Posted on 09/12/2008 5:12:09 AM PDT by NautiNurse
Large and dangerous Hurricane Ike approaching the Upper Texas coast. Mandatory evacuations began in earnest Thursday as an estimated one million coastal residents headed inland. There were widespread reports of gas stations running out of fuel.
The National Weather Service posted dire storm surge predictions of 20-25 ft storm surge along the coast and bay heads. Hurricane warnings covered a 400 mile swath of the Gulf of Mexico.
Wholesale gasoline prices spiked 30 percent Thursday, or nearly $1 a gallon, out of fear of what Ike might do.
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 |
Previous Threads:
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)
Wow, neat building. I think it was KHOU that said transformers were going up everywhere. Maybe that sparked it. :/
(Why can’t the power companies shut down the substations/transformers?)
Galveston officials are planning on meeting at 12 noon to assess preliminary damage reports; live media reports from the island indicate that large portions of the area were flooded from the sea, then from the bay.
Galveston will still exist, but there have been several reported fires on the island, fire officials have not been able to respond to them, and the fear is that the fires took several buildings.
Media also shows that some block wall structures fell over and were separated by high winds when the eye-wall crossed; they're only half way through the storm; the back side of the eyewall will be on Galveston at around 3:50am CST, coming from the opposing direction which will cause further damage and likely more bay flooding.
So... Yeah, NOAA overflights with their pictures are likely going to be the first real accounting of the damage, but we are going to see a lot of Katrina like debris bands stretching from the bay to almost the seawall across most of Galveston. The most exposed homes will likely be destroyed either by fires or winds, displaced by waters.
Ugh, rambling, sorry. :)
Interesting. KHOU (I think) said that FF couldn’t make it to the fire and thus it burned.
Been there years ago..Lovely restaurant.
That’s crazy cause all day we were told 18 foot surge and 20 foot wave.Did the storm move.
it is still burning fox has live video now of it
I am on the new thread
The storm made landfall a bit north of where predicted.
From the video on FOX the fire looks to be larger than just the Brennan’s building.
Norris writes for Human Events. I get his articles by email (free subscription).
k. I’ll go watch for awhile. I’m on the new thread, too.
Thanks Strategerist.
its bad, its damned bad. a. lincoln after manassass 1
so far so good in west houston
3:35 am
very windy - more than Rita
power on and off
God Bless us all
I du nuit now :-)
Others were concerned because you were usually on these threads, and you had not posted since Aug. Hope all is well after this night. We will get the results some time today in NE TX.
Dang I’m west of you and we lost power at 8:30 fri evening!
I just noticed part of my fence is down but I can handle that if it is our only damage
Well tornadoes are pretty scary, but the build up to fear is relatively short.
Well it’s morning, I hope you still have power.
Thanks for your kind words. BTW, I found some common ground with y’all tonight...Geraldo. Hilarious!
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