Hey, New Orleans!

[digitS']

National Hurricane Center, @Ridgerunner :

As hazardous conditions arrive along the Gulf Coast today with #Barry, get information on local weather and impacts from

• @NWSNewOrleans

Steve

 

[baymule]

@Ridgerunner are you out of the flood zone? Have y’all evacuated or are you staying put? Hope you have a good stock of supplies and hunker down!

 

[Ridgerunner]

We are fine. Our grandson had his tonsils and adenoids out yesterday and had a reaction overnight so we are watching his big sister this morning while his parents take him to the doctor. Life goes on.

I don't want to downplay this storm. People are going to lose property and be greatly inconvenienced. Hopefully no one will be seriously hurt but rescues are already underway and it hasn't even hit land yet. There have been power outages, there will be a lot more. How much can I praise the first responders and other law enforcement and other response personnel risking their lives to take care of us. The center of Barry is now supposed to hit land around noon, though this one has been unpredictable. It did not form in a normal way, instead of a system coming in from the east and developing, Barry is from a low that was over the land to the north that moved over the warm Gulf waters. There has been some dry air to the north that has affected its development, it's never really gotten organized the way a typical tropical storm does. Barry has been giving the computer models fits.

Barry will have strong enough winds to cause power outages but it's really not a wind event. The storm surge is already cutting off some roads but these are roads that often get cut off in storms, nothing really unexpected. Barry is going to be a rain event, especially if it doesn't speed up instead of slowing down even more. It's hitting far enough west of me that Baton Rouge (where one son is)
will get more rain that we will here in New Orleans. You should still see scenes of flooding of the New Orleans area on TV.

I'll see a lot of rain. Exactly how much is unpredictable, some areas get a lot more more than others, it just depends on how the local rains sets up. I'm not worried about my house or cars flooding. I'll probably see sustained wind speeds of around 30 MPH with gusts close to 60. Many of you have thunderstorms worse than that. I saw a projected power outage map this morning, I'm in a possible but not likely area. I have a generator and some gas if I need it. We have extra food and water. There is ice in the freezer, that can be valuable.

I appreciate your concerns but I'm not in a high risk area at all. Now, the people to the west of me, some of them will need your prayers.

 

[pjn]

We are fine. Our grandson had his tonsils and adenoids out yesterday and had a reaction overnight so we are watching his big sister this morning while his parents take him to the doctor. Life goes on.

I don't want to downplay this storm. People are going to lose property and be greatly inconvenienced. Hopefully no one will be seriously hurt but rescues are already underway and it hasn't even hit land yet. There have been power outages, there will be a lot more. How much can I praise the first responders and other law enforcement and other response personnel risking their lives to take care of us. The center of Barry is now supposed to hit land around noon, though this one has been unpredictable. It did not form in a normal way, instead of a system coming in from the east and developing, Barry is from a low that was over the land to the north that moved over the warm Gulf waters. There has been some dry air to the north that has affected its development, it's never really gotten organized the way a typical tropical storm does. Barry has been giving the computer models fits.

Barry will have strong enough winds to cause power outages but it's really not a wind event. The storm surge is already cutting off some roads but these are roads that often get cut off in storms, nothing really unexpected. Barry is going to be a rain event, especially if it doesn't speed up instead of slowing down even more. It's hitting far enough west of me that Baton Rouge (where one son is)
will get more rain that we will here in New Orleans. You should still see scenes of flooding of the New Orleans area on TV.

I'll see a lot of rain. Exactly how much is unpredictable, some areas get a lot more more than others, it just depends on how the local rains sets up. I'm not worried about my house or cars flooding. I'll probably see sustained wind speeds of around 30 MPH with gusts close to 60. Many of you have thunderstorms worse than that. I saw a projected power outage map this morning, I'm in a possible but not likely area. I have a generator and some gas if I need it. We have extra food and water. There is ice in the freezer, that can be valuable.

I appreciate your concerns but I'm not in a high risk area at all. Now, the people to the west of me, some of them will need your prayers.

Thank you for letting us know how you are doing. Stay safe

 

[baymule]

Mississippi and Alabama and east Louisiana are on the dirty side. It is not a strong storm, but it is bringing a lot of rain.

 

[flowerbug]

we are hoping for bits of rain next week from this. looks like most people will be ok but i'm always sad/sorry for those who are lost or suffer damages.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I haven't checked the news this morning to see how its going for others, waiting on people to wake up, but it has been pretty much a non-event for me so far, for which I'm grateful. We had a couple of tornado watches as a band of weather came through but nothing came of that. I have had rain but not enough to cause damage here. No damage from wind, power has not gone out for me. So I'm OK. I still should get rain for another day or so, potentially locally heavy, but the worst has passed for me, at least it should have.

Mississippi and Alabama and east Louisiana are on the dirty side. It is not a strong storm, but it is bringing a lot of rain.

This one did not take the classical shape with the northeast quadrant being the nasty one, Bay. The center was on shore before the rains hit. The rain stayed south of it, but yeah,there is a lot of rain. It was weird. The thing was onshore and it was still a pleasant day here. With normal tropical systems you'd think it was over, but with this one then the rains hit.

One thing that made this one dangerous is that our rivers are at record high levels for this time of the year. Usually by hurricane season the river spring high levels are over and the rivers are at normal levels. Not this year. All the rain some of you have seen is coming down the river, snow melt too. These storms rotate counter-clockwise. If you are on the wrong side at a bad angle the winds are pushing the Gulf waters to block the river's mouth, which causes water to back up in the river. When I went to bed last night, two levees had over-topped because of that. One on the Mississippi south of me and one further west, I assume on the Atchafalaya, though they never said which river that was. For a while they were really worried as far up as New Orleans, but Barry veered to the west and did not strengthen as much as it could have. A few miles further east and it could have been worse for many people. Still, others are suffering the effects from where it actually went.

 

[digitS']

Here is a link to the Mississippi RiverWatch.

The map has a lot of information on it. It will take time to load, zoom, move. Square icons have more information if clicked.

I looked at the flood gauge at Lafayette, LA. What is surprising is how quickly the flood stage was hit and surpassed from yesterday to today.

There are lots of communities endangered as this storm moves north.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

Communities just east of Cape Girardeau, MO, on the eastern side of the Mississippi river, have been in flood stage for over 3 months. In East Cape, they have been sandbagging and pumping water out for weeks and weeks. Main road east and north are closed. The National Guard has been there helping but I think they have been replaced by other volunteers by now.
I cannot imagine having to live with this day in and day out, no AC, no electricity, surrounded by stinky water.

 

[baymule]

We got a few sprinkles, not enough to even settle the top layer of dust. I was hoping that it would veer to the west, oh well. I am running the water sprinkler on the Bermuda grass I planted. That reminds me-I gotta turn it off, will resume watering in the morning.