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)

[kingu]

No one is gonna get killed unless they stayed on the beach

The above report that I posted from Texas City indicating that the roof of a very well built commercial structure was ripped off the building on the front half of the storm, as well as continued reports of fires across the region, indicate that your statement is astoundingly false, but I'll be praying that it proves true.

[dixiechick2000]

Do you know why no one has replied to this post?

It’s because it’s stupid.

[DollyCali]

Hi sweetie.. you giving NN a hard time????

I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit when I read your first “it was dying”.. one of my favorite sayings (taken from my dad)..

We are all dying.. just dont know why & when. Not terribly funny but an inside family joke - you would have to know my dad!

You stay safe. Sometimes people think the worse is passed & get into trouble, if you have been through many hurricanes you know that. My years in Houston there were not major storms. I was lucky..

Just freep & relax. I am not having Gallo but making a dent in a nice bottle of Australian wine!

[Ingtar]

I’m happy someone could let me know more of the wall. The news down there compared them to the New Orleans levees. It sounds like the Mississippi River wall in New Orleans actually built by the Corp and not compromised in either storm.

[MEG33]

My daughter and SIL are in Shenandoah..abutting The Woodlands..Are you near?

[lainie]

Maybe so. I would be too, if I were in for Ike. :-)

He’s a great guy, very salt of the earth. Hope he and his are okay in the storm’s path.

[buickmackane]

OK, I’m back but ready to hit the “hunker bunker” if need be.

I was really upset earlier tonight because my daughter said something about the babysitter’s family attending some sporting event between Pineville and Tioga High Schools. When I checked my e-mail earlier and saw the first NWS tornado warning heading straight through Pineville and Ball, I tried to contact my daughter but she didn’t answer her cell or text me back for quite some time. At that same moment, someone watching the TV in the break room at my job announced that a tornado had just touched down in Tioga. I finally got through to the sitter and learned that she had kept the younger children at home, but the teenagers went on their own to the game. When the teens returned home, they were soaking wet. Everyone parked their vehicles up on top of the lawn because last week they were underwater from the flooding two days after Gustav.

I was scared to drive home to Pineville because I expected all sorts of flying debris in the road, but we made it OK. Still, there’s this ominous clicking sound coming from the drainage ditch behind our apartment building, and a small lake is forming in the backyard. I hope no one has tossed tree branches in the ditch which would impede the flow of water, or it’s going to be a major mess back there this weekend.

We still have some MREs left over from last week, so we have no intention of venturing outside tomorrow — it’s the general consensus that things are about to get considerably worse as the weekend progresses. I’m just grateful to have Saturday and Sunday off, because the morons at my job refused to close early — again. You’d think they would have learned something since the place flooded after Gustav. They were barking over the PA system, “Please disregard the rumors on the floor that there is a curfew. THERE IS NO CURFEW!!” Sheesh, God forbid that the Mayor of Alexandria should take preventative measures in the face of multiple NWS tornado warnings which specifically mention Alexandria and Pineville in them and include the times that the tornados will arrive!!

OK, rant off. My breaks at work were too short to get caught up on these threads, so I’m doing that now before the power outages start (though I am kinda morbidly curious if my new backup battery works).

The accounts of Galveston make me very sad indeed. I went with my daughter and a family friend to a group luncheon at a place called Fish Tales on Seawall Boulevard last summer and was planning to go back there again someday. We rode on the ferry and walked on the beach and couldn’t get over the number of seagulls. Doesn’t sound like we’ll be able to return any time soon; it’s heartbreaking.

Prayers for everyone tonight...this song keeps going through my head: Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground (also covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers).

http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/stevie_wonder/higher_ground.html

[lainie]

It’s Texas, so I have faith.

[freekitty]

I am in Champions.

[fightinJAG]

Is the structural damage survivable so far, do you know?

Thanks.

[DollyCali]

Does anyone know if that mom with the kids & animals that was interviewed this afternoon was evacuated? I was gone for most of time between 3 & 9. she said it was too late to leave. Remember she decided to stay so her two young children could learn about big storms

duh

[BlueAngel]

You got that right, Allegra!!!!

Uh oh, the wind is getting very scary!!

[annie laurie]

Thanks for the explanation annie.. I didn't know either. Learning a lot during this storm. Prayers continue for Texas as the storm will shortly REALLY hit the area.

You are very welcome :) I have been praying off and on all evening, too, although my eyes are beginning to close themselves as I sit here, so I think I'm going to have to call it a night pretty soon.

BTW ...Nice to know more organized is not good. I am never organized!

You're not the only one! ;-)

[glock rocks]

She’s still there, and she’s going to be interviewed by phone on FoxNews in about a minute.

[freepersup]

DATA FROM NOAA DOPPLER WEATHER RADARS AND RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS REMAIN NEAR 110 MPH...175 KM/HR... WITH HIGHER GUSTS. IKE IS A STRONG CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE AND COULD REACH THE TEXAS COAST AS A CATEGORY THREE...MAJOR HURRICANE...AT THE TIME OF LANDFALL. STRONGER WINDS...AS MUCH AS 30 MPH HIGHER THAN AT THE SURFACE...COULD OCCUR ON HIGH RISE BUILDINGS.

[DollyCali]

well good to know she is still alive. I didn’t wish her harm & surely not her innocent pets & kids but thought she was very VERY ill advised from who knows ..

[MEG33]

I don’t know where that is...

[eyedigress]

I don’t know and didn’t see it. I’m the type of guy that would stay but I don’t think I would endanger children after knowing what Camille did to Biloxi.

[DollyCali]

did the eye wall cross over yet? I have been FReeping & not listening to the stream

[DollyCali]

Hey Meg!