California Conservative

What does nature’s fury look like? Hurricane Katrina gave us plenty of examples.

“Rita Could Be Strongest Storm to Hit Texas” reads the AP’s headline two days ago.

“Hurricane Rita grew into a monster storm with 175-mph sustained winds as it swirled toward the Gulf Coast, prompting more than 1.3 million residents in Texas and Louisiana to flee in hopes of avoiding a deadly repeat of Katrina.”

In the latest news, AP reports: “Texas officials warned of a catastrophe and water spilled over levees to flood parts of New Orleans anew on Friday as Hurricane Rita barreled toward the U.S. Gulf Coast with winds reaching 135 mph (217 kph).”

Indeed, only a couple weeks ago, both states of Louisiana and Mississippi were facing a similar crisis: the destructive path of Hurricane Katrina.

Rita was expected to make landfall early on Saturday near the Texas and Louisiana border, the National Hurricane Center said. It said the Category 4 storm may weaken to a Category 3 by landfall, but would still come ashore as a major hurricane.

Katrina was a Category 5. And all of America witnessed the ravaged aftermath.

We’ve seen images of a hurricane from the sky:

NOAA satellite image of Hurricane Rita taken at 4:45 p.m. EDT on September 21, 2005, as the extremely dangerous hurricane churns in the Gulf of Mexico with maximum sustained winds of near 165 mph. Hurricane Rita strengthened on Wednesday into a powerful, intensely dangerous Category 5 storm as it headed toward the Texas coast and prompted evacuation orders for more than a million people. (REUTERS/NOAA)

This infrared satellite image provided by NOAA and taken at 9:45 p.m. EDT Wednesday Sept. 21, 2005 shows Hurricane Rita over the Gulf of Mexico. Gaining strength with frightening speed, Rita swirled toward the Gulf Coast a Category 5, 165-mph monster Wednesday as more than 1.3 million people in Texas and Louisiana were sent packing on orders from authorities who learned a bitter lesson from Katrina. (AP Photo/NOAA)

But what does on oncoming hurricane look like from the ground?

One of our readers recently submitted these photos taken of Hurricane Katrina. [UPDATE: Thanks to another reader, these photos are bogus - in the sense that they're not of Katrina, but of "tornadoes and other extreme weather phenomena taken by storm chaser Mike Hollingshead in Nebraska and Kansas during the summer months of 2002 and 2004"]

WHILE NOT OF KATRINA, they give some perspective to nature’s deadly wrath as an awesome force sweeps across the land. This is what the people in the path of a hurricane [really, really, really bad weather] are facing. But much worse.

(Click on any to enlarge)

“Be calm, be strong, say a prayer for Texas,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry said in the state capital of Austin.

God strength to the people of Texas as they brace themselves for the oncoming disaster.

Our prayers our with you.

(Just don’t tell the ACLU)

This entry was posted on Friday, September 23rd, 2005 at 6:00 am and is filed under Humanitarian, Miscellania, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.