Friday, August 31, 2012

Honey, I shrunk the storm.

Three days ago, the weatherpersons in my roomie's TeeWee were saying that Isaac was going to dump four to seven inches of rain on us over the weekend, and that good Hoosiers should grab hip waders and report to the statehouse for their sandbag ration.

Yesterday, this had changed to a forecast of two to four inches of rain and Labor Day had been rescheduled for the first dry weekend in October.

This morning they're saying one to three inches and bring an umbrella to the Rib America festival and expect some pauses to dry the track at the NHRA Nationals.

At this rate, I expect clouds to pass over tonight and actually suck moisture up and out of the ground. (Or we'll all be drownded by this time tomorrow, one.)

Meanwhile, Nawrlins has flooded again. This is my shocked face.

20 comments:

Stranger said...

Chicago has so many ward heelers it cannot afford a police force. New Orleans has so many pols with their hands out they cannot afford a couple more feet on their levees.

And I have not heard from friends in Braithwaite, the actual site of the Battle of New Orleans. Their roof and a lot of water was on the idiot box but they are missing in action.

Stranger

Anonymous said...

This would be a wonderful time to wear your new hat - the one you were supposed to wear to the Blogmeet. I so looked forward to your completing the snarkiness you started. No, I am not butt-hurt, just disappointed that what might have been the snark of the year (month? week?) might have been completed and I could bask in the anonymous glow of having contributed to it being carried off.

But even current circumstances would be a fitting time to wear the new hat.

I'm not signing this on purpose.

jimbob86 said...

"Meanwhile, Nawrlins has flooded again....."

Umm ..... lemmme see here......

Build a city with it's foundations resting on mud, below sea level, right close to the sea....... check. Put a bunch of unionized public servants in charge of keeping it dry....... check. Now let Mother nature dump a bunch of rain on it..... what do you think is going to happen?

I'll tell you: it's going to get declared a Federal Disaster Aarea, so that the local pols can hand out bales of dollar bills to all those public servants to mop up all that water, that's what.

NOLA is a fine example of pouring so much money down a drain that the drain won't work anymore....

jimbob86

Ambulance Driver said...

Isaac has decided he likes Louisiana so much he just hung around for three days and dumped another 20 inches of rain in towns north of New Orleans.

At this rate, we'd be ecstatic if he decided to move on up to Indy.

mustanger said...

Tam: "This is my shocked face."

jimbob86: "pouring money down drain... drain won't work..."

That's about what I'd been thinking too.

Y'all recall NOLA was France's idea.

Erin Palette said...

Louisiana should hire some Dutch civil engineers to handle their levee and drain systems. After all, they've been keeping the sea at bay for hundreds of years.

Ken said...

I would really like to see the NHRA Nationals some day. I love taking my family to the IHRA track an hour from us (Dragway 42, West Salem, OH) (IO!). Even my wife enjoys it -- she wants to take a Smart ForTwo down the track, which pretty well describes her sense of humor. :-)

og said...

OBAMA HATES POOR PEOPLE!!!

Home on the Range said...

I am going to leave the smoked salmon and smoked sturgeon hanging on your doorknob on the way home from work, as there just isn't going to be enough water for the damn things to swim there.

Bobbie knows it's being dropped off as well so Huck won't snag it and eat it all.

Enjoy!

Matt G said...

Bary O' would seriously get a thumbs up from me if he would propose that we moved the Port Of New Orleans thirty miles north, and let the people who chose to live in the remaining historical park of Old New Orleans sign waivers saying that they understand the FEMA won't be around to help their underwater butts, next time.

Kristophr said...

Jimbob86: NOLA is doomed.

The Corp of Engineers has diked the Mississippi all the way to the gulf, so the yearly floods don't happen every year.

All that sand, instead of getting spread all over the delta, goes straight into the gulf.

Which means the delta is no longer being built up, and is slowly sliding into the abyssal plain.

NOLA will continue to slide below sea level as long as the yearly floods do not happen. The Mississippi and it's two levees are damned near an aqueduct that tower over the town right now.

PhilaBOR said...

I haven't run the numbers, but wouldn't it make more sense to barge some dredge sand down ol miss and raise the level of n'arlins up by 20'? Put a little rip-rap on the outside edges...

jimbob86 said...

@Kristopher-

I know that. You know that. It's just that the .gov does not seem to know that...... which wouldn't bother me in the least, except they are using some of my money (and quite a lot of my children's money and yet more of my as yet unborn grandkids' money-compound interest is a beeotch!) to do it.... it would be amusing to watch them pee up that rope, if I did not have to pay for admission, the rope, and the beer to keep their bladders full.....

Frank W. James said...

Considering I'm having my farm machinery sale tomorrow I truly hope you're right.

The irony hasn't escaped me that the year I quit farming the Midwest suffers the worst drought since 1988 and the day I pick to auction my farm machinery is the day a Hurricane decides to pass through northwest Indiana.

You can't win 'em all, no matter how hard you try...

All The Best,
Frank W. James

The Great and Powerful Oz said...

Jst like a woman, expecting 4 to 7 inches and being disappointed when it was only 1 - 3 inches......

Cybrludite said...

Actually, we had a little street flooding, but little to none actually in people's houses inside the rebuilt levees. The house flooding y'all are seeing are in an assortment of nearby towns & exurbs outside of the hurricane protection levee system.

Cybrludite said...

But what do I know? I'm just on the actual scene...

Anonymous said...

Indiana has always had a way of sucking the weather out of... weather. Down here in the Ohio valley its been scary how the good weather just funnels around us and we'really left with the bland. Weather forecasters should be decimated by lottery once a year in IMHO.

Kristophr said...

PhilaBOR: Wouldn't help much.

They would have to rebuild the town on the mound you have created ... and the whole damned delta itself is doing exactly what all deltas do when you turn off the yearly sand faucet: It is slowly sinking into the sea.

The Nile delta is disappearing in exactly the same manner, now that the Aswan Dam prevents yearly floods.

Kristophr said...

Cyberluddite: It still can't be avoided.

The ground that city is sitting on is slowly sliding into the gulf.

All deltas are slow motion landslides into the abyssal plain.