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)
There’s a short video of the Galveston beach condition here:
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1785367231
I agree with that. Many focused on Galveston remembering the 1900 storm, but this one affected lots of places all the way to LA. There will be inlets and other places where the wind funneled the water and took out houses and infrastructure. This will be very costly storm in many ways.
Storm debris litters the street in front of landmark Houston
restaurant Brennan's which burned down as Hurricane Ike
struck the downtown Houston area September 13, 2008.
(Richard Carson/Reuters)
Praise God if this is true but McCain still needs to come out in favor of drilling ANWR and new refineries elsewhere in the U.S. - NOW!
It is more clear on the IR photos (Dvorak, I like) that ground drag is starting to tear it apart, though.
Thanks.
Strong convection about to come ashore at the Tx-La border. Tornadoes for Port Arthur, Beuamont, Orange and Lake Charles? Surge probably still an issue too.
Heads up.
If Galveston didn’t have many deaths then God did indeed cover it with his feathers and took it underneath his wings (see Psalm 91).
Tornado warning for Ruston. System traveling into Arkansas at 60 mph, according to Shreveport NWS.
18 dead in the Ca train wreck. Ike is here now
Up until I went to bed last night I had fears of another 1900’s one too.
I am extremely relieved and am gladly eating crow over this.
On FOX this morning I saw lights on in skyscrapers downtown. I was truly surpised to see that!
That is true. I just wrote to a friend I’m concerned we haven’ t heard anything about damage 50miles W to 150 miles E of Galveston/Houston... Much more than those cities are affected by this.
Prayers up! I hate those things!
Excellent news!
Yeah and the eastern side of Galveston Bay, too — haven’t seen much in the way of info or photos from there. They got hit with landfall, then the ferocious other side from the other direction (with a bay of water to push toward the east).
Agreed. The outflow diminishing shows the power is ramping down quickly all across the storm, but organization is still VERY high.
Check out the vapor channel:
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/east/latest_eastwv.jpg
It will really be something if that ends up being the case! God certainly looked out for people last night.
Indeed and I can certainly see what inspired them
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