Rita Makes Top 10 On Hurricane Destruction List
The top story Sunday in The Enterprise noted that Hurricane Rita ranked No. 7 on the list of history's most destructive hurricanes.
Beth Gallaspy's report - using http://www.disasterinformation.org/disaster2/latest/10_Costliest/ as a source - confirmed what Southeast Texans have known all along: That Rita was a bad storm that did a lot of damage. More specifically, about $5 billion in insured losses alone.
Living in the shadow of Hurricane Katrina - clearly No. 1 with $38.1 billion in insured losses - has been almost as damaging, because the federal government, as well as the nation, still doesn't realize that Rita was terrible, worse than Floyd, Frances, Jeanne, Georges, Isabel, Fran, Opal and numerous other noteworthy storms.
While making the Top 10 list wasn't a shock, what was surprising was that Rita, while destructive, wasn't as strong here as we'd once thought. Winds at landfall were 115 mph, not into the 120s. Highest sustained winds in Beaumont were only 80 mph, far less than what we'd reported earlier, although there were gusts up over 100 mph.
Having sat in a lawn chair in the mouth of the Enterprise parking garage and watching Rita at her peak, I had the impression that she was blowing at around 120 mph. And she might have been - in downtown.
We've had the discussion around the newsroom many times regarding how the winds intensified as they criss-crossed and channeled through the buildings. We saw winds going east-west, north-south and, inexplicably, south-north.
At least we think we did. It was quite a maelstrom out there.
I often wonder what it was like for the handful of poor souls who unwisely chose to ride it out in their homes out there, in the symphony of howling winds and crashing trees. What we got here in downtown was pretty much all howling and no crashing, although the crumbling building facade across the street created some brief excitement.
I also often wonder what it was like for the hurricane veterans higher up on the destruction list, particularly with Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 devastation machine that Katrina bumped to No. 2 on the list of costliness. Wilma, another storm in Katrina's shadow, was No. 3, with $8.4 billion in insured losses. I had no idea how bad Wilma was. Charley, Ivan and Hugo were the other storms ahead of Rita.
As far as intensity, Katrina was just a tad worse than Rita, but I shudder to think what would have happened had a Charley, a Category 4, or an Andrew, a Category 5, had hit here. I imagine emerging from the parking garage to a landscape of flattened trees and houses.
And lots of death.
As another hurricane season looms, and Rita six months behind us, it's still impossible to shake the images of what happened and what could happen if a bigger brute comes our way.
Beth Gallaspy's report - using http://www.disasterinformation.org/disaster2/latest/10_Costliest/ as a source - confirmed what Southeast Texans have known all along: That Rita was a bad storm that did a lot of damage. More specifically, about $5 billion in insured losses alone.
Living in the shadow of Hurricane Katrina - clearly No. 1 with $38.1 billion in insured losses - has been almost as damaging, because the federal government, as well as the nation, still doesn't realize that Rita was terrible, worse than Floyd, Frances, Jeanne, Georges, Isabel, Fran, Opal and numerous other noteworthy storms.
While making the Top 10 list wasn't a shock, what was surprising was that Rita, while destructive, wasn't as strong here as we'd once thought. Winds at landfall were 115 mph, not into the 120s. Highest sustained winds in Beaumont were only 80 mph, far less than what we'd reported earlier, although there were gusts up over 100 mph.
Having sat in a lawn chair in the mouth of the Enterprise parking garage and watching Rita at her peak, I had the impression that she was blowing at around 120 mph. And she might have been - in downtown.
We've had the discussion around the newsroom many times regarding how the winds intensified as they criss-crossed and channeled through the buildings. We saw winds going east-west, north-south and, inexplicably, south-north.
At least we think we did. It was quite a maelstrom out there.
I often wonder what it was like for the handful of poor souls who unwisely chose to ride it out in their homes out there, in the symphony of howling winds and crashing trees. What we got here in downtown was pretty much all howling and no crashing, although the crumbling building facade across the street created some brief excitement.
I also often wonder what it was like for the hurricane veterans higher up on the destruction list, particularly with Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 devastation machine that Katrina bumped to No. 2 on the list of costliness. Wilma, another storm in Katrina's shadow, was No. 3, with $8.4 billion in insured losses. I had no idea how bad Wilma was. Charley, Ivan and Hugo were the other storms ahead of Rita.
As far as intensity, Katrina was just a tad worse than Rita, but I shudder to think what would have happened had a Charley, a Category 4, or an Andrew, a Category 5, had hit here. I imagine emerging from the parking garage to a landscape of flattened trees and houses.
And lots of death.
As another hurricane season looms, and Rita six months behind us, it's still impossible to shake the images of what happened and what could happen if a bigger brute comes our way.
posted by Brian Pearson at 11:14 AM
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