Updated numbers from this mornings report.
Fortunately, the levees held overnight for New Orleans and according to TV reports, the pumps had backup generators (given total loss of power to NO last night) that worked to limit flooding from rainfall inside the "bowl" in New Orleans. However some older levees outside of New Orleans were breached and hundreds or maybe thousands experienced major flooding with some still trapped in their houses. I'm sure we'll find out more today about those folks.
Great trend, even though it is very sad for thousands of people.
Some interesting post-hurricane tidbits on Ida, which in the big picture was a forecast tour-de-force, with the track and intensity predictions being very close to actual conditions throughout the hurricane's journey. Probably the best summary of the storm and impacts, with a bunch of pictures and videos, is from the Washington Post in the link below.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/30/hurricane-ida-live-updates/
First off, a boat in Port Fourchon, where Ida first made landfall in SE Louisiana, recorded an official wind gust of 172 mph and a sustained wind of 149 mph, clearly verifying Ida's satellite and dropsonde measurements of 150 mph sustained winds at landfall. It's rare that recorded winds match those from satellites/dropsondes, mostly because there aren't that many high quality anemometers in the path of any landfalling hurricane (many weather stations have units that break before reaching 120 mph or more), plus winds over "regular" land lose a bit of punch from frictional effects, which is not the case in SE LA, where there's probably more water than land and zero elevation to speak of.
There were plenty of other gusts over 120 mph recorded, as per the tweet/graphic below. The damage to structures, trees, and the power grid (with over a million customers without power, including almost everyeon in New Orleans), mostly from Ida's winds was catastrophic throughout much of SE LA, as many have likely seen on TV or the internet.
Secondly, the storm surge was catastrophic (6-12 feet) throughout SE LA, leading to inundation of many towns and destruction of many structures (couldn't find a graphic on surge). In addition, the amount of rainfall was torrential, as expected, with 8-15"+ amounts in large parts of SE LA and southern MS and 5-8" amounts everywhere else in southern LA and much of southern MS/AL; see the graphic below. Serious to catastrophic inland flooding from rainfall, combined with storm surge in some places occurred.
Having said all that, the levee systems in LA and especially New Orleans stood up remarkably well, keeping flooding in areas protected by levees to a minimum, unlike what happened in Katrina, particularly in NO, where over 1000 died as the levees were breached. So far, there are only 2 reported deaths in LA from Ida and even if that rises to a few dozen, as expected, that's far, far less than from Katrina, which is a testament to the improved levee/pumping systems (plus surge was higher in NO from Katrina, although a Katrina level surge would've likely not been an issue for Ida).
Lastly, the storm isn't over yet, as the remnants of Ida are pummeling much of MS/AL/TN right now, with our area in the crosshairs next, as 3-5" of rain are expected throughout most of the Philly-NJ-NYC region from Wednesday morning through Thursday morning, with some spots possibly getting 6-7", as per the graphic below and the NWS discussions. There could be significant urban and stream flooding given how wet this summer has been. Much more on this in the gameday weather thread...
the two toursits in shorts calm walking by in the background.
Look at the bushes and the baggy clothing on the two weather guys. Even something around the waist of the one guy in shorts is blowing around pretty hard. That verifies that there was a strong steady wind.
True, those two and the one weatherman facing the camera all seem more relaxed.
I actually like the beach when it's raining. But yeah, it's probably going to be a rainout all day tomorrow and the first half of Thursday. Second half of Thursday might wind up being really nice, though.
I did plan to go with my friend.(She has backup if I back out and thankfully she understands) The shore house is available(my ex just informed me yesterday)
Oh. Um... Well in that case, I would like to revise my earlier statement about the weather.
Off and on showers most of the day tomorrow with very heavy rain tomorrow evening through about sunrise. Rain should be largely over by 10-11 am with a gorgeous day on tap after about noon. PPB should be getting a fair amount less rain (2-3" which is still a lot) than the 95 corridor and points NW of there, which are forecast to get 3-5". Here's your hourly forecast...
Excellent analysis. Title on that video is crap (and you can tell, because comments on the actual video have been turned off), but that's par for the course for what Tango posts. Also, those passersby were about 30 feet away and it's very possible the wind was much stronger for the weather guys than for those guys walking by over a 5 second period.
You've seen bad info. Rain will be largely over in NJ by sunrise with lingering showers over by about noon with a gorgeous day of tailgating and RU football to follow. Yes, there will likely be heavy rain (3-6") in New England, as per the map below, but the rain should be over by Thursday night, even in Boston, so Friday should be gorgeous there, too.
Yes, but they only got about 2.5" and no additional flooding, fortunately...
Received the lastest numbers after the storm passed through Louisiana. Model was pretty close in predictions. 21,000 roofs to be replaced, 14,000 roofs to need repair and 11,000 homes totally lossed. Residential only.
