xp_logs | New Orleans Is Sinking

At the NOAA, something very strange - and very worrying - comes to attention.

"I hate this weather, Jerry." Dean tugged at the rayon shirt, putting it free from his wet back. When are they supposed to get the air conditioning fixed?"

"I swear, you're the only guy I know who dies of heat in September. Erin's wearing a sweater to work, and you look like you're in a sauna."

"I was born in Wisconsin. To get heat like this there we had to set something on fire." Dean Rappaport turned back to his monitor and clicked a few buttons. "Should at least have air con here."

"September. Which, I should remind you, is our busy season. Otherwise, go back to Wisconsin and track cold fronts or something. "Jerry Read said, tapping away at his keyboard. Dean was a friend, but his constant complaints could get on anyone's nerves. "Wait a second. Have you been tracking down in sector 5, lane 2?"

"Hmm? Yeah, Tropical storm 134. Looks like a blow out of the Loop." Dean said, although he began to pull up the latest satellite images as he spoke. The deep current effect called the Gulf Loop was the transit out of the Yucatan Gulf and through the Strait of Florida. It was deep right up until it hit near the Keys and bottomed out. The flow often created storms from the intersection and resulting spiral. "Bound to hit the coast in a couple of days if it doesn't blow out."

Jerry gave a low whistle as he looked at his screen. The numbers coming off the area's storm buoy were not consistent with a small tropical storm, and the barometer was plummeting. "Uh, Dean... you got that imagery yet?"

"Yeah, just hang on a sec." Dean piped the feed into the main screen, and both men froze. Crouched like a deadly star in the midst of the Gulf of Mexico was a full on hurricane. "That's just not possible."

"What?"

"I tracked this thing yesterday, Jerry! Low impact blow, normal front created by deep water circulation. This was not a hurricane!"

"Well, it sure became one in a hurry." Jerry keyed several commands into the system, and data from a dozen areas began to feed into the system. "Look at those numbers? That can't be right."

"No shit that can't be right." Dean snatched up the phone. "Erin, can you grab the Director and get down here? Yeah, right now."

They tried to put together more information as the two women came into the centre. Erin Knabb whistled low as they got a look at the screen. "Big mother. Moving fast too. Where is this? That low pressure system off of Brazil?"

"I wish. Director, this thing is in the Gulf, moving north." The room went very still, the only sound was the Director pulling off her glasses to polish them twice, and putting them back on.

"Alright, it's in the Gulf. Talk to me." Bonnie Gonzalez had been the director of the Miami NOAA Tropical Storm Watch centre for all of five months, coming into one of the worst years on record for tropical storms, and now, someone had snuck a disaster up on them.

"About, jeez, 22 hours ago, we picked up a tropical storm emerging just outside of the Loop, in sector 5, right at the bottom of the lane. Tracked it, marked it then as a low yield squall; winds in the sixties, some rain. Nothing more than a minor advisory." Dean said, tapping on the record of the storm then. Jerry took over, and pulled up a series of shots.

"This is the storm's growth cycle. In less than a day, it's doubled, doubled again and doubled again. Wind speed is now well over a hundred miles an hour." He rubbed his eyes, and cycled back through the storm's growth.

"This is impossible. There's not enough ocean passed to pick up that kind of growth." Gonzalez said, pointing out the obvious.

"It's even more impossible than that. The storm is large enough that it should be hitting high pressure fronts here and here." Erin tapped the large map. "Those should have badly diminished the speed. Instead, it's continued to grow."

"So we have a storm that is ten times larger than all established metrological science says that it should be. How?"

"I don't know. It's possible this is a deep current fed cycle."

"That's just a theory."

"I know. But unless our answer is that God hates us, it's all I've got. It could explain both the unnatural growth and the lack of reaction to the countering fronts." Jerry said, although as he did, the answer didn't seem all that convincing.

"Is it still growing?"

"Yes. It's a Cat-3 hurricane right now. If the growth doesn't level off in the next 48 hours, it will reach Category 5." Dean swallowed hard. "And that's not the worst news."

"I'm starting to wish I had called in sick today. Give me the worst news." Bonnie sighed.

"It's staying dead set up the lane, Director. Unless we get some movement, within four days, five tops, it'll make landfall at New Orleans ."

"Directly on the city itself?"

"Main part, yes. It'll cut straight across the west end, and up towards Mississippi. Mostly residential and commercial areas, it looks like."

"Shit." Gonzalez said, and pulled out her phone. "Alright, I want a full hurricane alert out now as, what are we up to?" Jerry pointed to the chart.. "All shipping and boating in the Gulf, let them know. If we're this late on it, they won't know what hit them. Get another advisory ready for the states who are going to be effected. I'll talk to the Secretary of Commerce and the Navy. They're going to need to get the Governors involved, maybe even the President. Because when Josephine hits, it's not going to leave anything left standing."