Title: Mcgowanjm Wire 2012 Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Feb 26, 2012 Author:Various Post Date:2012-02-26 09:15:13 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:1374125 Comments:2390
At 1:00 AM EDT, maximum sustained winds had decreased to 70 mph (110 km/h) and Katrina was again downgraded to a tropical storm. At 5:00 AM EDT, the eye of Hurricane Katrina was located just offshore of southwestern Florida over the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles (80 km) north-northeast of Key West, Florida. Maximum sustained winds had again increased to 75 mph (121 km/h) and Katrina was upgraded again to a Category 1 hurricane.
By 8:00 AM CDT (1300 UTC), in New Orleans, water was seen rising on both sides of the Industrial Canal. At approximately 8:14 AM CDT (1314 UTC), the New Orleans office of the National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Warning for Orleans Parish and St Bernard Parish, citing a levee breach at the Industrial Canal. The National Weather Service predicted three to eight feet of water and advised people in the warning area to "move to higher ground immediately."[14] By 9:00 AM CDT (2100 UTC), there was 6–8 feet of water in the Lower Ninth Ward.[15][16]
Many of the new ground based wind measurements were published on the New Orleans National Weather Service web site on Friday, October 7, in their post-storm report on Katrina. The highest sustained winds measured at any ground-based site were 90 mph on Lake Pontchartrain. The highest gust measured on the ground was 135 mph in Poplarville, MS. Many wind measurement sites failed during the storm, so we will have to rely on aircraft and Doppler radar to arrive at the true wind speeds of Katrina at landfall.
Here's a few highlights of the highest winds measured at the ground during Katrina, before instrument failure:
New Orleans Lakefront Airport: sustained winds of 69 mph, gusting to 86 mph.
Biloxi's Keesler Air Force Base: sustained winds of 54 mph, gusting to 90 mph.
Gulfport airport: 46 mph, gusting to 58 mph.
Lake Ponchartrain mid-lake buoy: 90 mph, gusting to 114 mph.
Many of us heard that Category 5 winds were measured by the National Weather Service in Katrina. These rumors were aired as fact by television stations and other media outlets during the storm. However, as the post-storm report above outlines, these were just rumors, and no such winds were measured. If you listened to NPR last night, you also might have heard the story of how television stations in Baton Rouge were reporting a huge crime wave in Baton Rouge after the hurricane, and that an armed gang had even taken over the Mayor's office. These reports, later found out to be completely untrue, led to four-hour waits to buy guns at local gun stores in Baton Rouge. According to NPR, there was no increase in crime in Baton Rouge after the hurricane. The media, at times, did a poor job in separting fact from fiction during the storm, and there were in reality no sustatined winds above Category 1 measured on the ground during Katrina. Obviously, a demotion of Katrina to Category 3 status would have political consequences.
