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)
Katlyn, I notice you haven’t posted since you commented on Friday night about the likelihood of losing your home. Are you on the thread? I hope you’ve had better news than you were expecting.
Look at that! Amazing! The damned thing is still defined. Weak but defined
I'm reading all the comments about this and it sounds like I missed a real humdinger.
We have such idiots for city politicians.
(I love my Rep. John Culberson, though!)
To be fair, that 8 billion just vanished on Saturday at about 2AM....
Thank you.
Authorities hoped to spare thousands of Texans — 140,000 by some estimates who ignored orders to flee ahead of the storm — from another night amid the destruction. Eight deaths had been blamed on the storm, and authorities worried the toll could rise.
So far, Gov. Rick Perry’s office said some 940 people had been saved.
Residents of the tiny community of Seabrook, Texas, near Johnson Space Center, were met by a roadblock as they tried to return home, and police officers standing in the rain turned them away. At times the line was six to 12 cars deep.
“It’s gonna be a while,” an officer shouted to one man as he made a U-turn. “Just listen to the news.”
“Seabrook is a disaster area: no sewer, no infrastructure. It really isn’t safe,” said officer Charlie Skinner. “It’s making residents pretty upset. I understand, but ... There’s an order signed by the mayor. We can’t let anybody in.”
Overnight, a team of paramedics, rescue dogs and structural engineers fanned out under a nearly full moon on a finger of land in Galveston Bay. To the northeast, Coast Guard crews also worked into early Sunday morning, pulling a half-dozen people out of Bridge City before rescue missions were suspended for the night.
Five-year-old Jack King escaped serious injury when a rush of storm-surge water washed out the first floor of his family’s Galveston home just two blocks from the bay.
“I falled in the attic,” the boy told paramedic Stanley Hempstead of his 10-foot tumble through the attic and onto the garage floor.
Jack and his family rode out the storm with blankets and other supplies. As the Texas Task Force 1 Search and Rescue crew arrived, Jack gazed at a TV aglow with “The Simpsons,” a Band-Aid covering a gash on his head.
“We just didn’t think it was going to come up like this,” said the boy’s father, Lee King. “I’m from New Orleans, I know better. I just didn’t think it was going to happen.”
friends apt has power. seemslike n of braes bayou haa power, s does not.
Right on, girl.
You fix ‘em in the sandbox,
you try to fix ‘em here ....... ;)
Thank you, lainie. Yes, she's fine, just amazed at what's going on. There are no large trees on her property, so she's not worried about damage to her house. The power's gone out briefly a few times, but it comes right back on. She says it's nothing compared to what people in Texas and Louisiana have gone through.
Kay Bailey Hutch is up now on tv- she’s in Galveston reassuring people help is coming etc. ..Followed by Cornyn..several big guns in Galveston today..
You can’t get streaming there, can you? Just in case..
http://www.khou.com/video/?nvid=178826&live=yes&noad=yes
Hang in there...keep breathing:) I know it’s SO hard when you’re far from home when there’s a disaster. You’re in my prayers.
Wonderful news that you have aceess to electricity.
At the service debate MCCain said we need to bring private industry into situations like this. HE SAID FEDEX KNOWS MORE ABOUT GETTING GOODS TO THE PEOPLE THAN GUBMINT, And he is right.
Sorry for the caps this keyboard is on its last legs and I cant type for squat, plus I am lazy and tired of correcting this fouled up shift key L0L
I have a question as a WV hillbilly. I hope it doesn’t sound too stupid.
Is a “bayou”, as you call it, what we call a natural creek or is it something man-made?
Shoot, they may live on my block and we may have joint custody of the little fellows.
“thinking the storm would not be as bad as predicted”
What part of “risk certain death” do they not understand???
That and then some
A bayou is marsh wetland, usually slow moving or still water.
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