Preparations
Mexican officials issued a tropical storm warning 37 hours prior to the storm's landfall between Chetumal and Cabo Catoche, Quintana Roo. The warning was upgraded to a hurricane warning about a day before landfall, but was downgraded when Claudette weakened just 13 hours prior to its landfall in the Yucatán Peninsula. The Mexican government declared a state of emergency in the projected path of the storm, and declared an evacuation order for 1,500 citizens in Quintana Roo. There, residents remained calm during the evacuation. Tourists left nightclubs for supermarkets to stock up on, among other items, beer, which was banned at midnight. Schools were set up as shelters, while police forced tourists to remain in their hotels.
The consistent variation in the path of Claudette caused uncertainty over the strength and location of its final landfall. On July 13, two days prior to Claudette's eventual landfall, the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch between Brownsville and Port O'Connor, Texas. By the next day, a hurricane warning existed from Baffin Bay to High Island, Texas, while a tropical storm warning extended from High Island to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. When it became apparent that Louisiana would not be affected significantly by the storm, the state's tropical storm warnings were canceled. In Texas, Galveston County officials recommended evacuations for western Galveston Island and Jamaica Beach, 24 hours prior to Claudette's projected landfall. The Emergency Phone Notification System notified citizens in the evening to avoid evacuating during the night. Many citizens heeded the evacuation suggestion, some of whom remembered the flooding from Tropical Storm Frances five years before.
Hurricane Claudette also affected the oil industry. ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil, Marathon Oil, Unocal Corporation, and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation all limited production and evacuated many of their workers. Chevron, which evacuated more than 1,800 workers, returned many of its workers on the day when Claudette made landfall. Unocal closed 23 rigs and platforms in the region. The combined closures stopped the daily production of 225,000 barrels (35,800 m3) per day of oil and 2 billion cubic feet (57,000,000 m3) of natural gas, which accounted for 15% of the total production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Read more about this topic: Hurricane Claudette (2003)
Famous quotes containing the word preparations:
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The most evident difference between man and animals is this: the beast, in as much as it is largely motivated by the senses and with little perception of the past or future, lives only for the present. But man, because he is endowed with reason by which he is able to perceive relationships, sees the causes of things, understands the reciprocal nature of cause and effect, makes analogies, easily surveys the whole course of his life, and makes the necessary preparations for its conduct.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“In all the important preparations of the mind she was complete; being prepared for matrimony by an hatred of home, restraint, and tranquillity; by the misery of disappointed affection, and contempt of the man she was to marry. The rest might wait. The preparations of new carriages and furniture might wait for London and the spring, when her own taste could have fairer play.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)