VERY ANNOYED WITH MIXED MESSAGES AND THANKFUL WE HAVE BILLY WAGNER IN THE KEYS

So much to say and don't know where to begin. Drinking coffee and finished an Arizona Cappuccino Shake.. you know what that is don't you? YooHoo for Baby Boomers who like Starbucks.

That is the nicest thing I can say and what I am saying is not based on too much caffeine. First of all. Thank God we have Billy Wagner down in South Florida. Really Monroe County but have to tell you old timers in Miami pay attention to when Billy blinks. He would have issued a mandatory evacuation of the Florida Keys much earlier and trust me it is not easy getting out of Key West under the best of circumstances.. there is only ONE road in or out until you get to Key Largo and have two roads to the mainland.

But he does and he doesnt give mixed messages. True.. so many Key West people do stay but they wouldn't if a Cat 5 storm bordering on Cat 6 were plowing their way with no model showing any deviation from their path. And, he would not open up La Concha as a last stand place to stay.

There are too many mixed messages being given with this storm and at the same time.. too little too late if you ask me. The mandatory evacuation should have been back when they issued an involuntary evacuation.

Understand that for those who stay.. and many stay because they don't want to leave all they have ... but possessions are not all that important.. really when your life is at stake. And, after the storm... New Orleans will be a very ugly place to be stuck with only the army bossing you around while looking for dead bodies and pissed you are in their way and didn't leave.

So..why am I so pissed?

Because the barometric pressure has dropped drastically. I'm sorry but going from 907 to 902 makes me inhale and forget to exhale. 902.. low. Very low.. Lower than the last advisory. When the barometric pressure decreases it is a SURE sign that the storm is going to intensify.. wind speeds follow later and are harder to sometimes get data on vs the pressure. As Bastardi said somewhere.. one thing you can rely on is the barometric pressure. The whole reasoning for the 35 storm being what it is was based on barometric pressure. Lowest barometric pressure.. When Landsea and Best Track Team tackled Andrew it was raised to a Cat 5 based on barometric pressure readings. Final say. Bottom Line.

Yet the wind speed was lowered to 165mph and that is a mixed signal. Obviously the winds have not matched the pressure fall and unless she makes landfall damn fast they will.

Really unhappy about this as I think it gives people stuck on roads who started out late false hope that Katrina is beginning to lower in intensity and might even go down to Cat 3 and maybe she won't hit here but further west and maybe the city won't flood and maybe Grandma got run over by a reindeer ... Nope. Don't buy it.

If the pressure is still falling... that is not a good sign.

Mixed signals.

Mandatory evacuation but hey..here's a building we have that can seat 70,000 or so .. so as soon as we check to make sure you have no guns or knives and do proper security checks you can go on up to your seat and wait for the electric to go out and hope that this place is still standing. And..if the city floods.. where will they go if the pumps fail and they have to pump the water out. If the city is letting them use it.. then it has the Seal of Approval and is like saying.. you don't really have to evacuate.. you just need to find a good place to ride out the storm.

10,000 people in.. thousands waiting in line while they go through everyone's belongings (hear Matt Drudge cracking up on this one.. now is the time to do a full body search .. run your fingers through every part of that garbage bag with all your prized crap in it and make sure there are no nail files before you get a seat in the bleechers.. NO WORDS).. maybe they can set up some Express Ticket like they have at Disney.

Other than Thank God for Billy Wagner in the Keys... Thank God.
Going off... post from Hurrcity.. going to make dinner.. no words. None. A bit redundant but I can't think too much right now.
Bobbi...
Oh......and lastly.. I really do believe Katrina is making landfall faster than is expected.. think she will have a surprise or two for us like she did in Miami. Hoping she finds a way to surprise us for the good.

Just heard on CNN.. There has NEVER been a study done to prove that the building can withstand the pressure of a strong storm and to assure people being safe.. in the SuperDome... so why exactly are they letting people in there??? Someone explain this to me.. no words.
Okay.. have really lost it now. Tempted to actually write bastardi I agreee with what he said earlier which is to start going by MB readings and not the wind speeds.

I'm sorry but all day Thursday the pressure was dropping but they kept winds at 50. Remember.. we were joking about it? But, the pressure was dropping..so those who really go by pressure (which many of us were raised to do) knew it was strengthening.

If they had upped the wind speed more people might have taken it more seroiusly than a 50mph minimal Tropical Storm.

Maybe only 1 or 2 lives would have been spared.. would have been worth it.

We really need to look at how we do this and we cannot give out mixed signals.

That is what NOLA is doing. Mandatory evacuation but if you can't get out.. wink wink you can stay in the Superdome. Logic would state if you can stay in the Superdome you can probably stay in your friends 3rd floor condo somewhere and not be in the dark with 50,000 people in the Superdome.

Thank GOD for Billy Wagner.. when he says Evacutate the Keys.. he doesn't mean you can set up in the Holiday Isle Hotel and hide in the bathroom.

So...now we are telling people who don't want to stay on the roads out of town that the wind speed is coming down... not so high anymore and giving the illusion that it will be not that bad. But.. at the same time..mixed signals.. we are also showing the pressure has dropped now from 907 to 902 which means that most likely she is going through an intensification phase and the eye is pulsing up and down and winds will come up again.

You can't have it both ways. Yeah yeah.. takes a while for the winds to allign with the pressure readings and...

I'm really pissed.

Think this is way too many mixed signals and giving hope where it doesn't really exist.

And, imagine somewhere Joe Bastardi is freaking.. as are others who go by pressure as to the strength of the storm.