Just after midnight on this date in 2005, Air Force reconnaissance found 145 mph sustained winds in Hurricane Katrina. It was centered 300 miles SSE of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The central pressure was down to 935 millibars.
The large and powerful hurricane was moving over the 88F water of the Gulf Loop Current. The storm was expected to become a Category Five storm later that day. At 4:20 a.m. CDT, recon reported top winds of 150 mph. Just after 6 a.m., a frightening report was received from the plane. The central pressure had dropped to 908 mph and winds had increased to 160 mph, making it a category five storm.
Meanwhile, it was a beautiful morning on the Mississippi Coast where the ABC3340 news crew was located. We had arrived there the night before and checked into the Comfort Suites on Beach Blvd. There was no way we could stay there, even if it was going to stay open. The hotel was probably only ten feet above the water. We scouted around the coast for locations to shoot from before being ordered to Gulf Shores. This was my 8:56 a.m. post:
Good morning from the beautiful Gulf Coast. We are in the parking lot of the Treasure Bay Casino in Biloxi, The imposing “ship” is probably familiar to anyone who has visited the Mississippi Coast. Unfortunately, it probably will not be here tomorrow. The casino staff has removed the computers, and the money o course, but they will just have to wait and see what happens when the hurricane makes landfall. A storm surge of at least 15-20 feet is expected here when Katrina makes landfall on Monday.
To stay here would be a death wish. Nearly every business is already closed, and the few hotels athat are still open are expected to close shortly. We will come to you live from this location on the 530 pm newscast. Then we will pull back to Mobile to come to you live at 10 and in the morning on Good Morning Alabama.
The winds are starting to pick up just a bit now. They are out of the east at 12-18 mph, occasionally gusting over 20 mph. You finally can feel them. The sky is completely blue to the south with brilliant sunshine. Out over the Gulf of Mexico, the advance guard of the hurricane is showing up in the first high, fibrous cirrus clouds that are the exhaust of the monstrous heat engine just 300 miles south of us in the Gulf.
We just spent a few minutes with Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel on the beach. He has been through some bad hurricanes, but he says this one has him worried. Just saw a wind gust to nearly 30 mph. Things will be going downhill fast later today.
New advisory coming out…will have it posted in just a moment…
Shortly after 9 a.m., New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin finally ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city.
James posted this message at 9:46 from the National Hurricane Center…
REPORTS FROM AN AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT THE MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED TO NEAR 175 MPH…WITH HIGHER GUSTS. KATRINA IS A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN STRENGTH ARE LIKELY DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS. He extemporized with the following comment: “This is too much to believe.”
The NWS Mobile warned that a surge of 12-20 feet would affect Mobile Bay and downtown Mobile and up to 12 feet along the Baldwin County coast. Up to 22 feet was expected along the coast east of landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Just before 1 p.m., the central pressure dropped to 906 mb, bringing it to 1 mb of Camille’s maximum strength.
James posted the text of the famous apocryphal statement from the NWS Slidell at 3:03 with the comment, “This whole thing is surreal.:”
By 4 p.m., the pressure was down to 902 mb. We were already working in Gulf Shores. Cars were stuck in gridlock on I-10 in Mississippi. Ivor van Heeden, the Director of the Louisiana State Hurricane Center was warning that one million people would be homeless after the hurricane after a 26 foot storm surge over topped the levees.
At 9:41 p.m., JB commented on the blog: “Prayers…many prayers are in order for all the folks in New Orleans tonight. In 40+ years of weather work, I have never seen anything this scary…”
The 28th ended with a still category five hurricane 90 miles south southwest of the Mississippi River. Katrina would weaken slightly to a category four storm overnight before making landfall just after 6 a.m. in Plaquemines Parish and roaring northward, making landfall near Slidell four hours later.
The rest is history.
