The powers that be might keep the worst of
Hurricane Katrina’s remnants far to the west of the Pee Dee and, perhaps, the
Palmetto State, as the once organized mass of clouds and rain drift across the
Southeast early next week.
The projected track of the storm showed it located
along the Alabama-Tennessee border by Tuesday, far west of an earlier predicted
course that would have taken it across South Carolina’s Upstate.
WBTW News13
Chief Meteorologist Don Luehrs said Katrina’s path is not carved in stone with
many directions still possible. He emphasized with certainty, however, that it
would be a most powerful storm by landfall.
“I’m very bullish on this thing
exploding into a major, major hurricane,” he said. “Nothing’s ever a lock in the
weather business, but I think a Category 3 or higher at landfall almost is. It
even has the potential to be a four or five when it hits.”
Luehrs attributed
such rapid and massive development to the very warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico
as well as the lack of wind shear to inhibit growth.
“There are still
uncertainties about its exact track,” he said. “If it takes a track into the
Florida Panhandle that would be bad for us. That would make for a very similar
track to what Francis did last year. We would probably have very heavy rains,
potential flooding and a severe weather-tornado threat sometime in the
Monday-Tuesday timeframe.”
The remnants of Hurricane Francis were responsible
for last hurricane season’s huge tornado outbreak in the Pee Dee and throughout
the state.
The latest computer models from the National Hurricane Center show
that Katrina is likely to make landfall farther west than east.
“If indeed
the track ends up shifting farther west that would end up lessening the risk for
the Pee Dee,” Luehrs said.
