Reader comments: Gustav swells to dangerous Category 4 as Cuba evacuates 240,000
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Brother Chuck Schroeder | 9:39 a.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Forecasters caution that a storm's exact track and strength are difficult to predict days in advance.
Brother Chuck Schroeder | 9:40 a.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Gustav is strengthening as it approaches the Cayman Islands. The 11 a.m. advisory shows the Category 3 storm has top sustained winds of around near 125 miles per hour. The center of Gustav will pass near or over the Cayman Islands tonight and over western Cuba Saturday. Gustav is moving to the north-northwest near 14 mph and is located about 55 miles southeast of the Isle of Youth and easte-southeast of the western tip of Cuba. Gulf Coast states are watching the storm carefully. Mississippi is telling coastal residents hit by Hurricane Katrina to evacuate this weekend, and Grand Isle, LA residents also are under a voluntary evacuation order. If the storm hit the Gulf Coast, it would strike only days after communities marked the three-year anniversary of Katrina. Gustav hit Jamaica yesterday as a tropical storm, drenching the island with heavy rain that triggered landslides and flooding. Gustav earlier caused 67 deaths in Hispaniola.
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Brother Chuck Schroeder | 10:31 a.m. Aug. 30, 2008
At 11 a.m. EDT, the center of Gustav was about 185 miles east of the western tip of Cuba. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, just 6 mph shy of the Category 4 threshold. The center of Gustav was to pass over western Cuba later Saturday and strengthening is forecast after it reaches the Gulf of Mexico. The second major hurricane of the Atlantic season has already killed 78 people in the Caribbean. Cuban state television announced that all buses and trains to and from Havana were suspended, as was ferry and air service to the Isla de Juventud, the outlying Cuban island-province next in Gustav's path. Calls to the island were met with a recorded message saying lines were jammed due to excessive demand. Stiff winds whipped intermittent rains across Havana, where police officers in blue and orange rain coats supervised workers removing stones, tree branches and other debris from the storied beachfront Malecon, as angry waves crashed against the sea wall below.
Its Nice to Know | 11:27 a.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Its nice to know the Army Corps of Engineers is building 100 year levies in New Orleans instead of leavies that will never break again.
Either do this right, or abondon the City. The Army Corps is setting up the city for the same desaster as before.
Either do this right, or abondon the City. The Army Corps is setting up the city for the same desaster as before.
Doug in N. Louisiana | 11:56 a.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Gustav
Here we go again! "They're not taking care of us down here!" Katrina,This is words from some at
NEW ORLEANS then and already started now. The state has a $7 million contract for more than 700 buses to carry an estimated 30,000 people to shelters.
Why is it left up to me to help get these people out. If my truck does not run I walk. These people should have left three years ago. New Orleans City is lower than the Mississippi River you look up to see the river. I am in the north La. Hope Utah don't take these hand outs again. They need to do for self.
Here we go again! "They're not taking care of us down here!" Katrina,This is words from some at
NEW ORLEANS then and already started now. The state has a $7 million contract for more than 700 buses to carry an estimated 30,000 people to shelters.
Why is it left up to me to help get these people out. If my truck does not run I walk. These people should have left three years ago. New Orleans City is lower than the Mississippi River you look up to see the river. I am in the north La. Hope Utah don't take these hand outs again. They need to do for self.
ANON | 2:25 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
to Doug in N. Louisiana: You letter is rather incoherant. It doesn't really make sense. Please write and then proofread out loud. Have someone else check it over.
Anon 808 | 2:48 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
I hope this Storm and the News of it does not hurt coverage of the Republican Convention. The Strom could have picked a better time. It is the Global warming, anti-Bush, Pro Abortion Rights, Don’t protect the Borders, Don't Drill or dig for our own resources, because of the endangered, Muskaratiepoopie Bird, are the, People who are behind this storm.
awesomeron | 2:58 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
I understood Doug, he wants people to take care of them self’s and be prepared. He does not want to pay for people who should be prepared getting hand outs. He also has the common sense to not LIVE IN A FLOOD PLAIN, BELOW SEA LEVEL, and then gripe when there is a flood. Doug is doing the best he can. Thanks for posting Doug.
Brother Chuck Schroeder | 3:15 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Gustav has been upgraded to a Category 4 storm with top sustained winds of around near 145 miles per hour. The center of Gustav will pass near or over the Cayman Islands tonight and over western Cuba Saturday. Gustav is moving to the north-northwest near 14 mph and is located about 55 miles southeast of the Isle of Youth and easte-southeast of the western tip of Cuba. Gulf Coast states are watching the storm carefully. Mississippi is telling coastal residents hit by Hurricane Katrina to evacuate this weekend, and Grand Isle, LA residents also are under a voluntary evacuation order. Gustav hit Jamaica yesterday as a tropical storm, drenching the island with heavy rain that triggered landslides and flooding. Gustav earlier caused 67 deaths in Hispaniola. Forecasters caution that a storm's exact track and strength are difficult to predict days in advance.
zxcvbnm | 3:39 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Oh great....New Orleans again. Looks like the illegals will get three more years of work "rebuilding" the shacks that were replaced after katrina.
Either build a dike that will work or quit rebuilding levees that don't work.
The Dutch have added hundreds of square miles to their country over the years and have done it right. What we need is long term planning rather than short term patchwork.
Brother Chuck Schroeder | 3:40 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
There's even bigger problem's out there now folks. Gustav swelled into a fearsome Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph on Saturday as Cuba raced to evacuate more than 240,000 people and Americans to the north clogged highways fleeing New Orleans. It could become a Category 5 storm over the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday, with winds of 160 mph (255 kph) according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Gustav already has killed 81 people in the Caribbean and it was on a course for the Katrina-battered U.S. coast. Cuba grounded all national airline fights, though planes bound for international destinations were still taking off at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport. The government's AIN news agency said officials were evacuating some 190,000 people from low-lying parts of tobacco-rich Pinar del Rio province on the western tip of Cuba's main island. AIN reported that 50,000 already had been evacuated further east.
NOT GOOD!.
NOT GOOD!.
Anonymous | 5:22 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
We wouldn't have to worry so much about Cat 4s and 5s hitting the shore at its full, or increased, rate if we still had wetlands.
By destroying the wetlands in hurricane prone country, we've essentially removed the earth's natural protection against such storms. it used to be when a Cat 5 hit a few miles out, but bumped into wetlands, the effect was of slowing it down, so by the time it gets to shore, its down to a regular old Cat 2 or something.
But now, with no wetlands to slow it down it slams right into shore, and doesn't dissipate til several miles in.
but Environmental management is too liberal for some of the folks here to consider, right? As is giving a hoot about men, women and children who are trapped in the storm center.
By destroying the wetlands in hurricane prone country, we've essentially removed the earth's natural protection against such storms. it used to be when a Cat 5 hit a few miles out, but bumped into wetlands, the effect was of slowing it down, so by the time it gets to shore, its down to a regular old Cat 2 or something.
But now, with no wetlands to slow it down it slams right into shore, and doesn't dissipate til several miles in.
but Environmental management is too liberal for some of the folks here to consider, right? As is giving a hoot about men, women and children who are trapped in the storm center.
Grimble | 5:36 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Awesomeron,
Will you say the same thing about everybody living on the Wasatch front when the long-overdue quake hits?
For goodness sakes, have a little Christian compassion.
Will you say the same thing about everybody living on the Wasatch front when the long-overdue quake hits?
For goodness sakes, have a little Christian compassion.
awesomeron | 6:40 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Note To extreme enviromentalist. This is Nature, what are you going to do about it.
jerry | 7:34 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
many hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. We have been warned. The end times are near.
Grimble | 8:39 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Dont tell people to have a little Christian Compassion. The majority of people in this world our not Christians. When people live in an area below sea level, I do not feel bad for them. Just move and shut down New Orleans completely.
Thomas | 8:46 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
"The end times are near"
The Black Death in the 1300s killed a third of the population of the known world. It may or may not be the "end times," but a piddly little hurricane that can't even manage to kill 2,000 people doesn't even register on the apocalyptic scale.
Get back to me when an earthquake kills 800,000 people, like that one in China a few centuries ago.
The Black Death in the 1300s killed a third of the population of the known world. It may or may not be the "end times," but a piddly little hurricane that can't even manage to kill 2,000 people doesn't even register on the apocalyptic scale.
Get back to me when an earthquake kills 800,000 people, like that one in China a few centuries ago.
PJ | 11:14 p.m. Aug. 30, 2008
Load fifty 747's with dry ice and ice shavers. Fly them above the hurricane and spread the shaved ice over the storm for an hour or two per day. Should cool the moisture enough to reduce it to a tropical storm until it breaks up over land. Should save billions. Or not.
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Tropical Storm Hanna forecast to gradually strengthen. Hanna is moving toward the west at 8 mph and the center of Hanna is 305 miles east of Grand Turk Island in the Atlantic Ocean. The center of Hanna is expected to move near or just northeast of the Turks and Caicos Islands late sunday or early Monday. Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph with higher gusts. Gradual strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days and Hanna could be near hurricane strength on Sunday. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 140 miles, and rain bands associated with Hanna could produce rainfall accumulations of 1 to 2 inches across portions of the Leeward Islands.