“Judge Roberts was confirmed”:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050929/ap_on_go_su_co/roberts;_ylt=AihWrpT71aaMiVOtEFly.NGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ– by the Senate earlier today, in a 78-22 vote. Oral arguments in the Court’s October term start next Monday.
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Check out the trailer [.mov] for this imaginative retelling of The Shining.
Rita started lashing us pretty hard around 8:00 PM last night, and we stayed up until about 11:00 PM watching the news. We were awoken at about 2:30 AM by the wind and rain, and watched another hour of news as the eyewall started to pass through Lake Charles. We awoke at about 8:30 AM to more wind and rain, and discovered that we had no power. Needless to say, it was starting to get hot and humid, and the wind and rain were severe enough that we were worried about breaking windows. Everything held, though, and power came back on at about 10:30 AM. However, we had no cable, and so no internet. Our cable came back at about 6:00 PM, a half-hour ago. The rain subsided several hours ago, and the wind is starting to die down now, as well.
Rita is slowly approaching landfall, and now appears to be headed for the coast between the Sabine Pass and Cameron, Louisiana. We still have power here, and are experiencing moderate wind and rain.
It’s now about 4:45 PM, and the wind has begun to increase. We can now hear the wind pretty consistently inside the building.
Here are some weather resources for keeping up to date on Rita:
* The “National Hurricane Center”:http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ is the official source for weather information.
* The “Boat U.S. Hurricane Center”:http://www.boatus.com/hurricanes/tracking.asp has several maps, including a “current satellite map”:http://www.boatus.com/hurricanes/hurricane_satellite2.asp, the “current forecasted path”:http://www.boatus.com/hurricanes/hurricane_forecast2.asp, and—something I haven’t seen elsewhere—a “current wind field map”:http://www.boatus.com/hurricanes/hurricane_field2.asp.
* Another “current satellite”:http://www.stormtrack.org/special/ picture of Rita.
* More information from “KLFY”:http://www.klfy.com/, a Lafayette TV station, “KPLC”:http://www.kplctv.com/, a Lake Charles TV station, and “KHOU”:http://www.khou.com/, a Houston TV station..
The rain has not yet started in earnest, and we already have pooling water behind our apartment. It doesn’t look like drainage is too good back there, and I’m afraid it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
The wind and rain have started to pick up here, and we expect the winds to hit tropical storm strength around 6:00 this evening. We are on the east side of the eye this time around, and so we expect more severe weather than during Katrina. The predicted landfall is still very close to the Texas-Louisiana border, and so we expect Lake Charles to bear the brunt of the storm, much like the Biloxi area bore the brunt of Katrina.
As I’m sure you know, Hurricane Rita is now bearing down on the Gulf Coast, likely to make landfall somewhere near Houston late Friday night. Yet again, we will be on the edge of the hurricane. Nearby Calcasieu Parish has issued a mandatory evacuation order, and if Rita turns any further east, we may decide to evacuate as well. The “current forecast map”:http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200518.html puts Rita fairly close to us, and as we are on the east side of the storm this time, I expect we will have significantly more wind and rain than during Katrina. More to come.
So is this interview with Bill Maher an example of the phrase “an embarrassment of riches?” Take a look at the pictures of his opulent house, read through his daily routine, and then check out the last line of the interview.