Hurricane Ida

[jollystomper]

Does anyone understand what "feeds" a storm like Ida so that it is still so destructive after crossing such a long distance? I sort of understand the energy source over warm oceans, but what about "dry" land? What allows a storm to remain so destructive? I know that the moisture is drawn up just like any major weather system from either the gulf or the atlantic. But what "powers" the storm itself?

In Ida's case, what I got from the weather channel was that there was another rain front moving east from the midwest across the Ohio Valley, and when the remnants of Ida combined with that front, it intensified the rainfall for the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. I think the combination also slowed down, which t meant more rain for areas since it was not moving as fast.

 

[Popeye]

Does anyone understand what "feeds" a storm like Ida so that it is still so destructive after crossing such a long distance? I sort of understand the energy source over warm oceans, but what about "dry" land? What allows a storm to remain so destructive? I know that the moisture is drawn up just like any major weather system from either the gulf or the atlantic. But what "powers" the storm itself?

On the news they talked about another low pressure system. The Ida remnants merged with it and tapped the energy of it. Many Philly suburbs had rainfall of 7 to 9 inches in less than a day. I think 3 inches is usual for a whole month.

 

[Dtail]

In Ida's case, what I got from the weather channel was that there was another rain front moving east from the midwest across the Ohio Valley, and when the remnants of Ida combined with that front, it intensified the rainfall for the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. I think the combination also slowed down, which t meant more rain for areas since it was not moving as fast.

yup.

 

[Big_Hitter]

the terrible part about hurricanes, IMO since I've been through several, is dealing without power for weeks when it's 90+ and extremely humid

gulf coast weather was probably the main reason we moved to Idaho 10 years ago

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

What I thought was interesting was that only national coverage of what was happening in the NE last night was on The Weather Channel. The other cable channels couldn't/wouldn't stop their incessant political theater shows to cover THE NEWS!

Even TWC wasn't great as there was only one reporter standing next to a single house in NJ. The best they could do was live street/webcams and using videos from social media accounts. Twitter was actually the "go to" source for live/recent videos and updates.

Anyway, my thoughts go out to everyone that has had to deal with this storm...what a mess!

 

[W2R]

Still no power in our suburb, although some parts of the French Quarter and Uptown have power. Oh well! We just have to be patient. I also read that in the neighborhood right next to ours, houses either have no water or else they have a little water with unusably low water pressure. We have no idea whether or not our neighborhood has water.

So, we decided we may have to wait a while. We extended the motel room stay, and the motel staff was very kind and said that if we wanted to leave earlier or later than the date we set, that was fine and there would be no charge for unused days.

Then we found a coin operated washing machine, hidden away in an upstairs back room of the motel. We managed to get our hands on some quarters and finally got our laundry done. Good.

No further information about plans or a schedule for repair of our suburb's infrastructure. It's tough because Grand Isle and Lafitte, probably the two hardest hit communities, are also in our Parish. So, the powers that be have their hands full just saving lives and rescuing people. On the Parish's (=County's) facebook page, residents of our suburb were posting bitter comments to the Parish President and Council. No electricity, no water, no food, no gasoline, no internet, no phones, no nothing. I agree with their frustration! But I also think they are demanding a swift and efficient response that just isn't possible right now. Maybe later.

Conditions are so bad there that many people, like Frank's sister and stepmother, evacuated just in the past day or two after staying for the storm. We are pretty tough but we are glad we didn't stay.

 

[NW-Bound]

Ida has claimed more than 25 deaths due to flooding in NY and New Jersey.

PS. The number of deaths due to Ida remnants is now at least 42.

Flooding in Philadelphia:

 

[folivier]

W2R you're right, staying through the storm can be frightening. But living through the aftermath can be very uncomfortable. In Ascension parish there are many places handing out MREs, ice, water, blue tarps, but gasoline is in such short supply people can't drive to the distribution spots. And Ascension wasn't hit nearly as hard but power is still out in the majority of places. The out of state power workers are sleeping in their trucks since there aren't any hotels available right now. It's truly a mess. My son spent 3 hours getting gas for his car yesterday.

 

[Koolau]

In Ida's case, what I got from the weather channel was that there was another rain front moving east from the midwest across the Ohio Valley, and when the remnants of Ida combined with that front, it intensified the rainfall for the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. I think the combination also slowed down, which t meant more rain for areas since it was not moving as fast.

On the news they talked about another low pressure system. The Ida remnants merged with it and tapped the energy of it. Many Philly suburbs had rainfall of 7 to 9 inches in less than a day. I think 3 inches is usual for a whole month.

Thanks. I sort of suspected this. I guess it's like the "Perfect Storm" scenario. 1 + 1 = 3. Prayers to ALL the folks affected by Ida! This is going to be one for the history books.

 

[Yoheadden]

State trooper passed today in CT after flood waters swept his car away.
So sad.
We lost power from 1 this morning until just after 7 tonight.
Thank goodness for the generator

 

[Amethyst]

What she said. Plus, a big storm like Ida probably carries trillions of gallons of water. Takes a long time for it to unload.

They don't really feed much after hitting land, other than other weather systems in the atmosphere, but the stronger the storm, the further/longer it can go. A slow moving Cat 1 isn't going 7 states, but a fast moving Cat 4 can go further on momentum and atmosphere.

 

[street]

I didn't hear or read much on damage to offshore drilling rigs etc. or refinery damage from high winds. I beleive the issue has been high water issues have been more of a problem for refineries and the absent of power.

 

[mebden]

Update from Hurricane IDA

Hi all we are starting to get some resources back here in Houma, LA we do have pretty stable cell service at least mine is with Sprint/T-Mobile, We have pretty good water pressure now hopefully it stays that way, just got internet back, BUT STILL NO POWER, but using generator and window AC's and lots of fans to keep the house tolerable, and refrigerator running, roof is temporally patched to keep rain out, also some gas stations starting to get gas but really long wait times glad I filled up before storm. So getting a little better by day.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Hi all we are starting to get some resources back here in Houma, LA we do have pretty stable cell service at least mine is with Sprint/T-Mobile, We have pretty good water pressure now hopefully it stays that way, just got internet back, BUT STILL NO POWER, but using generator and window AC's and lots of fans to keep the house tolerable, and refrigerator running, roof is temporally patched to keep rain out, also some gas stations starting to get gas but really long wait times glad I filled up before storm. So getting a little better by day.

+10

 

[Sunset]

Hi all we are starting to get some resources back here in Houma, LA we do have pretty stable cell service at least mine is with Sprint/T-Mobile, We have pretty good water pressure now hopefully it stays that way, just got internet back, BUT STILL NO POWER, but using generator and window AC's and lots of fans to keep the house tolerable, and refrigerator running, roof is temporally patched to keep rain out, also some gas stations starting to get gas but really long wait times glad I filled up before storm. So getting a little better by day.

Good news...

It must be all the new folks living there that didn't think to fill up days ahead of time.

 

[ivinsfan]

Good news...

It must be all the new folks living there that didn't think to fill up days ahead of time.

That's kind of harsh, even W2R almost didn't get gas for her car and she is very storm savvy. Ida came on like a whirlwind.

 

[Sunset]

That's kind of harsh, even W2R almost didn't get gas for her car and she is very storm savvy. Ida came on like a whirlwind.

I was not trying to be harsh.

It does seem there was 2-3 days warning a storm is possible, and we are only talking about buying gas.

I fill my tank a couple of days before the long weekend if I'm at half a tank or less.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ida

"developed into a tropical depression on August 26. The depression organized further and became Tropical Storm Ida later that day near Grand Cayman. Amid favorable conditions, Ida intensified into a hurricane on August 27, just before moving over western Cuba. A day later, the hurricane underwent rapid intensification over the Gulf of Mexico and reached its peak intensity as a strong Category 4 hurricane while approaching the northern Gulf coast. On August 29, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana."

 

[Aerides]

I was not trying to be harsh.

It does seem there was 2-3 days warning a storm is possible, and we are only talking about buying gas.

I fill my tank a couple of days before the long weekend if I'm at half a tank or less.

Sounds easy enough, but nah. Once there is a good chance of a storm, gas stations quickly overflow. You wind up driving around using what little gas you do have trying to find one that has less than a 2 hour wait, and still has gas.

It goes from "eh we'll see if it's gonna be something" to no gas, no bottled water, batten down the hatches, in just a few hours.

Even when it's just a TS, or further days out, as soon as you're in any kind of a cone you'll see gas lines blocking traffic. It's a real commitment to go out and fill up once you know a storm is coming.

 

[Car-Guy]

That's kind of harsh, even W2R almost didn't get gas for her car and she is very storm savvy. Ida came on like a whirlwind.

It's not harsh at all, IMO.... It's just good common sense for anyone that's lived through one or more of these... And there was plenty of time for getting gas, food and water for this storm since the weather forecasters nailed this one several days out. Maybe some folks thought the forecasters were going to be off "again" but they still could have been prepared.


I've been through a bunch of these... As soon as I'd see we were becoming a potential target, I'd gas up and stock up before the panic sets in... Never regretted it and I have always used the gas, water and food and never wasted a dime.

 

[Koolau]

Sounds easy enough, but nah. Once there is a good chance of a storm, gas stations quickly overflow. You wind up driving around using what little gas you do have trying to find one that has less than a 2 hour wait, and still has gas.

It goes from "eh we'll see if it's gonna be something" to no gas, no bottled water, batten down the hatches, in just a few hours.

Even when it's just a TS, or further days out, as soon as you're in any kind of a cone you'll see gas lines blocking traffic. It's a real commitment to go out and fill up once you know a storm is coming.

Reminds me of March 11, 2011. I was sitting in the living room and there was a growing dull roar outside on the street below. I looked out and saw lines of cars from both directions queuing up at the corner gas station. I knew something was afoot so I turned on the TV and saw that the Tōhoku earthquake had just taken place. No tsunami warning had been issued yet and the sirens didn't sound locally until about an hour later IIRC.

BUT the lines at gas stations and stores were amazing. We're hyper sensitive in the Islands because we only have (supposedly) 7 days of food on the Island and we have very little fuel storage capacity. We tend to over-react to weather and natural disasters. Fortunately, DW and I keep stocks of food/water for hurricanes and also keep plenty of gas in the (then) 2 cars.

Oh, and we have no place to "go" except up the mountain side near by. YMMV

 

[W2R]

My post wasn't very nice so I deleted it. Sorry everyone.

 

[MichaelB]

Well said, W2R. Let’s hope both your homes have minimal damage and your neighborhood fully recovered in a few days.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Drone video from Grand Isle. I understand the risks these folks accept, but it still tugs at my heart strings.

W2R, you are in my thoughts and hope you are able to get back home (and some semblance of normalcy) soon.

 

[Car-Guy]

Hi all we are starting to get some resources back here in Houma, LA we do have pretty stable cell service at least mine is with Sprint/T-Mobile, We have pretty good water pressure now hopefully it stays that way, just got internet back, BUT STILL NO POWER, but using generator and window AC's and lots of fans to keep the house tolerable, and refrigerator running, roof is temporally patched to keep rain out, also some gas stations starting to get gas but really long wait times glad I filled up before storm. So getting a little better by day.

Glad to hear it.... I've had to live on generators and window units a number of times too... Not the best situation but certainly a lot better than no power or AC... Hope things continue to get better quickly.

 

[W2R]

Well said, W2R. Let’s hope both your homes have minimal damage and your neighborhood fully recovered in a few days.

Thanks, and thanks to the others here who have posted such caring and respectful posts.

Sounds easy enough, but nah. Once there is a good chance of a storm, gas stations quickly overflow. You wind up driving around using what little gas you do have trying to find one that has less than a 2 hour wait, and still has gas.

It goes from "eh we'll see if it's gonna be something" to no gas, no bottled water, batten down the hatches, in just a few hours.

Or less.

Even when it's just a TS, or further days out, as soon as you're in any kind of a cone you'll see gas lines blocking traffic. It's a real commitment to go out and fill up once you know a storm is coming.

Thanks, Aerides. It's nice to know that somebody on the forum actually knows what she is talking about. You don't have to cite your hurricane experience and credentials - - it comes through in your post.

Boy oh boy, if only loss of electricity was all we had to contend with five days after a hurricane! That would sure be a great daydream.