August 28, 2005: Hurricane Katrina Live Coverage
Art connects with his longtime friend Lynn Whitlake, a Lake Charles weatherman known on air as Rob Robin, who reports Gulf water temperatures reaching an unprecedented 90 degrees. Lynn explains that the warmer the water, the more readily it evaporates into vapor that fuels hurricane intensity. He notes the northeast quadrant of a hurricane produces the worst storm surge and tornado activity, and that eye wall replacement cycles remain poorly understood even by the National Hurricane Center.
Whitley Strieber joins to discuss how events mirror their co-authored book about rapid climate change. He warns that if the levees breach, the toxic floodwaters mixing with chemicals and disturbed graves could render New Orleans uninhabitable for years. Art emphasizes the lesson that citizens can ultimately depend only on themselves when infrastructure collapses.
Key Moments
Art ties Katrina to Coming Global Superstorm: Bell opens his emergency Katrina coverage by drawing an eerie parallel to his book Coming Global Superstorm and the film The Day After Tomorrow, naming warming Gulf waters in the 90s as the fuel and global warming as the cause.
Caller Scott riding out Katrina near the Huey P. Long Bridge: First caller Scott phones in live from a New Orleans suburb two miles from the Huey P. Long Bridge, explaining he's staying with a friend, has a boat moored, and five dogs because no shelters take pets.
Crude oil shatters records at $70 a barrel: Bell reads breaking news that Hurricane Katrina has shut Gulf of Mexico operations for Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and others, sending crude oil above $70 a barrel for the biggest single-day gain in 29 months.
Mark Sudduth describes the sound of a Cat 5 core: Storm chaser Mark Sudduth, broadcasting live from a modified Chevy Tahoe in Gulfport, tells listeners what New Orleans will experience: 100+ mph sustained winds, transformer flashes like War of the Worlds death rays, and an unearthly roar.
Razor's edge: a few degrees east could spare New Orleans: Sudduth tells Bell that Katrina's track is so finely balanced that a 15-degree shift could either devastate New Orleans or shove the eyewall east into Biloxi and Gulfport, with the worst-case scenario meaning 20-30 feet of water and the temporary end of the city.