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)
September 13, 2008
Stolen Seawall sign finds its way back to Geraldo
You know you've got yourself a good storm when Fox News' Geraldo Rivera and his rain slicker show up.Rivera's broadcasting crew has set up three sets along Seawall Boulevard for the correspondent. One of the sets is a pile of debris that didn't look quite cool enough. So one of Rivera's crew members found a battered "Seawall Boulevard" street sign and stuck it in the pile, so viewers will know exactly where he is.
Some passing Galveston residents must have also thought the sign was cool, so they plucked it from the pile while Rivera was stationed in front of one of his other backdrops. When Rivera's producers realized what happened, they and two law officers chased down the sign-stealers and retrieved Rivera's prop, returning it to the rubble pile.
Houston Chronicle blog
Weather is pretty bad in the video.
Poor visibility thru most of it,
until they got down closer.
I didn’t hear Cantore- been out of the loop most of the day.
It did strike me as odd when I heard the number of SAR being deployed.
I also discounted my worries when i heard the media start critisizing the “certain death” warning. If the death toll will be small- that would be the first thing they’d pounce on..
( I just can’t help myself -— blame it on my “community organizer”* gene )
*”community organizer” == “rabble rouser”
The weather and environment in Texas is in fact actively trying to kill the inhabitants. There’s no point in hiding it from the people that live there, so you teach everyone about it and let them know that if something goes wrong that they will be on their own. Heck, just having a flat tire in West Texas can be a life-threatening incident. In the summer, you can be dead within 30 minutes of getting out of the car, if you are not prepared.
New Orleans is what happens when you make everyone depend on the government for everything and try to isolate them from cold hard reality that’s out there. Well, it’s also what happens when you’re stupid enough to build in a below sea-level bowl.
Thank you.
You know, if we weren’t paying all those taxes for *free* stuff for everyone else, we’d have enough money saved up on our own to pay for our own repairs. We’d be coming out the same in the end.
I really, really hope you are correct.
We had local news helicopters up today and there was truly fog...they were up higher than normal because of rescue helicopters at a lower altitude...fog or thin clouds...geezzz...they aren’t trying to hide anything...
The TV audience could not hear the chopper conversation.
It’d really surprise me if people stayed on West Beach without a sea wall. Those people leave when a hurricane is coming in.
In general I agree with your assessment about the west end. However the one factor that could change this equation a bit is that I think the ones on Bolivar Peninsular got caught with rising water blocking their way out much earlier than they though it would happen. So I don’t know if that could have happened to those on the West end of Galveston Island.
Same in FL. I think we come
together and help each other
in such devastating crises.
Hopefully, most neighborhoods
do likewise.
How embarrasing...LOL! I almost feel sorry for him.
Maybe it really was just bad weather they were referring to.
I don't think I know anyone without a BBQ grill. Pretty much everyone here (WV) has one too. I grill at least 3 times a week.
It’s not me speculating. From what I saw, visibility at the altitudes above the SAR choppers was pretty awful. I’m sure it was fog/rain/whatever.
Others were speculating because they thought “the government is hiding something”.
I hope it really was fog.
There is usually an extreme amount of humidity after a hurricane.
Now we have a poster on these hurricane threads especially when it's coming our way...he has a place in San Luis Pass along with a beer joint...did he leave? He's the one I'm concerned about...
I thought so ... good info. Thanks.
Glad you’re OK ... (SNL is doing their
hatchet job on Sarah)
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