Connect with us

Louisiana

More Bad News: 2005 vs 2024 Hurricane Seasons in Pictures

Published

on

More Bad News: 2005 vs 2024 Hurricane Seasons in Pictures


Lafayette, LA (KPEL News) – The majority of Louisiana residents, and even Americans, remember the hurricane season of 2005. A record 27 named storms formed that year, and 7 of them made landfall. The two hurricanes the jump to the minds of Louisiana residents are Katrina and Rita. That year, all the conditions were ripe for such an active season, and all those ingredients being mixed together just right proved disastrous.

Warm water fuels hurricanes. The warmer the water and the deeper it runs, the more gas there is to fuel the engine. Add low wind sheer to that recipe, and those tropical cyclones grow strong and big. Right now, the water in the Atlantic Basin and especially in the Gulf of Mexico are warmer going into hurricane season 2024 than they were in 2005. A La Nina pattern typically provides less wind sheer. That’s really bad news for Louisiana and Texas.

Katrina made landfall near the Louisiana/Mississippi line in August of 2005 with the third lowest pressure on record for a landfalling hurricane. The storm devastated New Orleans not only because of its strength, but also because the levees protecting the city broke and caused catastrophic flooding.

Rita came onshore on the Louisiana/Texas border between Sabine Pass and Johnson’s Bayou, decimating the coastal areas of Cameron Parish and causing devastation to communities further north and east. While Rita doesn’t get the recognition that Katrina does, it’s central pressure dropped 5 millibars lower than its predecessor. Most homes and businesses in Cameron Parish were completely washed away by storm surge and winds.

Advertisement

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is predicting its most severe season to date for 2024, and they have made that prediction based on the forecast factors that drive hurricane formation: water temperature and wind sheer.

A side by side view, developed by Yale Climate Connections, of the conditions that existed in 2005 and the conditions they are looking at for the current forecast is frightening.

Yale Climate Connections

Courtesy Yale Climate Connections

They explain, in their writeup about hurricane season, why warm water in this particular area is concerning.

Although record-setting sea surface temperatures alone don’t guarantee a busy hurricane season, they do strongly influence it, especially when the abnormal warmth coincides with the tropical belt known as the Main Development Region, or MDR, the area where 85% of Category 3, 4, and 5 hurricanes form. When considered alongside a developing La Niña — the periodic cooling of the equatorial Pacific that reduces storm-busting Atlantic wind shear — the unprecedented ocean heat is driving up seasonal hurricane outlooks higher than ever before.

The data certainly backs up NOAA’s prediction for 17 to 25 total named storms (storms with winds of 39 mph or higher), 8 to 13 hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), and 4 to 7 of those will become major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher).

Advertisement

Read More: NOAA Releases ‘Severe’ 2024 Hurricane Season Forecast for LA, TX

Preparation and planning is key. No one has a crystal ball or knows if Louisiana or Texas will take a hit this year. Those of us who have lived through storms over the last few decades understand that it only takes one to make it a bad season.

2024 Hurricane Names

LIST: 10 Deadliest Louisiana Hurricanes

Gallery Credit: Rob Kirkpatrick





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Louisiana

Lana Del Rey Marries Jeremy Dufrene in Louisiana Wedding

Published

on

Lana Del Rey Marries Jeremy Dufrene in Louisiana Wedding



Lana Del Rey.
Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)

Lana Del Rey and Jeremy Dufrene are reportedly married!

The “Born To Die” singer, 39, and the alligator tour guide tied the knot in Louisiana, on Thursday, September 26, according to photos and videos published by DailyMail.com.

Del Rey wore a floor-length white wedding gown for her nuptials, which took place by the water in Des Allemandes – the same bayou Dufrene uses to host his popular tours, per the outlet.

Advertisement

The Grammy nominee’s father, Robert Grant, reportedly walked Del Rey down the aisle to where Dufrene, dressed in a black suit, white dress shirt and leather shoes was awaiting his bride.

Celebrity Weddings of 2024: Stars Who Got Married This Year Bjorn Ulvaeus and Christina Sas

elebrity Weddings of 2024: Stars Who Got Married This Year

The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner, Lauren Alaina, Usher and more celebrities went to the chapel in 2024 and got married. Turner met Theresa Nist during the inaugural season of the Bachelor Nation spinoff, which aired in late 2023. Weeks after their televised proposal, Turner and Nist wed in a live TV ceremony on January […]

Del Rey’s mother Patricia Ann Hill, 68, her sister Caroline Grant and brother Charlie Hill-Grant all attended the couple’s wedding, reported the outlet.

According to Dailymail.com, following the nuptials, the newly wedded couple and guests reportedly celebrated the reception along the public harbor – near where the exchanging of vows took place.

The news comes just hours after it was confirmed that Del Rey and Dufrene had obtained a marriage license in Louisiana’s Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court on Monday, September 23, according to court records obtained by Us Weekly.

Advertisement

While they were first linked late last month, Del Rey has uploaded pictures of herself with Dufrene on Facebook dating back to 2019 when she first went on one of his wildlife tours.

Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey.
(Photo by Katja Ogrin/Redferns/Getty Images for ABA)

 

Del Rey and Dufrene made their public debut earlier this month when the alligator tour guide accompanied Del Rey to Karen Elson’s wedding at New York City’s Electric Lady Studios. (Elson, 45, married Lee Foster, who owns the recording studio.)

The “Summertime Sadness” singer has previously been linked to Barrie-James O’Neill, Francesco Carrozzini, G-Eazy, Sean Larkin and Clayton Johnson. While speaking with Rolling Stone in 2014, she revealed that she thrives in intense relationships.

Celebrity Engagements of 2024

Celebrity Engagements of 2024: See Which Stars Got Engaged This Year

Many stars are taking their relationships to the next level in 2024 by getting engaged. Less than one month after Bachelor in Paradise season 9 alum Brayden Bowers revealed that he was dating fellow Bachelor Nation personality Christina Mandrell, he proposed. “I just knew that there was something special, and there was something different, and […]

“It’s been beautiful, but it’s been confusing because when that’s your prerogative, things don’t end in a traditional way,” Del Rey told the outlet in July 2014. “You don’t have that traditional relationship where maybe you go out with couples at night, or you do normal things. It’s more of an extension of the creative process.””

In the profile, Del Rey confirmed that she was “really looking for an equal” and wasn’t afraid of an age-gap romance.

“I sort of have an affinity for really good, strong, self-assured people,” she said. “I would say I haven’t met them as much in people who are in their 20s. So for me, I have nothing in common necessarily with somebody who’s in their 20s — yet. That I know of, thus far.”

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Louisiana

Louisiana prosecutors drop most serious charge in deadly arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene | CNN

Published

on

Louisiana prosecutors drop most serious charge in deadly arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene | CNN




AP
 — 

Louisiana prosecutors on Thursday dismissed the most serious remaining charge in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, dropping a negligent homicide count against a veteran trooper seen on body-camera video dragging the Black motorist by his ankle shackles and forcing him to lie face down before he stopped breathing.

The move coming just a month before Kory York’s trial marks only the latest withering of a case that began in 2022 with five officers indicted on a range of charges over the stunning, punching and pepper-spraying of Greene following a high-speed chase.

Now, only two still face charges, multiple felony malfeasance counts against York and another officer, all but eliminating the chance that anyone will face significant prison time in a death troopers initially blamed on a car crash.

Advertisement

“This whole thing started with a lie and a coverup and it’s going to end the same way,” a furious Mona Hardin told The Associated Press when told of the latest dropped charge in her son’s death.

“You have so much evidence yet no one wants to be the one pointing the finger against killer cops,” she said through tears. “They killed my son and no one gives a rat’s ass.”

Union Parish District Attorney John Belton said in a statement that even though the grand jury indicted York for negligent homicide, the evidence “does not meet the ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard necessary to secure a conviction at trial.”

Belton also dropped a malfeasance count against the recently retired York that stemmed from authorities’ still-unproven suspicion that Greene was pepper-sprayed even after he was handcuffed.

“It’s clear to me that the case should never have been indicted,” said York attorney Mike Small, adding he seeks full exoneration of his client at his October 28 trial. “I am confident that once the jury looks a those videos they’re not going to see any illegal touching of Ronald Greene by Kory York.”

Advertisement

Greene’s May 2019 death sparked national outrage and was among several beatings of Black men by Louisiana troopers that prompted the US Justice Department to open an ongoing civil rights investigation into the state police.

But the latest dismissal underscores a weakness in the case that has also discouraged the Justice Department from pursuing charges: After years of investigating, federal and state authorities failed to pinpoint what, exactly, caused Greene’s death during the arrest.

State prosecutors were long skeptical the negligent homicide charge would hold up in the face of autopsy reports that cited “complications of cocaine use” among contributing factors to Greene’s death. Others included troopers’ repeated use of a stun gun, “physical struggle, prone restraint, blunt-force injury and neck compression,” but the forensic pathologist in Arkansas who examined Greene declined to identify which factor or factors were most lethal.

The case has been shrouded in secrecy from its outset when state authorities told grieving relatives the 49-year-old died in a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase near Monroe — an account questioned immediately by an emergency room doctor who noted Greene’s bruised, battered body. Still, a coroner’s report listed Greene’s cause of death as a motor vehicle accident, a state police crash report omitted any mention of troopers using any force and 462 days passed before the state police even launched an internal investigation.

All the while, officials from then-Gov. John Bel Edwards on down refused to release the body camera video of Greene’s arrest. That all changed in 2021 when AP obtained and published the long-suppressed footage showing troopers swarming Greene even as he appeared to raise his hands, plead for mercy and wail, “I’m your brother! I’m scared!”

Advertisement
FILE - This photo provided by the Louisiana State Police shows Master Trooper Kory York in Monroe, La., on May 10, 2019, after troopers punched, dragged and stunned Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal 2019 arrest.

Troopers repeatedly jolted him with stun guns before he could even get out of the car, with one wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face.

One trooper struck Greene in the head with a flashlight and was recorded bragging that he “beat the ever-living f— out of him.” That trooper, Chris Hollingsworth, was widely considered the most culpable of the half-dozen officers involved but died in a high-speed, single-vehicle crash in 2020 hours after he learned he would be fired.

York also played a prominent role in the arrest. He is seen on video pressing Greene’s body to the ground for several minutes and repeatedly ordering him to “shut up” and “lay on your f—— belly like I told you to!” Use-of-force experts say that type of prone restraint could have dangerously restricted Greene’s breathing, and the state police’s own force instructor described the troopers’ actions as “torture and murder.”

For years, Hardin has crisscrossed the country advocating for justice in her son’s death and has vowed to not even bury his ashes until she gets it.

Now she is questioning if that day will ever come.

“I hate that my son is one of countless others,” she said. “There’s a lot that could be fixed in Louisiana that will never be fixed because of choices like this.”

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Louisiana

Guest column: I was forced to flee Louisiana when I needed an abortion. No one else should be.

Published

on

Guest column: I was forced to flee Louisiana when I needed an abortion. No one else should be.


Baton Rouge’s Nancy Davis, center, speaks at microphones a news conference on the steps of the State Capitol, Friday, August 26, 2022, discussing the chain of events and potential legal action after a Baton Rouge hospital denied Davis, 36, an abortion for her fetus, which is developing without a skull. From left, background, are her fiance, Shedric Cole, and the well-known civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending