Forecasting models today were projecting Gustav to come ashore west of New Orleans — near a town called New Iberia.
When I learned that, I immediately thought of former Wichita State University professor James Lee Burke, who has set most of his legendary Dave Robicheaux series in New Iberia. Burke’s 2007 book “The Tin Roof Blowdown” is a fictional exploration of New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina…and now I’m curious if Gustav’s treatment of New Iberia will serve as a catalyst for more of Burke’s masterful prose.
If Gustav makes landfall as far west as at least one computer model suggests, remnants of the potentially monstrous hurricane could reach Kansas by late next week, said Dick Elder, meteorologist-in-charge of the Wichita branch of the National Weather Service.
I think it’s definitely something we’re going to need to keep an eye on, for sure,” Elder said.
The “European” forecasting model brought heavy rain as far north as southeast Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri, Elder said. Wichita could see rain from the remnants if Gustav comes ashore in, say, eastern Texas, he added.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” Elder said. “We’re not ready to put a flood watch out right yet.”
But local forecasters will be watching closely.
State emergency management officials have begun preparing to send personnel, aircraft, trucks and other equipment to the Gulf Coast, which is bracing for the arrival of two hurricanes – Gustav and Hanna.
Two Kansas Department of Emergency Management employees left for Jackson, Miss., today and three more will depart Saturday. They will be assisting in the State Emergency Operations Center, authorities reported.
Officials are also anticipating requests to provide shelter and food for hundreds of people who will be displaced by the storms.
“We learned a lot from Hurricane Katrina,” Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the adjutant general and director of the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, said in a prepared statement. “One key lesson was ‘Get ahead of the curve.’ Even though the hurricane isn’t projected to hit until Tuesday, we’re getting equipment ready and alerting personnel of the potential need to be available to respond.”
So I’m driving to Hutchinson last night to celebrate my mother’s 82nd birthday, squinting my eyes a bit against the glare of the evening sun. And then it starts to rain.
Blue skies to my left. Blue skies to my right. Blue skies in front of me. Blue skies above me…yet it’s raining.
I craned my head over my shoulder and saw some dark clouds to the southwest — and marveled at the wind currents that had to be carrying the rain all the way to where I was.
The rain didn’t last long – just enough to settle a little dust. But I’m sure there were others around western Sedgwick County and eastern Reno County who felt the raindrops, looked up into a sunny sky and wondered what in the world was going on.
It’s been five years since a flash flood swept through Jacob Creek in the Flint Hills, killing six people – including five members of the same family.
KSN will be airing a story about the tragedy on its 10 p.m. newscast tonight, including an interview with Robert Rogers about how he dealt with the devastating loss of his wife, Melissa, and four children: Makenah, Zachary, Nicholas and Alenah.
Al Larsen also died in the flood on that dark night of Aug. 30, 2003, swept away as he checked vehicles stranded in the rising waters for people who needed rescuing.
Six crosses mark the site where the flood struck in Chase County, and I’ve lost count of the number of people who tell me that they look for those crosses every time they drive through that area.
In the interest of full disclosure, I may be mentioned in the story as well since I co-wrote a book with Robert about that nightmarish event, his miraculous survival and the grueling days that followed.
It’s not the first time that members of a family died in a flash flood on Jacob Creek – a mother and her infant daughter were killed in 1886 – but Labor Day weekend of 2003 offered vivid testimony of how suddenly a weather-driven disaster can occur.
As if the folks of Tornado Alley need any reminders.
Hutchinson and parts of Reno County were hit by a “wonderfully bizarre late summer storm” this morning, in the words of Ray Hemman, the public information officer for Hutchinson Public Schools.
Officially, Hemman said, Hutchinson recorded more than 1.5 inches at the airport, but downtown reported only a few hundredths of an inch.
Rod Zook of KWBW Radio in Hutch said the north side of town got hammered, while the south half of the city barely got wet.
“We just got toad-choked at my house” on the north side, Zook said.
The slow-moving storm prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood warning this morning for northeastern Reno County. The storms were moving south-southeast, but they fell apart before they reached Wichita. That meant folks in the metro area merely simmered in the muggy sunshine this afternoon.
It’s a fair question – and one I heard a time or two in recent days – as forecasters late last week talked about Arkansas potentially receiving heavy rainfall from the remnants of the tropical storm.
But what’s left of Fay is heading into the Appalachians, National Weather Service meteorologist Mary-Beth Schreck said. Strong high pressure over the Mississippi valley and upper Midwest will keep the remnants of Fay from moving any further west.
Late word in that Chance Hayes, warning coordination meteorologist for the Wichita office of the National Weather Service, will be featured Saturday in The Discovery Channel program “Raging Nature: Tornadoes.”
The show will be aired at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Saturday.
The TorrentBox.com synopsis for the series states: “‘Tornadoes’ analyzes the most destructive tornadoes ever caught on tape. Hear eyewitness accounts from those who survived the storms and watch the footage they risked their lives to capture.”
The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for July was the fifth-warmest since worldwide records began in 1880, according to an analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
This year tied with 2001 and 2003 as the fifth-warmest July in 127 years.
Also, the seven months from January to July 2008 ranked as the ninth warmest seven-month period for combined average global land and ocean surface temperature.
Other notable events in July:
Rains from Hurricane Dolly caused landslides in Guatemala that killed 21 people. The storm, after making landfall at South Padre Island in Texas on July 23 brought torrential rain and flooding to both the Mexican and U.S. sides of the Rio Grande Valley. Nearly 250,000 people in Mexico were left without safe drinking water.
Typhoon Kalmaegi/Helen, which lasted from July 13 to 20, passed over the Philippines, Taiwan, and eastern China, killing at least 18 and causing about $10 million in damage. Some mountainous locations in Taiwan reported more than 43 inches of rain during the storm.
A few days later, Typhoon Fung-wong passed over many of the same areas, dumping nearly 33 inches of rain on Hualien on Taiwan’s east coast. Six deaths were reported and damage exceeded $6 million.
Heavy monsoon rains pelted northern India and Bangladesh between July 5-14, resulting in floods and landslides that claimed 20 lives. Eleven people died in monsoon flooding and landslides in Nepal in early July.
I’m not sure it qualifies, but it’s one of my favorites. That snow and cold weather clearly plays a role in the plot, so I would argue “yes.” My list would also include “Key Largo,” and I must say “Perfect Storm” was achingly good.
“The Day After Tomorrow” felt like one of those over-wrought, would-be ‘epics,’ but at least Hollywood tried.
The problem with “tornado” movies is I have yet to see one that comes within the same time zone of an actual tornado event. In that sense, I resemble war veterans who always said war movies never come close to capturing the terror and chaos of actual combat (at least until the opening of ‘Saving Private Ryan’).
Having said that, I must add that for me the best part of ‘Twister’ (other than Helen Hunt) was the special effects that provided the computer-generated tornadoes. It told me Hollywood was getting closer to being able to do a truly powerful tornado movie.