Hurricane Lili - well wishing thread - Page 2

justamom · #16 10-03-2002, 06:36 AM

Our area has been spared the hit. Doesn't look good for Baton Rouge being on the east side!!! Thank heaven it has diminished (to SOME degree) looks like flooding will be the greaest factor and of course if you are in the path of the "eye"...

Take care everyone and lookout for high waters and tornadoes!

AOIIBrandi · #17 10-03-2002, 08:17 AM

I'm praying that everyone comes out of this OK. If you live in that area please be careful and keep us updated (if you can)...

JAM, did your daughter come home so she will be safe?

justamom · #18 10-03-2002, 08:39 AM

Nope, she stayed. I was going nuts trying to reach her yesterday. They were out getting provisions. Talked to her last night, my worry now is that her car, #3, will get FLOODED!!!

texas*princess · #19 10-03-2002, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by justamom
Our area has been spared the hit. Doesn't look good for Baton Rouge being on the east side!!! Thank heaven it has diminished (to SOME degree) looks like flooding will be the greaest factor and of course if you are in the path of the "eye"...

Take care everyone and lookout for high waters and tornadoes!

Glad everything is ok justamom! I hope it's the same scenario for everyone else !!!

ThetaLove · #20 10-03-2002, 11:50 AM

Great news, well I say great, I guess just better because some people will flood. It had picked up to a category four, now it is a two!! I'm in BR now and the wind is blowing pretty hard, but still have electricity and LSU is out till Monday!!!!!

By CAIN BURDEAU
.c The Associated Press

NEW IBERIA, La. (Oct. 3) - Less powerful but still dangerous, Hurricane Lili pounded low-lying Louisiana coastal towns with heavy wind and rain Thursday as it washed inland. Nearly a half-million people had been urged to flee.

The storm shut down the region's resort towns, all 12 of Mississippi's Gulf Coast casinos, NASA's Mission Control in Houston and the nation's biggest oil import terminal.

By daybreak, Lili had surprisingly weakened to become a Category 2 storm, with winds of 100 mph. That was a big relief to forecasters and Gulf Coast residents who had braced themselves at nightfall for a Category 4 storm.

''I'm the happiest person on the face of the earth to see this go down from a very powerful category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of over 140 mph,'' said Max Mayfield, director of the Hurricane Center in Miami. ''It's nowhere near where it was.''

The storm moved over Marsh Island about 8 a.m., then pressed northward onto the mainland. Mayfield said it would be into northwest Mississippi by Friday morning.

Shortly after 9 a.m., the eye passed over New Iberia, about 140 miles from New Orleans. Taylor Jackson, 19, a University of Louisiana-Monroe meteorology student, and three friends had driven down to New Iberia overnight in hopes of seeing the eye pass over.

''Actually, I was kind of hoping for the 145 miles per hour,'' said Jackson, standing with his arms outstretched and letting the gusts catch his green windbreaker.

Hurricane winds extend about 60 miles from the eye and were predicted to stay that strong up to 100 miles inland. The entire area also was under tornado warning.

If it had been a Category 4, he had said, it could have been the worst hurricane to hit the Louisiana coast since at least the mid-1940s, officials had said.

''It looks like we were lucky,'' said Gov. Mike Foster. He said he already has sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, asking for government assistance.

Scattered power failures, affecting an estimated 127,000 utility customers, were reported across the coast as the wind and rain increased.

Officials had said that a Category 4 storm could have created a life-threatening storm surge of up to 25 feet. Such a surge could have put 15 feet of water in some coastal towns and up to 8 feet of water in Abbeville, 20 miles inland.

Lili headed for Louisiana less than a week after Tropical Storm Isidore dumped more than 20 inches of rain and caused $100 million in flood damage. While Isidore did its damage with rain, Lili's wind and storm surge were the major threats.

About 143,000 people in Louisiana and 330,000 in Texas had been advised to leave, some for the second time in days after Isidore washed past New Orleans last week. Thursday morning, the evacuation advisory was lifted for the 250,000 residents of in one the two affected Texas counties, Jefferson.

Officials in 44 Louisiana parishes declared emergencies, with mandatory evacuations in 11 of them. Nearly 1,500 National Guardsmen were being deployed.

It was impossible to estimate the actual number who fled inland. Many hurricane veterans take refuge with friends and relatives, bypassing the evacuation centers. In Louisiana, 13,000 people spent the night in the state's 71 shelters.

Mayfield said it was difficult to analyze why the storm strengthened during the night but then weakened before landfall, but dry air from the west and cooler water near the shore were factors.

''A lot of Ph.Ds will be written about this,'' Mayfield said.

While Louisiana-plated cars streamed north and east, long lines of utility bucket trucks headed in the other direction to begin work once the hurricane passes. Utilities in 18 states, from Delaware to Indiana, sent more than 14,000 workers to Louisiana, a spokesman for the utility company Entergy said.

Some residents stayed. Steve Petty, 45, taped the windows of his Lake Charles home but did not board them up. Late Wednesday, he was watching baseball playoffs in one of the few open businesses - a bar and pool hall.

''I've been through Audrey and several others I can't remember the names of. I'm not freaking out, I'm not leaving town. I been through a lot worse,'' Petty said.

Others who stayed had no basis for comparison. David Westover, 27, a student from Ohio, was excited.

''I just think a hurricane would be a great thing to live through and write about,'' he said.

The storm sideswiped New Orleans with sporadic squalls. In the French Quarter early Thursday, Russell McCarey, also known as Banjo the Clown, was wearing a multicolored fright wig, taking refuge from the rain under a iron-lace balcony. McCarey and others like him are known to tourists for blowing up balloons and twisting them into animal shapes for tips.

''It'll clear up,'' he said. ''It don't rain that long in New Orleans. Otherwise, this place wouldn't be here. It would be Atlantis.''

In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry signed a disaster declaration and corrections officials moved more than 3,000 inmates to inland lockups.

Mission Control's shutdown meant nearly a week's delay in the shuttle launch that had been scheduled for Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was the first time in 41 years of manned spaceflight that the threat of bad weather in Houston delayed a Florida launch.

A hurricane warning remained in effect from just east of High Island, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, and a tropical storm warning east of that to the Florida-Alabama line.

Earlier this week, Lili barreled through the Caribbean, killing eight people and driving tens of thousands of Cubans from their homes.

aephi alum · #21 10-03-2002, 11:55 AM

Stay safe and dry, everyone.

TigerGirl52 · #22 10-03-2002, 04:40 PM

OK...in my book...Lili was one big fat disappointment. LOL. I was at least hoping for some rain. I came home to my mom's house to weather out the "storm" and we got nothing. It barely rained here. Just a little gusty and I've seen bigger gusts during thunderstorms. I just feel so bad for everybody in New Iberia and the Lafayette area. At least Lili lost some of her might before she hit land. It could have been a lot worse. Looks like everybody's well wishes worked this time.

ChiOJenn78 · #23 10-03-2002, 07:26 PM

I am so glad that Lili went down to a cat 2 when she hit land-thank god!! It could have been so much worse.

We didn't get anything here-no "tropical storm conditions", just heat and sun.

Funny story though, my mom called me up last night at 11:00 p.m screaming at me that the hurricane was going to "wobble" and it could hit here, and why hadn't I left? I was like-look, it's 11;00 p.m now, I have to wake up at 5:00 a.m for rotation tomorrow, what do you want me to do about it?? She made me get out of bed, and go fill up water jugs and every pot in the house with water

Whatever, crazy Mom....

juniorgrrl · #24 10-03-2002, 11:41 PM

We made it through just fine. Lost power for about 5 minutes, and a crepe myrtle tree got uprooted, but that's about it. Mom and I made quick work of sawing off all the branches to the tree so we could lift it back up (it was way too heavy with the top on).

We are all extremely thankful that we were spared what could have been such a terrible disaster.

texas*princess · #25 10-03-2002, 11:49 PM

glad to hear it worked out ok for you juniorgrrl

AlphaSigLana · #26 10-04-2002, 12:15 AM

Well all of a sudden a downpour of rain came from nowhere. We had a little rain earlier today. Last week during the tropical storm classes were canceled on thursday. But by Thursday afternoon the sun was out. It was hilarious to me bc even though I came from Co, I never had a snow day and then in Fl i got a rain day. the storm didn't affect us in Pensacola that bad, that is why it was funny to me. I don't think hurricanes are something to laugh about, but in this case the storm wasn't that bad.