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)
Perhaps you should start your own personal thread about your experiences. You could populate it with 1-3 word nonsense posts.
As I said. Thanks for your concern
Well you have them not to for up the road from Waco. In fact I’m in the middle of them hiding from Ike.. Grapevine
It’s taken me three hours, but I’ve finally read the entire thread, and I certainly appreciate all of the inputs from those of you who’ve been enduring this terrible storm. I hope no FReepers or their families or friends have died during this nightmare, and that property damage is as minimal as possible considering the huge size of the storm. Blessings on all of you!
The sand piled along the seawall makes a ramp to assist damaging waves and surge over the seawall, and it also defeats the curvature of the lower wall. The curve converts lateral velocity to upward velocity and prolongs the wall’s structural integrity under storm stresses, except now the waves hit the wall at 90 degrees head on where the sand has piled up.
Wow! Thanks for posting that image with notations. I had not been to Galveston since I was a real little kid, and I don’t remember much about it. Seeing your map ‘splains it better for me.
23 dead in the CA train wreck now.
After getting confused in the middle of the night about a tragic happening and some deaths on several posts, I posted the following to mylife:
“well i am trying to get hurricane info and i am getting confused. please just go to the train wreck thread. this is my only source for info and im freeping from my cell phone. please.”
This is me jumping his butt apparently.
Once again, you are off topic. Enough.
Thanks for your feedback. For some, trying my patience is a childish sport.
I see. Thanks for helping me understand it. And thanks for that great graphic at post #1161. I'm embarrassed to admit that before yesterday I didn't even know where Galveston Island is. I thought it was much farther south, nearer Corpus Christi.
Heard earlier today that apparently one of the nearby buildings has a flat roof with pea gravel on it. The high wind apparently picked it up and shot up the windows on that side!
Reported.
Leave nauti alone. She has enough to woprry about without your harrassment.
Contribute, leave voluntarily, or be forced out, you choose.
Some of us have a high speed machine and connection but the FR server still has hiccups from the recent outages. Heavy graphics don’t help. Other websites have no problems.
I concur. I always learn much more from FR than from any news source. Thanks to all who are contributing to this thread.
Wow.
100 mph pea gravel.
No fun!
Ike hooked up from Mexico to Canada.
What was the final toll from Ike in Galveston?
Its here now and is really mild, it just dropped from a cat 1 to a tropical storm at about 1:00 I an amazed it isnt dropping that much water. I thought water would be the major problem with this storm. That and a sustained storm surge in Galveston.
weird to see the clouds sweeping north to south.
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