the latest (11 AM eastern) advisory for Tropical Storm Rita has it being a category 3 (major) hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico in a couple of days. The cone of possible tracks, based on computer models, now includes New Orleans on the NE side...although the center of the track if now towards Galveston Texas. The forecaster has to follow the computer models ...using his/her expertise to choose which model to believe. But, if Katrina is an example, the trend of how the models are shifting may be of interest...for Katrina...a couple days out...the forecast shifted west as Katrina continued towards the WSW towards Cuba, before it turned. the last few forecast for Rita have shifted north.

So...I wonder if they have found some competent people to take charge at somewhat lower levels in FEMA. It did not look good about 3 days ago on the news...100s of truckloads of ice are being ordered from state to state, for 13 days, never unloading...well...this is pretty poor judgement but I suppose they could bring these trucks to some logical place near the expected Rita impact if they have not dumped the ice yet. When I say state to state...we are talking states far from the Gulf Coast.
Chris