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)
So apparently, there is a great need for search and rescue on the west end of the island - if that end still exists. No photos or reports from there that I can find.
May be bad.
My prayers continue...
I was thinking last night about what I’d do in that situation; what I would take that I considered irreplaceable and leave. Things are not worth risking my life over.
I would take family mementos. There’s lots of stuff I’d like to take that I use all the time, but it’s not irreplaceable, they’re just favorite things.
Every time I see something like this, I vow NOT to complain about the snow this winter. I suspect we’re looking at a bad winter as far as snow and likely cold, and snow can cause roof collapses if you don’t shovel them off. Ice storms can bring down lots of trees and do damage enough and put us without power for days to a week or so, but nothing compared to the devastation that a hurricane or tornado causes.
NYS does have its up side. Our weather is more along the nuisance level. Hurricanes and tornadoes, (and earthquakes) are more than that.
Happier thought, a bit more interesting anyway, (since we've no pictures at all on this page, I'm going to put a 150kB pic): Look at this picture that jeffers put me on to hours ago, and glock rocks has been so good as to capture - it shows Ike well inland and still a very pretty, symmetric tropical storm. It is dominating weather in an area much larger than the whole of the United States right now. This is a water vapor channel picture, and was taken about two hours ago.
jeffers said earlier about this:
Ike is pulling moisture from a thousand miles out in the Pacific, and a thousand miles out in the Atlantic.
The core is already as wet as it gets, with more on the way, and the backside is puling down polar air from Canada.
Give this a day to organize, and the cold front could put down a LOT of tornadoes. Everyone south of the center of circulation and out front of the developing cold front is potentially at risk from severe weather.
Midwest and Mississippi Valley Sunday, east coast Monday.
KHOU: Dozen-plus large boats blown/surged onto I-45, blocking southbound access onto Galveston.
One 45 footer was actually still running while on the freeway. No persons on board, key missing. I’m not liking the implications of that....
Maybe that was it. I think it was Crystal Beach, but couldn’t remember the name because it wasn’t a place I’d heard of before. Definitely one of those places which was flooded early.
The story here (if I weren’t so lazy I’d find it & link it) was that there was a large group of people on one building, and maybe 3 on a building across the street from them.
It seems to me that it started flooding sooner than a lot of people expected. I know that I turned on the TV briefly at lunchtime yesterday & saw Seaside Beach already with water in the streets. Is it possible that some people planned to leave at the last minute but waited too long?
(Attacking the govt and agencies is always acceptable)
Good...LOL..I will go on another rip of that Dhimwhitt mayor of Galveston. I watched her for a bit in another news conference and she seemed very ‘concerned’ about the western end of the Island... saying: “That’s 47% of our TAX BASE”....(eye roll). Only a big government dem could say something like that, at a time like this!
She has really gotten on my last nerve....LOL!
It sure doesn’t sound good. They’re doing search and rescue for a reason.
My guess is that they’d rather not have people see their dead relatives on live TV first. It’d be an awfully tough way to find out someone you love didn’t make it.
Sure would be nice to know I’m wrong.
“I haven’t yet gotten over the fear of major casualties.”
I am wondering...could this be a case of the government, um in denial?? I am not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, but I heard something one time about how the death numbers from hurricane Andrew were “low-balled”....
I’m guessing that she’s not going to get re-elected... chances are that she’s reached her Ann Richards moment - and Texans in general (Sheila Jackson Lee not withstanding) are not tolerant of stupid politicians.
Oddly, the Midwest over the last two years has had more reason to fear hurricanes than we Coastal people.
How about if I just toss up a jib sail instead and go where the wind does!
I am concerned about my friend in Beaumont Texas.
You can see how the front is going to guide it along up through NY, where it's supposed to hit Mon, still at TD strength.
Those last four lines should be accredited to jeffers, by the way.
Then I too shall sail.
Doubt it. This is Texas after all.
What is more likely is that they’re not catering to the media and will release casualty figures and rolls when they are confirmed and as complete as can be.
Judging by some of the descriptions on KHOU, they may be going house to house via air. The water is receding at varying rates, though.
“and the media”
Good Sakes Alive..I can’t believe I forgot that..I KNOW I am tired if I forgot that little diddy...laughing at HERaldo and fuming about Grandma Nagin in Galveston is what has saved my sanity. (the sanity part could be debated at this point)
Running without the key in it?
The boats I know have a strap from the key to the driver so that if the driver goes overboard, the boat stops instead of running away from or over the driver...
I know a lot of people who don’t use it, but I thought if the key came out the boat would turn off.
I wonder if that what was what mad_as_he$$ was referring to in this post....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2081430/posts?page=639#639
I just got an emergency call from the facilities superintendent for one of my clients; a very large chemical company that operates several giant facilities from Houston up to NOLA. They are requesting some of our products that can only mean that three of their facilities have been seriously damaged.
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