see a repeat of that deadliest season but given the continuing tragedy that is the Katrina aftermath I don’t hold out much hope.

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Riding out Hurricane Ike…in a boat

Duncan Riley — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:56:26 +0000

There’s brave, then there’s riding out a Hurricane in a boat and recording the experience on video, and that’s exactly what the above video documents.

The decision making process though from an economic perspective though is simple: you’ve got a better chance of your boat surviving a hurricane at sea than your boat has moored in a marina, however that’s excluding the cost of your life in the equation

The 113 feet (34.5m) former research vessel Odyssey chose a spot in Galveston Bay, executed a 3-point anchor maneuver, laid out plenty of chain, then rode out the storm.

More footage in the video below. Warning, both videos may cause feelings of sea sickness.

No related posts.

Tracking Gustav: Storm Scammers Hit the Net

JR — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:00:30 +0000

Gustav may still be going strong, but scammers are already making their move to take advantage of families suffering from the storm.

Louisiana’s attorney general office is monitoring more than a hundred domain names registered in the past day related to the storm, most containing words such as “charity” and “relief.” While some may be legit, many are feared to be fake fronts for crooks to steal kind-hearted people’s credit card and bank account information, then use it for their own selfish purposes. Some are even looking ahead with names related to Hanna, the next storm about to hit the U.S. coast. Several of the domains are results of squatters looking to churn out some cash from the storms and are already up for sale on eBay or Sedo.

Phishers have also started sending out e-mails to families along the Gulf Coast that ask for their bank information to “confirm” it in the storm’s wake. These same sorts of attacks all popped up in the days surrounding Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

If you’re interested in contacting a legit charity working to help families displaced by Hurricane Gustav, check out the list below. You can also find everything from live cameras and storm tracking tools to Web services devoted to helping find loved ones at our Online Storm Resource Center.

Legitimate Gustav Charities:

UPDATE*** For the latest storm stream, see Hurricane Ike Live.

Tracking Gustav: Online Storm Resource Center

JR — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:04:25 +0000

As Hurricane Gustav makes its move over land, there are numerous ways for you to track the storm and connect with loved ones over the Internet.

Cameras: Many of the live resources and cameras are starting to disappear. The Weather Channel has a decent array of functioning cameras still running. You can also find some streaming images courtesy of the folks at Gannett Louisiana/Gannett News. Their six feeds are slow-moving at the moment and are hit and miss, but I’m seeing a camera up on at least one this minute. Louisiana’s Department of Transportation is currently posting regular snapshots from its traffic cams as well.

Maps: The meteorologists themselves get their information from this site, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center. The Center posts updates every three hours, at 8:00, 11:00, 2:00, and 5:00 ET (repeating in an a.m.-p.m. cycle). The most significant of those updates are typically the 11:00 and 5:00 ones. You can see their latest forecasts, three- and five-day tracks, and live satellite images of Gustav and the other storms at sea — including Hanna, currently looking to make landfall somewhere near the Georgia-South Carolina border over the weekend. This is the same information the people on TV use to make their maps and deliver their forecasts.
Up-to-the-minute storm info: Louisiana has set up an emergency Web site with the latest headlines and information.
Finding people: If you know anyone in the area, the Red Cross’s Safe and Well program may be able to give you an update on their location or status. It lets families register their information by home address and phone number once they’re okay so friends and relatives can find them. There is also a similar phone-based service set up by the Red Cross. You can dial 443-992-4890 to search for messages from loved ones.
Finding people: FEMA also has a National Emergency Family Registry and Locator System, accessible here. The same information is also available via voice at 1-866-288-2484.
Finding people: If you need to track down someone in a shelter, the Red Cross’s shelter hotline is 1-800-733-2767. Alabama has a specific shelter information line at 1-800-206-0816 and Mississippi’s is 1-866-472-8265.
Reaching people: Major mobile providers suggest using text messages to try to contact people in the area rather than calling their cell phones, as that places less burden on the sure to be already overloaded networks. Try using a free Web-based service, such as the internationally accessible GizmoSMS.
Reaching people: AT&T is offering some of its pre-paid GoPhone devices to evacuees. They are available in Houston and San Antonio stores now and more are being shipped in tonight for families seeking shelter in that area.
Evacuation 2.0: Want to read how the blogosphere and specifically Twitter have changed the face of this storm evacuation? Check out this article from the Chicago Tribune.

UPDATE*** For the latest storm stream, see Hurricane Ike Live.