Rita Madness

Ritahavana

If not a “finest hour,” the media coverage in the immediate aftermath of Katrina was at least one of the “better hours.”

With a new storm brewing off Florida and aiming for Eastern Texas, however, it appears the press is acting like underestimation is unaffordable. As if preparing for a replay, Tuesday’s media was beginning to acquaint us with Rita like she was Katrina’s twin sister.

This new storm might well be violent, even catastrophic. I had a few readers near the Texas Gulf write me early yesterday to say that they were being evacuated. Regardless how it plays out however, there is already an adrenaline surge in the coverage which will only grow more intense with the likelihood of a storm surge.

For it’s home page Tuesday evening, the NYT went with this eerie shot of a wave hitting a seawall in Havana. The early model car seems to establish a historical context — as if this year’s vengence from the sea will be marked for the ages. (Extra credit to the reader who can identify brand, model and approximate year.)

If the Havana shot is moody, solitary and mindful of precedent, there were other shots yesterday that pulled other threads.

Ritakeywest-1

This image shows passengers trying emphatically to board the last Greyhound out of Key West. If Rita turns out to be as powerful as feared, sharp eyes will recount how equitable the escape will have been for the wanting, as compared to the well off, and how it was for people of all colors and ethnicities.

Given that the photograph was taken for the Palm Beach paper, perhaps it also serves as a statement. Maybe the local media is saying that it is watching out this time, and advocating for more equitable preparation.

Ritamyway

Possibly evoking the South Asian Tsunami, this image (from the AP website) feels manipulative given the anticipatory nature of this story. I see it warning of what could befall the defenseless everyman once the storm makes land. Visually, the image transcends the incident of this single wave, suggesting (given that the wave is larger and wider than the frame) that the scope of the threat exceeds any normal scale. The fallen bicycle is also evocative. Among the numerous possibilities, I see: “no escape,” “drop everything and run,” and “you can pick it up but it’s just going to get knocked right down.”

Noaa350

And then, just like the Rorschach card designed to induce color shock, Drudge had this NOAA image up for at least part of last evening. As we’ve discussed in previous threads on the BAG, for people who aren’t savvy at interpreting visual scientific and technical data (which probably includes most of us), an image like this can be just terrifying.

Drudgehurricaneheadline

For pure dramatic value, of course, headlines don’t get better than this. (Although, as others have observed, Drudge is certainly not alone in pumping things up more than they are already.

(image 1 : photographer unattributed/Reuters. September 20, 2005. Havana, Cuba. At nyt.com. image 2 : Lannis Walters/Palm Beach Post – AP. September 20, 2005. Key West, Florida. At washingtonpost.com. image 3: J. Pat Carter/AP. September 20, 2005. Key West, Florida. At apnews.myway.com. Image 4: Satellite image. noaa.gov. September 21, 2005. via: Drudge.com. image 5: Headline. Drudge.com. September 20, 2005.)

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cdj

What strikes me most about the satellite image is that the coasts are outlined in red, as if the land itself were in danger (and in a sense it is, given how bad coastal erosion is in the gulf.)
I am fairly scientifically literate, and it still offers me no real information. I’d assume it’s color coded based on wind speed, but without a key I can’t tell if it’s a mild category 1 or a strong category 5 hurricane. It does little more than evoke a viceral fear.
Gary Koutnik

The car looks like a late-50s Chevy. When Fidel came to power, it was so swift, I understand, that those who fled left their cars – and those cars, lovingly maintained over the years, still clog the streets of Havana today.
Phredd

Hmm, looks like a 1960 Chevy Impala, or thereabouts.
Here’s one
Here’s another
Beautiful cars. Extra large back seats. Ahh good times. Good times.
eva

Chevy Bel Aire, 1963
George Myers

Strangely affecting, the poorest parish in NYC was or is St. Rita’s in the South Bronx, where I grew up for a time. The church vaulted ceiling is actually the top of a first floor, the congregants meet on the basement floor. Another parish nearby (St. Anne’s?) is where Mother Theresa and Princess Diana once met. The former borough president of the Bronx is running against the current Mayor of NYC. Just before 9/11 it was announced the WTC was being sold, and a major local network queried the candidates running in the primary that followed 9/11 what they would do with the money and were rated by their what’s the word, possibilities according to experts. Someone should look closer at NYC, I almost drowned in a small storms, storm surge on the FDR (missed it by about 35 minutes) and have whole construction lots fill with water from the underground streams and surrounding water. Like the WTC some of the newer sites are surrounded by wall excavated and filled with a bentonite slurry, forcing water out, before being filled with cages of re-bar and concrete, down into rock, invented by the French I’m told. Trump wanted one on pillars in the river but terrorist might blow it up it was long ago thought (that is before 9/11)
gleex

All the images are scary.
The classic car & wave photo is dramatic since it strips away a feeling of security. Most people, most of the time, feel fairly safe in their car (you know they curse at another driver, but would not face to face out of the car), yet the wave is coming anyway. I imagine the only scarier (non-morbid) image would be a wave battering a house, which is our ultimate in shelter and security (the photos of waves crashing into costal houses makes ones pulse skip a beat).
The images of people trying to get out on the bus, and the person and bike being hit by the wave really capture panic very well – though a photo with more people might better reflect the massive human response need to confront the massive storm. Keeping a reporter’s eye on what is done for the less fortunate is a great aspect of this shot, as I understand it these people do not have the resource to leave on their own. The people trying to get out is really panicky since it invokes thoughts of waiting in a long line when you really need to move on, and not only that the line was broken down and though you might have been up front the line is no longer defined, its getting out of control a bit – such as at the airport when they call for passengers in line for a flight soon to depart and people surge forward.
The person by the bike the panic is more in my thoughts looking at the picture – Thinking what is that person doing there? They should leave right away!
The NOAA image is scary since it shows to scale the massive size of Rita, a fury of Nature. The colors are interesting, I basically understand them, but have long suspected that many people see orange and red as more scary than the “darker” (on the scale) purple/violet. In any case it’s scary enough as is. It kind of evokes a fear that (I have no clue what the evidence is) global warming might be funneling hurricanes into the Gulf where it has warmed the water. I do not know what the trends have been, or will be – but if you notice the image shows the storm entering the Gulf “squeezing” in-between Florida and Cuba and our other neighbors. I know the water in the Gulf has warmed and it is scary to think Cat 5 hurricanes will be tearing through there every year (or alternating between there and Florida and its east coast).
One last note, the cropping away of upper Florida may make this storm look a bit bigger (I do not know about the relative sizes of hurricanes). The distance from Florida to Cuba is about 80 miles, so to its Orange fringe the storm appears to be 100 miles in diameter. I recall how HUGE Katrina looked as a hurricane when I saw it on TV I swear it filled up the entire Gulf, it was over 400 miles in diameter with a 32 miles “eye” at landfall.
Asta

I feel like I have become stuck in time. The images and the stories have been copied onto a loop and are being played over and over. On any given morning, I can wake to the news of “hurricane, missing white girl, Marines killed, car bombing, gas prices spike, Bush on vacation.”
It’s like Groundhog Day, but no matter what I do, the next day doesn’t really get any better.
Matthew

I feel similarly, Asta. I used to listen to NPR, but I can’t anymore. It’s like they’re playing a tape over and over again through different voices with differrent undertones and overtones.
I wonder sometimes about the newscasters. Why are they participating in this? Is it fear? Apathy? Do they not know that foreign mercenaries are protecting the property of the rich from the poor who are starving and dying in the streets of New Orleans? Do they not know that we are living in the shadow of a Police State, that it is unfolding now under the cover of night, a night that they are complicit in creating?
As Hurricane Rita approaches land, I pray that the Power of Hope that is available to hearts in distress proves stronger than the powers of fear and despair.
http://dearauntnettie.com/ dancinfool

1960 Chevy Bel Air sedan
http://www.lowroad.blogspot.com tr

yup. 1960 Chevy. At first I thought it might be a 59, but nope, looks more like a 60. Dancinfool’s got it right.
http://bobrixon.blogspot.com/ Rix

The NOAA image Drudge posted isn’t nearly as visually arresting as those of tightly wound “evil” eye Katrina in the hours just before it struck the Gulf coast, which really needed no meteorological interpretation to convince how strong it was. But then, we expect “cheap shots” from Drudge.
Anna

I’m so glad someone else brought up NPR–I thought it was just me! Although I will give them credit for breaking away for a few hours yesterday to discuss the London bombers’ practice run.
The picture of the man being hit by the wave looks like it was planned. He is sitting there and appears to be looking right at the camera. Also, unless a wave had previously hit I figure that he had laid his bike down for the picture. But to argue against my thought, if a wave had hit to knock down his bike wouldn’t it have knocked him down too?
http://www.woodka.com donna

We had a Bel Air station wagon as a kid – oved those fins! Many a happy night at the drive-in laying in our jammies in the back of the Bel Air. ;^)
I’m glad people are playing up Rita and getting prepared this time. After Katrina, it would be sad to see a replay.
I don’t feel like the loop is just replaying over and over. Not yet. Perhaps when we start seeing 4-5 big cat 5s every season, I’ll feel that way. But yes, the depressingly familiar feeling of things being messed up has been there for me since Bush was appointed. It’s more like, “what will he screw up today?” though. Like watching Gilligan’s Island over and over everyday, maybe, but with people dying every time Gilligan messes it up again… and I certainly keep wondering when we’re getting off this island…
dogfonam

definitely a 60 chevy belair, or biscayne, 4 door sedan.
Charles Minx

It sure looks like a ‘60 Chevrolet Biscayne. I backed one belonging to my father into a telephone pole, customizing the tailfins thereby.
Jay Salter

1957 Chevy sedan
http://profile.typekey.com/buda_jenn/ buda_jenn

Yes, it was a sad day when I turned NPR off permanently (first months of Iraq war).
Now I’ve never been even close to a hurricane, so maybe I’m way off base here, but the media focus on mandatory evacuation seems to discount what happened in New Orleans (and why were there seemly so many single passenger cars on the highway out?)- It wasn’t JUST a massive hurricane, which missed the city directly, but the travesty of the levees and the “surprise” flooding. Seems any deaths from this would be debris related. While islands, oil rigs, and Galveston may disappear for awhile, it won’t be a NOLA situation.
Asta

Matthew and Anna, it’s interesting that you both mentioned NPR because that was exactly what I was referring to but didn’t go into detail. We always had our radio alarm clock set to NPR, and about a year into the Iraq war, after morning after morning of awaking to “yesterday President Bush….President Bush will meet today….Bush plans to visit Blair….Bush, Bush, Bush” I woke up yelling “I have had enough!” and later that day I bought a CD alarm clock and now I awake to the sounds of loons calling to each other on some serene distant lake (that probably doesn’t exist anymore thanks to Bushie’s environmental policies).
porsillo

64 chevy impala
mugatea

Asta, I was just in Maine for a week and the loons there, on lakes and in the ocean, are doing well. The summer crowds were gone and the loons had plenty of space and quiet to do their stuff. That call is amazing. We spent some time in a cove under some cliffs and when the loons would call the sound echoed off of the cliffs, it was quite a show. Maine has a really good program to help the loons live in this country of mass polluters. Locals are very aware of their loons happiness.
Also … I happy to report that the Bald Eagle population is doing very well up there. On our way home a pair was playing in the air over our car. We spotted at least one eagle every day we were there. More than we have ever seen before.
I am, however, very concerned about what the migrating birds will encounter as they visit southern wetlands on the way to their winter homes.
captain_pabst

That’s a 1960 Bel-Air. I have one myself just like it.
captain_pabst

Looking closer, it could also be an Impala 4-door post. It looks like there could be chrome trim on the front quarter panel which would indicate such. It’s not a Biscayne though.