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)

[NautiNurse]

Very glad you are safe and able to check in with us.

[rwfromkansas]

oh no doubt the water will recede fairly quickly, luckily.

[penelopesire]

Don’t Mess With Texas!!

[metmom]

They should have canceled school by Thurs anyway. It is not that important in light of what they were facing. One more day off wouldn’t have hurt the kids.

[AFPhys]

Is the front going to “guide Ike” or is Ike going to chase the front to eat it up?

A rather serious question...

[Justa]

Re: The boat on the road “still running”. It may have been the generator. It’d have been a prudent precation to start the generator and vacate the vessel. In that way the batteries would have remained charged as the bilge pump(s) ran. Just a thought. It’ll take some time before we know the true estimate of lives and propery lost. : (( I always hate these things.

[Amelia]

Our students don’t seem to feel obligated to stay at school when bad weather threatens...

I think if I felt I needed to evacuate, I would go whether or not the government told me to.

[rwfromkansas]

Good point about nobody missing yet; that could change though.

Have they talked much about the train wreck? They seemed to be taking it pretty seriously last night to me, breaking in quite a bit to bring more info about it.

But, that is my perspective I guess...have not studied it objectively.

[Spktyr]

For those that are out of the area or do not have televisions, KHOU coverage is being simulcast on XM Radio Channel 247.

[valkyry1]

Back in the early 90’s I bought an Excalibur 26 sailboat, and taught myself how to sail on the San Francisco Bay (single handed). You will see 6 knot winds in the morning and 35 knot winds at dusk.

I did the Farralons Island race (2 handed) with my friend, who later did the 1996 solo TransPac on a Pretorian. He came in 8th I think. We were flying a spinnaker in 20 knot+ winds LOL.

[penelopesire]

Yikes!

We are up in DFW and nothing much happened here. I was hoping for more rain just to give things a good washing.

[EVO X]

A couple of years ago, we got 7” of rain in one day from a hurricane that turned into a tropical depression. There was a lot of flash flooding here. I think it was Isaac.

I have relatives that got pounded in Houston and relatives that are getting drenched in Chicago. They have had 8 inches of rain in their area of Chicago and Ike hasn't even made its way up there yet.

[Spktyr]

The reporter who discovered the vessel implied that it was the main engine, that he and the cameraman had been unable to shut it off because the key was missing and that all they had been able to do was “reduce the idle” by closing the throttle.

[DrewsMum]

Me too, I was just trying to see both sides and I expressed this to a friend also...she said well,I don’t want to clog the roads up for those that REALLY need to get out.

I said my goodbyes and made my way outta town...but yea I was trying to understand them...

[Doe Eyes]

I saw so many blue/greenish lights last night. I figured it was something minor and was really not surprised when power was back on. In my neighborhood, one can blink and power goes off. I heard that over and over again, transformer blowing...that's the news for you...making up news...I sent the local station an email letting them know how fast my power was back on...and ask them why aren't they reporting that...

The electric utility also has automatic "re-closers" on the circuit breakers. If you lose power for about a second, thats a 50 cycle re-closer trip and automatic reset. Its designed for lighting strike.

They also have an automatic one minute re-closer if the 50 cycle fails.

[hoagy62]

NN-

Thank you once again for the thread! It’s been enlightening!

TO ANY FREEPER in the WACO/FT.HOOD area:

Any word as to whether any Army helo units might be involved in SAR/relief operations? I have a nephew in the Army at Hood who crews a CH-47, and I’m wondering if they’re going to be using him.

[Spktyr]

I’m also in DFW, just keeping an eye on the area via TV, Internet and cell.

[SouthTexas]

KHOU is also being broadcast on TXCN, Texas Cable News.

[DrewsMum]

Oh yea, I was so ticked that like Pasadena ISD had school on Thursday. I teach at a private school and we go by Pasadena Schedule but I called in Thurs morning and told them I was under mandatory evac and we had to go. It puts citizens in an uncomfortable position. My son had to miss a day of school already (which I don't think should count) and I had to miss a personal day (shouldn't count either).

[ReformedBeckite]

They’re all geared up, and there’s no looters!

LOL Maybe some one will come up with a computer game with looters so they can shoot at them from their computers.