Flashback Flashflood
Every day serves as a Hurricane Rita reminder. The debris pile remains in the yard, as it does in just about every yard. The newsroom works out of makeshift first-floor offices.
Almost a week shy of the Rita's two-month anniversary, the circumstances continue to make it impossible to get out of post-storm mode.
Just about every newspaper story we do has some kind of Rita connection, and today's cold front underscored that. The forecast called for 50 mph winds, heavy rains and temperatures plunging 30 degrees in a matter of hours. When that sucker blew through about 4:30 p.m., it did indeed bring some strong winds and heavy rains, although not as heavy as predicted, from what I can tell at this writing.
In the past, a strong cold front typically would not be Page 1A news unless it ended a lengthy hot, dry spell or spawned tornados and flooding.
But with today's Canadian clipper, we had several Rita-related angles to explore: dead tree limbs falling, blown-away roof tarps and leaky homes and businesses.
I ran upstairs a half hour ago to see if our building was experiencing the latter, and sure enough, many of the same players who lived here for weeks during the Rita aftermath were scurrying around and using trash bins and plastic covering to stop the indoor waterfalls on the second and third floors.
Water poured through the roof near the same spot by where I nearly got brained with falling ceiling debris during the hurricane Sept. 24. Water cascaded down the back stairs and ran into a second-floor area where our copy desk is stationed. Water soaking through the third floor dripped down into a second-floor back closet.
Standing near some co-workers trying to avert another mess, I said, "We're back in the (expletive) again! Break out the guitars!"
Everyone laughed.
I got back to my desk to find an e-mail from my wife, detailing the water running into the kitchen from a window frame.
No matter how we try to break away from Rita, she keeps dragging us back. No matter how we try to distance ourselves emotionally and physically, vivid reminders remain or bubble to the surface in the form of slippery stairs, soggy ceiling tiles and panicked managerial fingers plugging dike holes.
Almost a week shy of the Rita's two-month anniversary, the circumstances continue to make it impossible to get out of post-storm mode.
Just about every newspaper story we do has some kind of Rita connection, and today's cold front underscored that. The forecast called for 50 mph winds, heavy rains and temperatures plunging 30 degrees in a matter of hours. When that sucker blew through about 4:30 p.m., it did indeed bring some strong winds and heavy rains, although not as heavy as predicted, from what I can tell at this writing.
In the past, a strong cold front typically would not be Page 1A news unless it ended a lengthy hot, dry spell or spawned tornados and flooding.
But with today's Canadian clipper, we had several Rita-related angles to explore: dead tree limbs falling, blown-away roof tarps and leaky homes and businesses.
I ran upstairs a half hour ago to see if our building was experiencing the latter, and sure enough, many of the same players who lived here for weeks during the Rita aftermath were scurrying around and using trash bins and plastic covering to stop the indoor waterfalls on the second and third floors.
Water poured through the roof near the same spot by where I nearly got brained with falling ceiling debris during the hurricane Sept. 24. Water cascaded down the back stairs and ran into a second-floor area where our copy desk is stationed. Water soaking through the third floor dripped down into a second-floor back closet.
Standing near some co-workers trying to avert another mess, I said, "We're back in the (expletive) again! Break out the guitars!"
Everyone laughed.
I got back to my desk to find an e-mail from my wife, detailing the water running into the kitchen from a window frame.
No matter how we try to break away from Rita, she keeps dragging us back. No matter how we try to distance ourselves emotionally and physically, vivid reminders remain or bubble to the surface in the form of slippery stairs, soggy ceiling tiles and panicked managerial fingers plugging dike holes.
posted by Brian Pearson at 5:19 PM
1 Comments:
Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005. Rita was the seventeenth named storm, tenth hurricane, fifth major hurricane, and third Category 5 hurricane of the historic 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Rita made landfall on September 24 between Sabine Pass, sportsbook, Texas and Johnsons Bayou, Louisiana, as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It continued on through parts of southeast Texas. The storm surge caused extensive damage along the Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas coasts and completely destroyed some coastal communities. The storm killed seven people directly; many others died in evacuations and from indirect effects. http://www.enterbet.com
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