Recap

Hurricane Katrina

Art Bell presented live coverage of Hurricane Katrina, in a special 5-hour program. In the first hour, Mark Sudduth of HurricaneTrack.com offered updates and analysis from his monitoring station in Gulfport, MS. If the hurricane continues on its path into New Orleans, there'll be several hours of 100mph winds in the city, and with the power going out, people will experience "power flashes" which will look like the deadly lasers from War of the Worlds, he envisioned.

In Hour 2, meteorologist Lyn Whitlake aka "Rob Robin" of KAOK in Lake Charles, LA joined the program. He and Art were old Air Force buddies, who chased storms together in the 1960's. Whitlake explained that hurricanes run on water vapor, allowing heat from lower levels to escape to higher levels. The water temperature in the Gulf was 90-91 degrees, which is higher than he can recall it ever being, and this may be contributing to the severity of the situation, he commented.

Author Whitley Strieber offered analysis of the storm's possible aftermath in the third hour. Massive flooding could create a toxic situation from floating coffins (New Orleans is under sea level so many are buried above ground) and pollutants from refineries and other facilities. He also noted that in addition to the hurricane, drastic climate problems are currently taking place in Europe and India, not unlike the scenario he and Art wrote about in their book The Coming Global Superstorm.

In Hours 4 & 5, Art took calls from listeners, with a particular emphasis on people who were in or had evacuated from the storm area.

Note: Brendan Cook & Barbara McBeath, from the Ghost Investigators Society will be rescheduled.

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Katrina's Path

As the category 5 Hurricane Katrina swept into the Gulf Coast, the mayor of New Orleans urged residents to board up their homes and evacuate the city. View Storm Tracker maps from the NOAA and additional coverage from The Weather Channel.