Mom sent me a link to a video tonight - taken by some unknown person who rode out Hurricane Katrina at the Beau Rivage casino in Biloxi. Pay close attention to the waves that just keep coming and coming and coming. (And those poor pelicans too...)
If anyone knows the source to credit for this video -- please contact me.
I'd like to make a couple of observations about the video and perhaps put things into perspective for my out-of-area visitors who are not familiar with the geography of the Gulf Coast or with hurricanes in general. First - as I mentioned above - the video was taken from the Beau Rivage casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. Biloxi is located approximately 90 miles east of New Orleans, Louisiana. Biloxi is also located approximately 20 miles west of where we are here in Pascagoula, Mississippi. That's a whole lot of area for a hurricane storm surge to cover.
As my husband and I watched this video last night there was also something else we could not help but notice: Katrina lacked a certain oomph when it came to her winds. Shots taken inside a concrete parking garage (I'm guessing from at least the third or fourth floor considering that post-Katrina damage reports tell of waves topping two stories battering the casino facilities) are obviously going to make gusting wind and rain seem a bit more intense than they are, but pay attention to the shots outside the garage. The video showed us that the winds there in Biloxi were no worse than they were here in Pascagoula that morning -- nasty squalls scattered with some impressive gusts. And that's just it - I'm not denying the gusts accompanying this storm... What is lacking are the sustained winds. Did anyone else notice that the feathers on those brave pelican souls floating out there were not even ruffled?
Now I know there are a lot of people groaning out there -- a lot of people embroiled in a bitter battle with insurance companies over wind vs. water damage... So let me clarify: There was a hurricane out there and she packed some hurricane-force winds. However, I have run into quite a few folks who think that the recent downgrade of Hurricane Katrina to a category 3 storm at landfall was not justified. As someone who rode out this storm -- I believe for sure that it was and also contend that if the category were based on winds alone she would have been even weaker.
Uh.. but now somebody explain to me where that 40 foot wall of water came from....
2 comments:
I found a slightly shorter version of the video on youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfpwYhJXXT8
but it doesn't say whether it was posted by the person who took it, or if the poster just found it somewhere. You apparently can send him email, though.
thanks trudy -- I'll send out an email. All we know for sure is that whoever was filming was definitely not a local as he didn't quite get "Biloxi" right. :)
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