To understand what happened (or more accurately, what didn't happen), you first need to understand how hurricanes work. Tropical storms and hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise. They get their fuel from the left side of the storm, which the engine (the "eye") pulls in and swings it around the bottom and to the right. The reason the upper-right (northeast) quadrant is the strongest is because this is where the outflow meets the inflow. Centrifugal force comes into play, too. As the storm gets stronger, it becomes easier to "fling" the moisture out at this point.
Meteorologists disagree somewhat on how storms grow in size. Obviously, it has to do with available fuel, but what makes one storm a compact 100 mile in diameter category 4 versus a monster like Katrina? The majority seem to agree it has to do with how high the storm's clouds go - how tall it is. But here is where they seem to disagree a bit. Some think that compact storms have taller clouds because the fuel goes up and swirls around the eye. Others think wider storms have taller clouds because there is nowhere for the fuel to go because it is constrained by the outward bands.
Whatever the reason, they seem to agree that Gustav didn't become the monster it was supposed to because of wind sheer in the upper atmosphere on the left side of the storm that was present as the storm emerged from Cuba. Although it was over the Loop Current (which provides plenty of fuel), this wind sheer essentially acted like a hair dryer, evaporating the moisture before it could be sucked around the eye and used for fuel. Once it got north of the Loop Current, it encountered a deep pocket of cooler water which further inhibited intensification.
Meteorologists are also conflicted as to why the storm started moving faster as it got north of Cuba. The theory that makes the most sense to me is that the lack of fuel essentially made the storm lighter. With less weight to carry, it was able to move faster. Faster moving storms are also less capable of gathering strength. It was able to maintain some of its strength because the shallow waters near the coast were warmer, and its trajectory allowed it to gather a lot of fuel as the eye remained over water a lot longer than it would have if the storm was traveling straight north.
Whatever the reason, we are grateful to Mother Nature for all it did to prevent Gustav from being far worse than it could have been.
New Orleans City Update
Apparently, garbage services resume tomorrow, and SDT already has the French Quarter cleaned up. Since they have electricity (and Coop's has air conditioning) we may be spending a lot of time there.
A quick check of the traffic sites shows no major slow downs in the New Orleans area. Hopefully, anyone within a couple of hours either left yesterday or is leaving this AM. If we are lucky, maybe we won't encounter anything worse than something like morning rush hour traffic.
People
As I mentioned in an early post, Jeff "Coop" Cooperman, Laura Roe, Barry Franklin, Jason Palmer, and a few others rode out the storm in New Orleans. We heard from Coop last night. Coop's Place is open and doing gangbuster business, just like it did after Katrina. Sysco is even delivering food and supplies already.
Jeff Underwood also rode out the storm. Since Katrina, Jeff has purchased Buffa's on Esplanade Avenue just across from the French Quarter. Buffa's is open as well an doing great business.
Joe Fontana evacuated to Memphis and is heading back today.
Glenn Cozzi rode out the storm in the French Quarter and said his lights didn't even flicker. The news is not so good for us, according to Glenn. He drove by our house this AM and checked things out (he has a set of keys). He said everything is fine - no damage - but we don't have power. Hopefully it will be on by the time we get home tonight. If not, he said we can use his generator.
Going Home
The troops here are busy packing and cleaning. I told them to unleash their inner Thing 1 and Thing 2 and make this place cleaner/better than how we found it.
Lesley Weakley has been an amazing/fantastic/wonderful hostess and we all hope we are welcome here again should it be required to evacuate again.
Since we pretty much ate all the food we brought or bought, we are going to head out for breakfast in a little bit so Fay can get her iHop fix before we hit the road. We hope to be on the road sometime between noon and 2 PM.
The lack of power obviously means a lack of Internet when we get back. I will try to post through email on my iPhone, but the best way to get short updates will be to follow me on Twitter.
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