Posted on 09/12/2008 11:29:13 PM PDT by NautiNurse
The eyewall of Hurricane Ike crossed Galveston Island in the early hours of Saturday morning. Reports indicate as many as 20,000 residents of Galveston Island chose not to evacuate as storm surge engulfed the island. The Freeport Chief of Police reported as many as 2000 residents did not evacuate as flood waters swamped coastal communities. There are widespread reports of power outages and coastal flooding throughout the Texas/Louisiana region. The U.S. Coast Guard received hundreds of calls Friday afternoon to rescue people stranded by flood waters along the barrier islands and Galveston Bay communities.
Multiple fires broke out in the Greater Houston area fueled by strong winds. Fire fighting efforts were hampered by flood waters. Brennan's Restaurant, a landmark in Houston, burned to the ground. A 584-foot freighter crippled in the Gulf of Mexico and its crew of 22 survived the storm after The U.S. Coast Guard was forced to abort rescue efforts Friday afternoon due to foul weather
Gulf Coast wholesale gasoline prices jumped to nearly $5 a gallon over fears that water and wind damage could keep the facilities closed for days or longer. Oil companies had shut down 97.5 percent of production in the Gulf of Mexico by Friday morning and were battening down refineries and petrochemical plants in an area that accounts for one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity.
Exxon Mobil reported evacuating workers from its Gulf Coast offshore platforms and onshore facilities in the anticipated path of Ike, shutting down daily production of about 36,000 barrels of oil and 270 million cubic feet of gas..
Public Advisory Updated every 3 hours
Discussion Updated every 6 hours
Buoy data: Western Gulf of Mexico
Houston/Galveston Long Range Radar
Corpus Christi Long Range Radar
Brownsville Long Range Radar
Lake Charles Long Range Radar
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Additional Resources:
Navy Tropical Cyclone
Storm Pulse Very cool site
KHOU Houston
ABC 13 News Houston
FOX News Houston
KPLC Lake Charles
KFDM 6 Beaumont/Port Arthur
KKBMT 12 Beaumont
KRIS-TV Corpus Christi
KZTV Corpus Christi
Brazoria County Emergency Management
Galveston County Emergency Management
Chambers Country Emergency Management
Liberty County Emergency Management
| Category | Wind Speed | Barometric Pressure | Storm Surge | Damage Potential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tropical Depression |
< 39 mph < 34 kts |
Minimal | ||
| Tropical Storm |
39 - 73 mph 34 - 63 kts |
Minimal | ||
| Hurricane 1 (Weak) |
74 - 95 mph 64 - 82 kts |
28.94" or more 980.02 mb or more |
4.0' - 5.0' 1.2 m - 1.5 m |
Minimal damage to vegetation |
| Hurricane 2 (Moderate) |
96 - 110 mph 83 - 95 kts |
28.50" - 28.93" 965.12 mb - 979.68 mb |
6.0' - 8.0' 1.8 m - 2.4 m |
Moderate damage to houses |
| Hurricane 3 (Strong) |
111 - 130 mph 96 - 112 kts |
27.91" - 28.49" 945.14 mb - 964.78 mb |
9.0' - 12.0' 2.7 m - 3.7 m |
Extensive damage to small buildings |
| Hurricane 4 (Very strong) |
131 - 155 mph 113 - 135 kts |
27.17" - 27.90" 920.08 mb - 944.80 mb |
13.0' - 18.0' 3.9 m - 5.5 m |
Extreme structural damage |
| Hurricane 5 (Devastating) |
Greater than 155 mph Greater than 135 kts |
Less than 27.17" Less than 920.08 mb |
Greater than 18.0' Greater than 5.5m |
Catastrophic building failures possible |
|
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Previous Threads:
Hurricane Ike Live Thread III
Hurricane Ike Live Thread II
Hurricane Ike Live Thread I
TS Hanna, Hurricane Ike & TS Josephine [Other than that, the tropics are calm]
Tropical Storms Hanna, Ike and Josephine, TD Gustav (Other than that, the tropics are calm)
This is the channel I saw the FEMA search teams http://www.click2houston.com/index.html
No, afraid not. That's a little north and west of me, more towards I-10. I'm down a couple blocks away from I-59 in the museum district.
What I can say is, it's dark almost everywhere in my area with the exception of the strip along Richmond Ave to the west of Montrose. I thought the whole city was getting its power back, but I guess our area is an exception. Having gotten through the night without loss of life and limb, I'm feeling more blessed by the minute. We even have hot running water at my apt complex. Woohoo!!
I just saw what time it is; when I think of how I was hunkering down just 24 hrs ago....Thank you Lord!
Oh, dear Lord how awful!!!!
Prayers for the people who had property and/or who may have lost their lives there....total devastation.
Posted on http://weatherblog.abc13.com/2008/09/hurricane-ike-s.html
There is massive destruction and death West of Roll Over Pass. The rest of peninsula was heavily damaged also. Blogs are reporting bodies.
Reading reports from Thursday it appears that residents were cut off when the storm surge hit BEFORE the residents were advised to evacuate. hwy 87 was cut off to the North on Thursday evening just before the ferry was closed. Reports on a helicopter rescue site reported that helicopters were rescuing residents standed in crystal on Thursday.
Dear God .. jaw dropping.
Yes, a very valuable - respected - man. Is he the one who said Global Warming is bunk? I hope so.
I last talked to her at 1:00 pm today. She was telling about the snakes and her car being flooded, and boats going by, but they were only getting people that were on the roofs. I want her out of there. How would I be able to get her here? This is the first time I have had to deal with something like this. I can’t respond to everyone but I am reading all posts. I have dial-up and it is so slow when I click on a link to check out something it takes forever to load, then I have to try to catch up on the conversation. I have lurked on FR since 1997 or so. Went through the Clinton years with you all and the Bush term also. Looking forward to the McCain Palin years. I have never posted before. I need high-speed, but it is not available. I will have to get hughsnet I guess.
Were you able to read my FRmail ..
click at Mail at the top of the page?
If not, I’ll post it here.
Thanks again, I found this on the Crystal Beach website.
Bolivar residents floated to survive
By Chris Paschenko
The Daily News
Published September 13, 2008
TEXAS CITY — Bolivar Peninsula communities were covered by the storm surge from Hurricane Ike’s early Saturday landfall, and residents told harrowing stories of how they survived by floating until the waters receded.
Texas National Guard helicopters flew many of the evacuees from across the county to a staging area at the Texas City school district’s Stingaree Stadium parking lot, where they were loaded onto buses bound for Austin.
Two military helicopters landed at 3:50 p.m. and unloaded about a dozen people and their pets.
While waiting to board a bus, Kathi Norton and her husband Paul Norton said they endured the storm surge from their Crystal Beach home about two blocks from the seaside.
“We got a late start to get out Friday, and there was two feet of water,” Kathi Norton said. “There was no way we could get out, because rollover pass was flooded.”
As the waves pounded on the Nortons’ home standing on 14-foot stilts, they felt the floors buckle.
About midnight, the couple left the home and they watched as it rolled over onto their flagpole.
“We floated on staircases, anything we could get a hold of,” Kathi Norton said. “We floated until about 4 a.m. Roofs were coming at us. It was not a pretty picture.”
As the water receded, the Nortons, who lived on Gulf Shores Drive, waded in waist-deep surf to the Crystal Beach post office. They said few homes and none of the businesses withstood the storm.
“My husband made me wear a life jacket inside our house,” Norton said. “Thank God for that or I couldn’t be here.”
The Nortons boarded Texas National Guard helicopters, which flew them to the Brazoria County airport, but there were no evacuation buses set up there, Paul Norton said.
“Then they flew us to Texas City,” he said. “They did a great job.”
Nigel Heinrich, one of the evacuees, said he endured the storm from his Gilchrist home on the peninsula.
“It’s all gone,” he said. “We lived on the bay side, and we walked to High Island. There are only about two or three houses left. Everything’s totally wiped out. High Island’s in pretty bad shape, too.”
Copyright © 2008 The Galveston County Daily News
Here is the link for the live stream for KHOU. I have had it on for a couple days & it is great. No commercials. now they are interviewing various people who call in
http://www.khou.com/video/?nvid=178826&live=yes&noad=yes
Absolutely no sign of life...on rooftops or elsewhere. I hope and pray that’s because everyone left. I posted upthread that some are reporting reading about there being bodies there. I know it’s hearsay and I pray it untrue.
I understand how you feel and if it were my kids I would be looking for alternate ways to get them out too but...they must triage.
I think some of those pictures were not exactly taken directly over the top of BP.
Here is the google aerial shot of BP and I don’t see any large white roofed buildings.
But you can move up down the full island from here...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bolivar+Peninsula&layer=tc&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=29.479654,-94.578295&spn=0.038928,0.047464&z=14
I am not a democrat. I have been gop since Reagan. Raised both sons to be Republican. Well, I tried, one is a libratarian.
TWC just said largest power outage in US history.
City's Ike planning knocked off course by unexpected rescue calls
USA TODAY's Marisol Bello has filed this report on how storm planning by officials in one East Texas community was blown off course by unexpected rescue calls from residents who ignored a mandatory evacuation order:
In Orange, Texas, 22 miles from the Gulf and just west of the Louisiana border, officials were caught off guard by the number of emergency rescues they had to make between Friday night and Saturday morning.
Since Friday night, the city made about 300 emergency rescues, picking people up by boat who were trapped in their attics or roofs, says deputy fire chief Jerry Ziller, who coordinates the city's emergency operations.
"Literally, people were calling, 'I'm in my attic, I'm at this address, come pick me up.' "
The town of 20,000 people ordered a mandatory evacuation on Sept. 11, says city manager Shawn Oubre. It has a system in place that allows residents to pre-register to be evacuated by the city in the event of a hurricane. About 714 people are signed up, says Ziller.
"We planned well," Ziller says. "What we didn't realize was that a lot of people didn't leave ... This morning when the calls started to come in, we thought, 'Whoa, we got a problem.' "
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