Monthly Archives: September 2007

Help with Humberto

Posted on September 12, 2007 | Comments Off on Help with Humberto

The Austin-Travis County EMS and the Texas Army National Guard left this afternoon for the coast to help anyone hurt by TS Humberto.

"Five rescue medics will be assigned to a boat squad; four rescue medics will be assigned to staff two helicopter squads and will be teamed with military pilots and rescue personnel aboard Texas National Guard Blackhawk helicopters."

Humberto is gathering strength little by little and could go ashore near Galveston sometime tonight. JD, at the Mouth of the Brazos blog, is wondering what, if anything, Brazoria County will get, and musing about a beach house he lost to similar storms. 

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Posted in Weather/Climate

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Tropical Depression Nine

Posted on September 12, 2007 | Comments Off on Tropical Depression Nine

That low that’s been churning off the Texas coast for several days has now been declared a tropical depression, south-southwest of Galveston and moving north at six mph. Tropical storm warnings have been issued from Port O’Conner, Texas, to Cameron, Louisiana. It’s forecast to be a tropical storm shortly before making landfall on the Texas coast tonight.

UPDATE: Whew. That didn’t long. It’s Tropical Storm Humberto now and it’s cooking and ready to go. An AF recon sent to measure it returned to base with mechanical problems. But another is on the way. It better be. This thing is moving as fast as Allison did six years ago. Hope it doesn’t have as much rain in it. The ground all along there is ripe for flooding as it is already saturated.

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Posted in Weather/Climate

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The IDF gets its wings back

Posted on September 12, 2007 | Comments Off on The IDF gets its wings back

Just in time for the Jewish new year, a little reminder for Iran and Hezbollah that Syria might not be a safe transit point for North Korean or other weapons into Lebanon and Israel. More analysis from The Belmont Club, and Snoopy the Goon in Israel. At the very least, it demonstrates that Syria’s new Russian air defenses aren’t up to snuff.

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Posted in Israel, The War, Troops

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L’Shanah Tovah

Posted on September 12, 2007 | Comments Off on L’Shanah Tovah

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A sweet new year to our Jewish friends everyone.

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Posted in Israel, Rancho Roly Poly

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Walnut-shaped moon

Posted on September 12, 2007 | Comments Off on Walnut-shaped moon

The Cassini robot spacecraft has flown by Iapetus, the strange, two-toned moon of Saturn, and the data will be rolling in and being analyzed for weeks to come.

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Posted in Space

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Remember Allison?

Posted on September 12, 2007 | Comments Off on Remember Allison?

Accuweather meteorologist Joe Bastardi isn’t predicting another weather bomb like Tropical Storm Allison–which dropped thirty-plus inches of rain on Houston in June of 2001–he just thinks this thing dubbed 90L that’s turning lazily off the northwestern Texas coast could become nasty by Tursday and might even head northeast to Louisiana: "Moral is people on the Texas and Louisiana gulf coasts should be keeping a wary eye open for this, if they have not been already."

UPDATE: KVET meteorologist Troy Kimmel alerts us to the Miami Hurricane Center’s dispatch of Air Force recon into 90L, which is "becoming better organized" and could be a tropical depression later today.

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Posted in Weather/Climate

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Stand and never yield

Posted on September 11, 2007 | Comments Off on Stand and never yield

When about thirty members of my OCS class returned to Fort Benning in 2003, for the first time since our graduation in 1968, there was an OCS Association ceremony in the new OCS complex dedicating a newly-planted tree to former Army colonel and Vietnam veteran Rick Rescorla. He had died saving 2,700 people at the World Trade Center on 9/11. The speaker, a friend of his, broke down in the middle of his talk. Then he wiped away his tears and continued. Today there’s a statue of Rescorla at Fort Benning, and a campaign to get him a posthumous Medal of Freedom. Story and petition here. Profile of Rescorla (and picture of the statue at the bottom) here.

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Posted in The War

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