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)
having trouble also
Have not heard from John, power is still out and probably will be for 10 days to 2 weeks I hear.We might go check monday.We lost power at 8 pm friday night, way before the storm even hit.Will check back in later.
Regular FR is up. I’m connected to http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2081430/posts?page=2394
I know there’s a yahoo site or something but I forget the name or my password or anything like that.
I have all those alternate sites on my desk top computer. I was too lazy to go into my office to pull up those sites. Thanks for posting it.
Believe me, it’s been down for many of us for hours. Check the posts:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freerepublic2/messages
Yeah, it’s up. Still acting kind of sickly though.
That is tragic. Swept away in vehicles?
Wow .... sad sad sad.
Tomorrow’s going to be tough. I’m doing a lot of praying .. many things are very volatile right now.
Going to grab a bite .. been monkeying between the 3 FR
places for over an hour.
Everything ok up there? We have a thunderstorm going on and are under a flood watch. Cold front coming thru.
I got a little ansy this evening. I took my grandsons home and people are putting UP plywood. I was thinking now what. I’ve been staying off WU and thought maybe something popped up. Nada. I don’t know what the neighborhood plwood party was about.
Two Dead In St. Louis Area After Ike Rages Through (1 more missing and presumed dead per local news)
http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=7430247&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1
I’m going to bed.
Last I saw, death toll from Ike was 21 people in 9 states, and JMHO, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Not to mention the billions of dollars in property damages and rising gasoline prices...
Very very sad.
Well I guess they didn’t do it or maybe it got washed away. He can’t very well go around saying too bad, go hungry though. Besides I think the supplies he was upset about are for the responders.
I just found out that there was a “special session” of commodities today. Prices are stable or down for oil/gas.
As I (hopefully) predicted.
IKE seems NOT to be a big event, except in the mind of the Dinosaur media. ... now, OTHER news not related to Ike... I’ve been so far out of the loop the last three days I’ve ZERO idea.
Crystal Beach, Gilcrist and Bolivar are gone...there are people that stayed and were found alive. That is farm country in that area and there are cattle roaming around looking pretty bad. There are those going in to take care of the animals in distress...they need water...there are plenty of alligators swimming around also.
Elderly couple pushing car to higher ground after water rushed in to their U-City subdivision. Man found, woman still missing and presumed dead.
The other was a lady who was hit by a large tree branch in Ladue Mo (part of STL County)
I live about 80 miles south of STL and we had 35 to 50 mph substained winds today. The whole area is under a flash flood warning currently and we are expecting moderate to major flooding again on the Mississippi River later in the week. (15+ foot above flood stage)
Heads up to the folks in the path of TS IKE. (Northeast states)
KHOU earlier showed an animal shelter with something like 40 squirrels in it. They said concerned residents noticed that the rodentia didn’t have a home anymore and brought them to the shelter.
I’m having a hard time reconciling independent gun-toting Texans with rescuing wild park animals (vermin) that can make their own way to higher ground.
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TWIRRRRR ... GEE WHITTT.. GEE WHHHITT... does not compute ... does not compute... norman please coordinate...
Yeah I know, it was down for everybody (me included). But FR at freerepublic.com is back up now.
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