Hurricane Ike Live Thread IV

NOAA/NHC ^ | 14 September 2008 | NOAA/NHC

[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

Forecast Models

Houston/Galveston Long Range Radar
Corpus Christi Long Range Radar
Brownsville Long Range Radar
Lake Charles Long Range Radar

Ike
Single Image		Image Loop
Lat/Lon	No Lat/Lon	Short	Long
Visible	Visible	Visible	Visible
Shortwave	Shortwave	Shortwave	Shortwave
Water Vapor	Water Vapor	Water Vapor	Water Vapor
Infrared Channel 4 Enhancements
None	None	None	None
AVN	AVN	AVN	AVN
Dvorak	Dvorak	Dvorak	Dvorak
JSL	JSL	JSL	JSL
RGB	RGB	RGB	RGB
Funktop	Funktop	Funktop	Funktop
Rainbow	Rainbow	Rainbow	Rainbow

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 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)

[steve86]

I understand the reason for the ban on animated graphics on this thread, but with respect to the hardware, last night I had at least three loops going and the 3-4 streaming Houston stations, and HD video, along with regular browsing. And, of course, easternuxwx had lots of loops. All this on a 2200 Mhz Sempron with only a 768 Kb DSL conenction.

[arkady_renko]

That is what Dr. Forbes is saying on TWC.

It is sort of like a giant conveyor belt for moisture right now.

We will probably have some bad flodding in the Midwest at the same time they deal with Ike down south.

[SaveTheChief]

I’m sorry. I haven’t heard anything about that particluar area. There are widespread power outages in the Houston area - 4 million people from what I recently heard on the radio. I have had some trouble calling out on my cell phone too. Just keep that in mind - It sounds like we weren’t hit here in this area as badly as in others, but it sounds to me like most people are hanging in there and making the best out of an ugly situation.

[AFPhys]

At 9:47AM yesterday, I warned jpsb that we better not see his puss around here until late Saturday or Sunday... maybe he’s just afraid of us. I’ll be worried, though, if he doesn’t find a way to contact some of us by Monday, though.

[McLynnan]

Thanks for answering. I don’t know Houston well but if those are houses they looked much lower than the flooded interchange. Prayers are with all of you and hoping for a quick cleanup and life gets back to normal soon. Here in the Waco area it’s still pretty much a nonevent. We’ve had light rain all day, but nothing worth mentioning in the way of wind.

[pax_et_bonum]

Governor Perry has ordered 7500 National Guard troops to the affected region. Top priority today is search and rescue. TX pre-positioned the largest search and rescue operation in the history of TX for this storm. They are arriving by air, boat and ground.

We evacuated on Thursday from Baytown to Baton Rouge and I met two huge convoys of tree trucks headed west toward Houston.

Friends and family who stayed in the Baytown/Highlands area east of Houston (in the eye path) are reporting LOTS of trees down.

One of my uncles who stayed says that every tree on his street in Highlands is down.

The Highlands/Baytown area lucked out, though, with the change in the eye location just before landfall because their storm surge was much lower than it would have been if the eye had gone in slightly farther south.

[LA Woman3]

Wonder why the AP has a photo-shopped picture? And yes, the Ford ad is very annoying and shouldn't be expanding with every click.

[SaveTheChief]

I haven’t seen any large trees down but I have not been out of the house yet. Power is out but we still have water.

[jeffers]

Nauti’s the html guru at FR.

The rest of us just bumble along and hope for the best.

Look how juicy the air will be out front of that cold front.

Hmmm...let’s see something...

...yup, the convective outlook at the Storm Prediction Center is already changing. Fortunately, this is slated to move FAST, lessening the severe threat duration. On the other side, forward velocity can increase severity too.

See here:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk_1630.gif

...then look here, click on “All SPC Products” in the left sidebar:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/

It wouldn’t surprise me to see the “Slight” areas go to “Moderate”, or even “High” over the next 24 hours.

Pay close attention to the Convective Outlooks.

Today and tomorrow both.

Not anything to turn your back on, this storm still has a future. All the energy it can use now, and all it wants to scoop up tomorrow too.

Heads.

Up.

[AFPhys]

Text is fine, but so is simple graphics. That is “one time” download and processing. The animations demand much more attention, and adding that to streaming audio and video means something has to give on my system. I’m sure I’m not alone.

There is no problem with posting pictures, even those that are a factor or two bigger than NN’s soft “~50kb” guideline.

[Caramelgal]

As a result, the NFL is expected to cancel Monday's game against the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens, according to the Chronicle.

The game was originally supposed to be played on Sunday but on Friday the decision was made to delay until Monday in anticipation of the outcome of the storm. Sounds like it will have to be rescheduled for later in the year or played somewhere else.

[deport]

Remember those are pictures form Allison back in 2001, not from Ike.

[onemiddleamerican]

Per a Galveston City spokesman, speaking at press conference: “We have only been able to make it to 11 Mile Rd. As you’ll remember, the island is 32 miles long...”

[NautiNurse]

Thanks much for your local report. Troublesome to hear so many trees were lost. Too often, that translates to structural damage, and some serious injuries.

[roses of sharon]

Oh no! I grew up down there....born in Beaumont and spent summers in Galveston and at our cabin in Bolivar.

Any news out of High Island and Bolivar?

Thanks!

[DollyCali]

gracious her voice is awfully unpleasant

[pax_et_bonum]

The only HAT heads I've heard from are TheMom and Eaker.

They are okay. Their fence is down but their house is fine and since they were on the clean side they didn't get much rain.

The Eakers don't have electricity so we may not hear from them on here any time soon.

I'll let them know you asked about them!

I haven't heard from any of the other Houston area HATters.

I'm fine because we evacuated. I'm from the Baytown/Highlands area and I don't stay for these storms. They are too unpredictable and the aftermath is miserable.

[alfa6]

Many folks are on the move, on dial-up or wireless internet, The large graphics make the threads load real slowwww :-)

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[American Quilter]

As was observed earlier (palmer, and others) the main reason this wasn’t (hopefully) that bad has mostly to do with many people long dead who built the Galveston seawall a century ago. Those Texans should be considered the real heroes of Ike.

I've been thinking the same. What a superb piece of engineering, especially considering it was built 100 years ago. The spirits of all the people involved in that project must be smiling today.

[kezzek]

I’m not hearing anything on the news about Galveston, what happened there?