Preparations
The threat of Erika's onslaught prompted the evacuation of 51 oil platforms and 3 oil rigs in the western Gulf of Mexico. The lack of production led to a loss of production of 8,708 barrels (1,384.5 m3) of oil per day and 173.14 million cubic feet (4,903,000 m3) of natural gas per day. On the day of its landfall, the lack of production led to 1,979 less barrels of oil for the day, or about 0.12% of the total daily production for the Gulf of Mexico, while the loss of 32 million cubic feet (910,000 m3) of gas for the day was equivalent to 0.23% of the total production. However, due to its rapid motion, the passage of the storm resulted in minimal effects on operations.
While the storm was located in the eastern Gulf of Mexico on August 15, the National Hurricane Center issued a Hurricane Watch and Tropical Storm Warning from Brownsville to Baffin Bay, Texas. The center also recommended a Hurricane Watch spanning from Soto la Marina, Tamaulipas to the international border. Late that same day, when strengthening was underway, a Hurricane Warning was either issued or recommended from La Pesca, Mexico to Baffin Bay, Texas, though the warnings for south Texas were dropped when a more southward motion occurred. Just one month after Hurricane Claudette caused millions in damage in south Texas, the fast movement of Erika caught citizens by surprise as it was forecast to make landfall near Brownsville. Citizens and business owners boarded up for the storm. About 10,000 were evacuated from northeastern Mexico due to the threat for flooding, including 2,000 in Matamoros.
Read more about this topic: Hurricane Erika (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)
“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)
“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.)