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)

[arkady_renko]

I think it was up pretty high on its keel. It was sitting in a lane on the highway with a dozen other boats looking like they were waiting to pay a toll. They had been lifted up on the surge, moved sideways and set down as nice as could be. It was bizarre.

You've got to be tired by now.

[spectre]

I think we can put the "hype" about the "hype" behind us now...LOL.

Got a kick out of Geraldo saying the people in Houston should "boil" their water just to be safe.

Earth to Geraldo...they have no electricity!

sw

[American Quilter]

I’m totally speculating, and from very far away, but I’m wondering if the press remembers how stupidly they repeated every wild rumor about deaths from Katrina, and are trying to be more responsible this time, hence the lack of reports until actual facts are known. That kind of professionalism would raise my low opinion of them slightly.

[shield]

I was shocked...after what the news guys were telling us of course that was on my portable radio; we'd be without power for at least 2 weeks.

I had bought a fan run by batteries which helped a whole lot. My sister in law called me from Ft. Worth...she had evacuated there. When I answered the phone...she said oh you have electricity...I said NO...I bought a phone that does not need electricity.

I too was quite impressed when my power came back on. I had just been trying to figure out where I could go to a walmart and buy a battery operated hair dyer. LOL...

[onemiddleamerican]

Listenied to Geraldo talking to Coast Guard guy; he says the CG rescued 33 people and 3 pets today.

While that is good news for the people rescued, it's not at all encouraging regarding the estimated thousands who didn't heed the evacuation orders and stayed on the island.

Maybe that's why nobody is showing video of the west end of Galveston Island; they can't find it.

Prayers for the souls lost...

[Spktyr]

The Viking Kitties are busy powering his house. :D

****

From TXCN, an interview with a Galveston man evacuated to San Antonio. He stated that he lived four blocks from the Seawall and that he knew his house was gone. When asked what he intended to do now, he stated, “Start all over again. Rebuild. I got my family. [shrug]”

[Spktyr]

They’re not reporting them because Texas officials are simply outright refusing to discuss the matter with the press. After Katrina, *I* wouldn’t discuss it with them either.

[deport]

To put Crystal Beach and Gilcrist into perspective for the forum the following map shows the Bolivar Peninsular. The Hwy 87 insignia is about midpoint of the peninsular and is approximately the location of Crystal Beach and Gilcrist is to the east of that a few miles. This peninsular is narrow with no protection to the gulf. On the east end is High Island where Hwy 124 which turns north to Winnie on I-10 about 25 miles west of Beaumont. Hwy 87 from High Island eastward towards Port Arthur used to exist until another hurricane wipe it out some years ago and it was never rebuilt. I suspect the existing portion of 87 will be heavily damaged after Ike.

To add to the info our local weather man says the storm surge at High Island was 14.25' last night. Thus that would have put the entire consular under water as the surge came inland. The structures were mostly beach cabins on stilts and some smaller associated commercial operations.

[AFPhys]

YES... I love it when people just say, “hey, it was an error, I made it, so I was stupid, next question...”

Don’t you just love ol’Ray Wilkinson’s ““I didn’t say I had all my marbles, OK?””

I would love to hear the language he would use to say that in the local pub. I can imagine a few versions, and just the imagining makes me laugh like crazy!

[STARWISE]

That’s what it looks like. But, from
what I’m reading, it seems to have
been fairly sound structurally.

I’m thinking if the officials and
media were staying there, they
probably did their due diligence
before hand.

[shield]

Thanks for sharing...someone had said Orange, TX was gone. Guess that was bad information. I’m so happy Orange isn’t gone. ;o)

[Spktyr]

As much as I dislike Whoraldo, he was just repeating what the Houston authorities were telling people to do.

Boiling water does NOT take electricity, and almost every Texan has a BBQ. Old fashioned fire will boil water just fine.

[NautiNurse]

In the MSNBC video just below the Coast Guard aerial...the camera man asks the chopper pilot to slow down, “Because there’s a lot of good damage...”

[Amelia]

Thanks, Deport. Just the map looks ominous.

[PleaseNoMore]

I heard that too...Vultures, the lot of them.

[NautiNurse]

I heard earlier today the San Luis Hotel lost part of its roof, and a lot of water got into the walls.

[penelopesire]

“I had bought a fan run by batteries which helped a whole lot”

Those things are life savers...more important than water...LOL!

We were without electricity for 4 days this summer and would not have made it without a battery fan.

[STARWISE]

See post #1486

[metmom]

It could be a squall line. I looked at some other more recent radar maps and don’t see it anymore. They tend to be short lived like thunderstorms.

It’s behind a second front that is behind the one in the midwest. It could be the reaction you’re thinking of connected to Ike. It would make sense as the second cold front would be colder than the one preceding it so if the really warm air got that far, it would be more likely to form.

I would think that the only significance it would have would be to show how far the moisture from Ike is reaching. Unless it spawned tornadoes, then the residents there would think it had more.

[pax_et_bonum]

A group of my lady friends and I were at a beach house in Crystal Beach in July of this year when one of the ladies commented, as we sat on the second story deck looking out over the neighborhood and water, that all it would take would be one hurricane and “all of this would be gone.”