Grim News Friday Morning

The news this morning is grim and I hesitate to even report it, but reporting weather-related news is what I do.

For one, water is cascading over a levee in New Orleans (again) due to storm surge and rainfall from Rita. The hurricane is simply so large that a storm surge of several feet has already reached Lake Ponchartrain. Rainfall was less than an inch over much of the city, but a heavy thunderstorm associated with one of Rita's bands dropped 2 to 4 inches of rain over a narrow area of the city (see Doppler-estimated precip map below from AccuWeather.com RadarPlus).

Traffic continued to be backed up for over 100 miles overnight and KPRC reported that people were still stranded on highways this morning, out of gas or waiting in line for gas. KPRC reports that one elderly woman was killed in a slip and fall accident at a gas station while waiting for gas overnight.

Worse, a bus carrying elderly evacuees from Hurricane Rita exploded this morning south of Dallas this morning, killing 24 people.

The Houston mayor warned this morning on KPRC that it was too late to evacuate now and people should instead seek shelter today.

Click here to hear and see local scanner, television, and radio feeds.

Now for the grim weather news. We could bet setting up for a massive flooding situation in Texas. Looking at the color water vapor image above, the ridge of high pressure (orange = dry air / high pressure) north of the storm is what will determine Rita's future. There is a fear that, rather than getting caught in the gears and moving quickly to the northeast after landfall, Rita could get stuck under the ridge and meander around in Texas for days, dumping massive amounts of rain. When Tropical Storm Allison did this in 2001, over 3 feet of rain was recorded in Houston.

More on this, including maps, will be posted later today.