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)

[mylife]

Thanks, I saw that earlier.

How did you anf the Missus fare?

[NautiNurse]

Add to that the noise of a generator which draws a lot of attention when all else is dead quiet.

It was after one storm in So. FL when folks were whining about their neighbor's generator being too loud. They were trying to sleep with their windows open in the stifling heat and humidity. The generator noise made them hot and angry (or jealous).

[mathluv]

I did lose power, but it is back now! Going to WalMart for ice and a freezer box will do it every time!

[buffyt]

Bolivar is east of Galveston, not all the way down to Freeport or Surfside. But you can take the Bluewater Highway
http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=XFA128-023
that runs parallel to Surfside Beach from Surfside to San Luis Pass and take the long toll bridge over to Galveston. We also go up 2004 from Lake Jackson to Santa Fe TX to Galveston.

Freeport did pretty well, just mostly trees and branches down. The sign in front of Freeport HS fell over but it fell just to the ground, not onto anything.

Just got recorded phone call message from Lake Jackson mayor. Water is ok. Pecan Lakes has sporadic electricity, rest of town has none. Sewer down due to no electricity. No stores or restaurants or gas stations open.

Reports of grocery stores broken into already in Clute. I guess Looter Guy is there already.

[patton]

We set up a network in our neighborhood - Use it two hours, pass it on.

Gotta admit, it was my neighbors idea, but it avaoided many problems.

[onemiddleamerican]

Your link to Surfside Beach's damage photos shows how bad the damage is. I didn't get much past the photo of the pelican in the power lines. Funny how something so seemingly inconsequential as that would make me stop (again) and with tears again rolling down my face, pray for the souls lost in this storm.

Salvation Army secure donation link.

[mylife]

OK see yer post

[buffyt]

We have not tried to drive into LJ. The mayor called everyone on his list and told everyone not to come back yet. Electricity off, water limited, sewer OUT.

[texasredtop]

I’m sorry, I guess I misread your post. I would never have time to catch up on the previous posts althought I wish I could.

[DvdMom]

Thanks again for your update !

[Enosh]

Good to see you made it, texasredtop, even if your ghost didn’t. LOL!

[NautiNurse]

That’s the kind of thing that makes a real neighborhood. Nice to hear it.

[CindyDawg]

We put ours on the edge of the garage with the door open. I had the house and entry door closed and a monitor in the kitchen. Still made me uncomfortable. This winter we are running pipe and putting it in a shed away from the house (after the storm of course)

[Amelia]

Good point - a CO₂ monitor with battery backup is essential when running a generator!

[patton]

Oh, thanks - that reminds me, I gotta get a CO2 monitor to put next to the woodstove.

[NautiNurse]

No sewer is reason enough to hold off returning home. There needs to be some basic infrastructure available before folks can return. Otherwise folks will scream that they were allowed back without water and sewage service.

{{{Hugs}}} Hang in there!

[STARWISE]

Yesterday was Chicago’s rainiest. Ever.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-flood-mainsep14,0,4712025.story

Massive flooding in the suburbs, basements are flooding in the city, some motorists were stranded for hours on the Edens Expressway. It’s still raining and forecasted to continue, with Ike still coming through.

http://image.vmixcore.com/61/3576/25/23747331/172/61/237/d0cc4b4fd87765c95c63594b0cd130d9.jpg

It’s a huge problem ... but still nowhere near the tragedies endured by Ike’s main targets. God bless them and grant them mercy and strength.

If anyone hears of any national charities collecting
clothing for the victims, please ping me. They’re going
to need everything, I know.

[texasredtop]

LOL - over our late breakfast of waffles and sausage, my husband was telling me that in reality a cord run that far would likely blow out any appliances we were running on it due to the reasons you stated. Something about ratio of amps/volts gets lost in the distance. I HATE science stuff, I’m a math gal myself.

Now get in there and take out the garbage!!! :-)

[patton]

Now that I disagree with - a 5-gallon bucket with some sawdust makes a perfectly servicable toilet.

[texasredtop]

Just keep Harrah’s running and that will help me a bunch!! I understand there are new owners and was wondering if you knew if anything there has changed? We always had real good luck there during the week days before the crowds come in. It usually pays for our hotel stay anyway.