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)

[AFPhys]

I’ve been struggling to find figures for homes without power. About 7 minutes before you asked, in post#2285, I excerpted a Center Point Energy press release. There is more info in the linked article there.

Right now, they have 81% of their 2.26 Million customers without electricity - 1.84 Million are still dark. I understand from discussions yesterday that they supply electricity to about 1/3 of the customers in that area (though I’ve not been able to find a good source for that yet) which would support the figure of 5 million without electric in the area that I posted earlier this morning.

All the companies have assessment crews right now flying around - they couldn’t do so yesterday due to high winds and the SAR efforts. Hopefully, they will be able to get a good idea by nightfall. Probably, tomorrow’s releases will be a lot better.

Yesterday, I saw that they were guessing that 30% of their infrastructure was wiped out. We’re not talking here about simply downed lines to houses, but major transmission lines and switching facilities. If that is any where near close to true, it will take a LONG time to get power back on for an extraordinary number of people and businesses -— and I won’t be surprised to hear figures in excess of 4 weeks, though I’m expecting them to say 2-4 weeks.

Electric service damage is something I’ve been looking for, and I’ll keep posting what I can find.

[lainie]

Video shows flooding on Orange Chemical Road
From staff reports
The Orange Leader

An Orange Dupont employee showed video footage of Chemical Road to The News Editor Roger Cowles - footage that showed nearly five feet deep water along the roadway.

As of Sunday morning, representatives from the industries along Chemical Road in Orange County were waiting for a helicopter to take them on a surveillance flight to assess damage.

Cowles said the video showed a large propane tank - about the size of a minivan - floating freely inside a fenceline. He added that bubbles breaking the surface around the tank indicated a leak.

Railcars on the southside of FM 1006 had water up to the top of the wheels, the video shows and the Honeywell administration building was flooded along with many of the facilities along the road.

Smoke from a flare flowed horizontally through the air, indicating the wind was still whipping through the area.

[RikaStrom]

NN,

Rika checking in. decided to head to San Antonio when we lost water as well as power. One I can do, not both.

Back fence is gone, some shingles missing, that is going to be a fun insurance claim. The storm last night actually did more damage than the hurricane. The neighborhood flooding from last night was awful. It took me three hours to get out of Houston.

Haven’t seen the news yet, but everyone that I have talked to is basically without power and water, gas is in massive shortage, and you run the risk on your life at the intersections that don’t have working lights. (most of them)

High water is/was just about everywhere and they expect another storm tonight.

I will head home Tuesday after I get a plan of action for what needs to be done.

The Psycho and I are ok, just shaken up, nothing broken that can’t be fixed.

RS

[mylife]

deer tamales?

sounds great! Schoepf's has venison BBQ. Yom

http://local.yahoo.com/info-18930061-schoepf-s-old-time-barbque-belton

[hobson]

I haven’t heard. We’re still out in Garden Oak but driving over I noticed lights on around the Galleria and down SWF to Bellaire.

[CindyDawg]

I was watching that survivor guy last week. He climbed on the back of a gator, killed it and drug it on his back to camp. When I saw the pic I was thinking some Texan is going to be grilling gar tonight!

[stlnative]

here is a small basic map because I know many people don't know the area. (Most think Surfside is up by Crystal Beach when actually it by Freeport down on the far west end)

[CindyDawg]

I was watching that survivor guy last week. He climbed on the back of a gator, killed it and drug it on his back to camp. When I saw the pic I was thinking some Texan is going to be grilling gar tonight!

[mylife]

((((Rika))))

[mylife]

Its getting done

[NautiNurse]

I heard the Galveston City Manager tell the press corps they needed to bring in their own food caterers because the city was running out of food.

[ErnBatavia]

Perfect.....danke schoen.

[texasredtop]

Dang it, now I have a craving for some crawfish tamales from Annette’s in Lake Charles. DRAT! Too much flooding between here and there. Where is that boat rental place again??? LOL

We have over 200# of deer meat in the freezer and all I was concerned with was the 30# of frozen jumbo gulf shrimp. :-) We were going to get out the propane cooker and boil them up if the power stayed off through this morning.

[CindyDawg]

Where’s Brownsville? :’)

[Allegra]

I’m glad I’M not in his sights!!

I'm just one of his constituents and wouldn't have it any other way. Texas District 7 just doesn't vote for Democrats.

My absentee ballot should be here by October 1, barring any delays in the Harris County Tax Assessor's office due to Ike.

[NautiNurse]

Hi Rika—very relieved to know you are safe. Thanks for checking in and providing a local update.

[NautiNurse]

That was the only source I could find. Glad to assist.

[texasredtop]

On the map a few posts up, it’s down by Port Isabel.

[CindyDawg]

I know. Just joking.

[RikaStrom]

Thanks Mylife, I needed that.

I have decided that I never want to do that again. When my back fence went down, the psycho dog, decided she wanted to explore, it’s cramped her life just a touch to be on a leash for now. :-)