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)

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Evacuees “gettin’ on each others’ nerves”

[DrewsMum]

I have already told you to shut up. I have had enough of you. I am pregnant, evacuated and STRESSED and I don’t need your crap. Please leave my name out of your posts.

[AFPhys]

I looked at a couple photos to try to figure out whether “retrograde” or not.

It seems a fair fight.

[mylife]

You certainly are stressed.

But at least yer alive inlike those folks you jumped me for talking about in Ca

[DeaconBenjamin]

We're fine here in Baton Rouge, although we had strong wind yesterday and through the night.

I heard reports yesterday that sections of BR where power had been restored had lost it again. How frustrating that would be!

[mylife]

“unlike”

[LA Woman3]

LOL! On another topic...think the Houston Texans game will be played at Kyle Field! : )

[American Quilter]

Not to spoil the fun, the Galveston Seawall IS a magnificent achievement, but it’s done its job maybe too well. It’s hoarding sand on the beach side. Built to be 17 feet above sea level, a guy on another site tells me parts of it are now only waist high above the sand during his daily beach runs. Time to dredge the beach?

That's really interesting. Do I understand correctly that this phenomenon has occured over years, and is not a result of the hurricane? If so, I guess that falls into the "unintended consequences" category. I wonder how that affected the seawall's performance during the hurricane.

[Barnacle]

Good luck to you and to all affected by Ike.

I would appreciate any information on conditions in the neighborhood on the west end of Clear Lake just south of the Johnson Space Center.

[nobama08]

Very true.

[Stayingawayfromthedarkside]

Thank you for this thread. If you hear anything about Sugarland please let me know. I do not know much about the area.

[NautiNurse]

Are you on a weekend bender? What is your drug of choice?

[AFPhys]

A fair question.

Much of the problem is the DSL link, not the computer itself, being taxed - it is the combination. I’m sure I’m not alone in having limitations, or we would all have fifty windows with web cams looking at each other while we’re doing these threads.

I’d love to have a quad core with a T3 line at my house, but alas I don’t have that dream system - and where I live I’m lucky to even have low grade DSL. (I live in one of those small towns where we cling to our guns and religion)

[DrewsMum]

“I would appreciate any information on conditions in the neighborhood on the west end of Clear Lake just south of the Johnson Space Center.”

Isn’t that close to the Hilton?

[McLynnan]

Ah, I didn’t realize that. That’s what I get for skimming the thread. At any rate, if I had to drive through that interchange I’d have a death grip on the steering wheel and be praying to Jesus. We don’t have roads like that in Waco, lol.

[Justa]

Something else to be thankful of: those 1902 Galvestonians also raised the center of the island by 14’ using pump jacks to raise the buildings and filling with sand pumped in from the gulf. True grit.

[onemiddleamerican]

They were not specific on what was stopping them from getting further west in their recovery expedition; maybe purposefully so. The fact that so many of them are not saying anything about the west end of the island, not a mention (that I have heard so far) of phone calls from folks that way asking for rescue, etc., is not reassuring, IMO. Still praying for those who ignored the multiple warnings to leave...

[mylife]

No. I am sitting in the middle of Ike thank you.

You peoples hysteria is unreal.

There are 18 people dead in Ca and I got my ass jumped here for asking about it and Heaven forbid....suggesting that Ike wasnt going to be that bad.

Then I get jumped for posting a pic of the storm in relation to my position. Thanks for your concern L0L

[NautiNurse]

Clear Lake, Kemah, Seabrook Damage Discussion Board

[American Quilter]

Something else to be thankful of: those 1902 Galvestonians also raised the center of the island by 14’ using pump jacks to raise the buildings and filling with sand pumped in from the gulf. True grit.

I'd forgotten about that. It was a very, very smart thing to do, and certainly resulted in a lessening of the damage from Ike. Kudos to those long-departed Texans.