'Super' Typhoon Ioke Slams Tiny Wake Island (Winds at 220 mph, gusts top 250 mph)

Fox News ^ | August 31, 2006

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

Super Typhoon Ioke, a Category 5 storm and the strongest to hit the Pacific in more than a decade, slammed into tiny Wake Island Thursday, threatening to submerge the U.S. territory, U.S. Navy weather forecasters said.

The storm, packing sustained winds of more than 220 mph, with some gusts topping 250 mph, came ashore at about 10 a.m. ET, and was slowly tracking west, gaining strength over the warm tropical waters, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported. Wake Island is located about 2,300 miles west of Honolulu.

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Fox News has revised the wind speed estimates in their article - "The storm, packing sustained winds of more than 165 mph, with some gusts topping 190 mph, came ashore at about 10 a.m. ET..."

[TampaDude]

Fox News has revised the wind speed estimates in their article - "The storm, packing sustained winds of more than 165 mph, with some gusts topping 190 mph, came ashore at about 10 a.m. ET..."

BUH BYE!

[Arthalion]

Luckily, there isn't much at Wake to rebuild nowadays. The runway is strictly an emergency landing site for trans-Pacific flights, and the only other facilities on the islands are radar sites for monitoring those same flights. There are still some old missile detection arrays there too, mostly cold-war holdovers that were kept online to provide minimal screening just in case North Korea gets stupid.

It's still technically military territory, but the military completely pulled out years ago. All that's left are some civilian contractors paid to keep the runways operable and the radar installations functioning.

Historically it's a fairly major loss though. Lots of WWII-era structures and markers will be washed away by the floodwaters, and the beaches we fought on may cease to exist. These weren't going to last forever anyway, but it's sad to see them washed away all at once like this.

[conservative in nyc]

Well, the Wake Island Tide Station, a 1950s concrete structure on the lagoon side of the island, seems to have sent meteorological data from around the time the Ioke's eye skirted or briefly moved over the island (at 9:06 GMT; pressure 934.00mb; rising at the next reading at 9:12 GMT, and going silent thereafter for a bit before churning out some data again from 13:48-15:18 GMT). The station still appears to be reporting tide information, which peaked at 6.34 feet above MLLW on the lagoon side at around 12:30 GMT.

I wouldn't count Wake Island, the Frenchman rumored to have stayed there, or the island's rats out yet. Especially the rats.

[xp38]

Already covered by Walt Disney World....

[TampaDude]

I can't wait for the first post-Ioke pics of Wake...

[MikefromOhio]

That's probably Kilometers per hour....

[HAL9000]

I found a report on the austpacwx newsgroup - unconfirmed - that "72 year old French hurricane meteorologist Thomas Cavanaugh remained on Wake Is. refusing to leave with the others, and has been gathering data."

[Dog Gone]

Wake is built on coral on an ancient volcano rim, so it's going to be pretty sturdy. It's not like a barrier island sand bar.

I can't speak for anything on the island. I've never been there.

But if there was a 20 ft storm surge capped with 40 foot waves crashing across an island with a high elevation of 18 feet, I'm guessing nothing vertical survived.

There may be a few vehicles in the lagoon, but I'm very doubtful any are left on the island.

[racing fan]

[ncpatriot]

how soon do you think we will know if Wake Is. is still there?

[Elsie]

We were stuck ther for 8 hours and my swimsuit was in my luggage.

"So we went skinny dipping?"

[Rome2000]

Jesus

[Elsie]

Apparently a 72 year old French weatherman stayed on Wake to ride it out....

Any relation to Harry Truman of St. Helens fame?

[vetvetdoug]

My first year in Japan was at the Yokota AFB grades 1-2. My father was then moved to Johnson Air Station and I went to school grades 3&4. My father was in the 6091st Recon and the 56th weather recon.

You were there the same time I was, do you remember the radiation clouds and having to stay inside because the radiation was too high outside from the Red Chinese and the Soviet nuclear blasts?

[AFPhys]

I would love to see the results of this... before and after.

Glad nobody's there now.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

The storm, packing sustained winds of more than 220 mph, with some gusts topping 250 mph, came ashore at about 10 a.m. ET, and was slowly tracking west, gaining strength over the warm tropical waters, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported.

Holy High Winds, Batman! Is there ANYthing that's gonna be left on that island?!!

[freedomlover]

Population: no indigenous inhabitants

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Gee I wonder why. Grass huts just ain't what they're all cracked up to be I guess.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

And tonight's VISIBLE SATELLITE SHOT, overfly from the Navy website - Wake is now the dot in the box that's 5th from the left, 4th from the bottom.

[spectre]

"JESUS. Are we the only one who follow the rules?? This is horrible."

Yes.

sw