The Sun Herald | 02/18/2007 | The perfect insurance storm?

The Sun Herald | 02/18/2007 | The perfect insurance storm?: "In the survey, Marshall estimated Katrina's peak wind gusts at 115 mph in Bay St. Louis, the hardest-hit area. He concluded the storm surge arrived before peak winds and that there was no tornado damage along the Coast. Reports from other sources measured wind gusts of 140 miles per hour, found evidence of tornados or tornadic winds and of wind damage well in advance of Katrina's unprecedented surge."


The above conclusion (re: surge before peak winds) comes from "damage and failure consultant Timothy P. Marshall, who completed a Hurricane Katrina Damage Survey about a month after the storm" according to the same Sun Herald article.

Now I have to clarify my position concerning Katrina's wind and water -- as an eye-witness. Although I disagree strongly with the suggestion of sustained 140 mph winds for umpteen hours associated with Hurricane Katrina (Category 2 hurricanes don't produce 140 mph sustained winds.. and this one was no exception. It is entirely possible that at some point that morning there was a 140 mph peak gust -- however the average sustained winds were much much much lower than this.) -- the suggestion that the winds arrived AFTER or even CONCURRENT with the storm surge is a bald-faced lie. Utterly unbelievable nonsense.

By the time the storm surge surprised us all -- we were at the point in the storm when we were pretty sure the winds had peaked. The few longer-lasting gusts we had experienced were becoming further and further apart and the wind had become mostly blustery. We were simply waiting for things to die down so we could go outside and rake up leaves and shingles.

Oddly enough -- this consultant-fellows 'findings' are actually more consistent with a typical hurricane than what happened here. It's true that storm surge is usually the first event of a hurricane.... Sometimes preceding the actual storm by several hours. Evacuation routes can be closed by rising water way out in front of an incoming hurricane. That's how it's supposed to happen. But this time.. IT DIDN'T.

So all this does is leave this frustrated woman (that's me) pounding her head against the mystery of it all... A mystery that will probably never, ever be solved as long as big money has a stake in any plausible explanations.

Is anybody ever going to tell me how a Category 2 hurricane generated a Category 5 + (totally unprecedented) storm surge? Nope. Not as long as there's a wind vs. water battle. Is anybody gonna explain why this totally unprecedented Category 5+ storm surge behaved abnormally all over the place -- arrived late with incredible force and left early? Nope. Not as long as people find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to deny the suspicious power of the wave that inundated the northern Gulf Coast that morning in order to get their insurance claims paid.

How mysteriously convenient.