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)

[Deaf Smith]

bump

[NautiNurse]

People living in shattered dwellings amid their biological waste with no sewer or garbage disposal is a third world health hazard. Add to that all of the nails, glass and other shattered construction materials laying around. No health services available to repair injuries if a weakened wall, floor, or roof collapses. No pharmacy to refill meds. No stores to restock supplies, etc.

I would offer that a fair number of the folks left there are in shock after what they have been through, and not quite able to make sound decisions.

[Fawn]

“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 3:19

This is a great quote. I am putting that on my page...thx.

[stlnative]

trap = tarp (blue tarp)

[CindyDawg]

I think it's pretty simple. They're trying to conserve their search, rescue and refugee-support resources. There's really not much left on the pennisula, making support of anyone staying a lot of (potential) work

All that is true but....those returning have got to be figured in the plan. People, Texans...need something to do. Waiting and worrying just frustrates people and makes them plan to re-build better and stay the next time. Instead of looking at them as a nuisance that will just get in the way and compromise S/R...maybe they could tap in to the extra help. JAT

[shield]

Understand these areas were wiped out with Hurricane Carla. They rebuild those communites and it’ll be done again. Hopefully, when they go back and rebuild the structures they will remain standing after the next hurricane as many did on west end and San Leon. It’s not a matter IF it’s a matter of WHEN the next hurricane will hit. A person is foolish to ever think on the Texas coast they’ll not be hit by a hurricane. The old timers were never foolish enough to ever doubt hurricanes would hit them and lived accordingly.

[STARWISE]

Oh ... no need to... ;)

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Several reasons for a news blackout. Some are, the media gets in the way, they use resources that are better spent on rescue efforts and on those who already live there, and they go into areas that are still unsafe and may require rescue themselves.

They also magnify certain situations causing relief efforts to be ruled by emotion and not planning.

[CindyDawg]

I believe very little that the news networks report so I guess I'm biased in not caring if Gov Perry answers the reporter's questions or not. It is sounding bad and as he said...families will need to be notified first. I don't want media in search of a story taking pics of our injured or dead. We will all know soon.

[af_vet_rr]

I think it's pretty simple. They're trying to conserve their search, rescue and refugee-support resources.

Except that has nothing to do with Homeland Security restricting the air space to the news media helicopters - they didn't do that in the past, and the media can fly around Galveston (so it's not a matter of too much air traffic since Galveston's airspace would be busier).

[davetex]

All of what you listed is true, but I also think it is out of consideration for the families. I know I would not want to be watching TV and see a loved one in a mangled heap among the debris piles. If that is the case, I think it is honorable, and folks just need to have patience.

[ReformedBeckite]

I noticed what was behind it is no longer there.

[ReformedBeckite]

I noticed what was behind it is no longer there.

[af_vet_rr]

could it be they’re trying to cover their own butts?

They have nothing to cover - I think the governments from the county up to even FEMA and NOAA did everything they could to get people to leave.

Keep in mind that Texans cannot be forcibly evacuated like other states, and so the government bears no responsibility for those too hardheaded to leave.

Also, we have Republicans running the show in Texas - this isn't the incompetent liberals in New Orleans trying to downplay their mistakes.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

To a lesser degree evacuees turning on the news and seeing their condition of their houses could turn them from wanting to get home to desperately needing to get home. Then it causes problems for all.

[DrewsMum]

I know what you mean about the pets. I wouldn’t even stay in the same house my mom evacuated to because of her cats and dogs and my family is allergic. We took our hamster and our turtle to the RV park with us and they were not a burden to any one else unlike her and her animals.

[stlnative]

More problems from TS IKE...

Ike’s death toll reaches 32
http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9011309&nav=menu100_2

“As many as 5,000 people are being evacuated from Munster, Indiana, where the town manager says they’ve “never had flooding like this.”

[stlnative]

Ike remnants blamed for Midwest deaths, blackouts
By DANIEL J. YOVICH – 22 minutes ago

CHICAGO (AP) — Residents of the Midwest faced blackouts affecting nearly 1.5 million homes and businesses, flooded homes and streets clogged by fallen trees Monday after a weekend of devastating weather caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ike.

The violent weather in the Midwest, the latest in a brutal summer that has slammed parts of the region with severe flooding, brought Ike’s total death toll to at least 34 in nine states from the Gulf Coast to the Ohio Valley.

~SNIP~

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jW-BndswWuhgPAPXOK4Q6TCQsANQD9379LUG0

[texasredtop]

Ha! Maybe you got worse than me. All those predictions are meaningless sometimes. Life is a gamble and we make the best with the information we have.

We are fine. We got very very little rain, it was the wind that was so bad. We went outside during the eye for about an hour to survey damage and resecure anything that had blown loose. It was a very long night.

The worst thing facing us today is the roofer is flooded into his neighborhood and can’t get here (he’s in the Heights). We have 2-3 dozen shingles down that need to go back up. Our roof is very very steep so I’ve threatened my husband not to even think about it. He got up on the edge of the roof yesterday to realign the dish and I didn’t realize it until the tv came on. One dish was working but the HD dish got knocked around a bit.

The yard is about half cleaned up, we’ll probably finish up today. The back porch is still a little wet so we’re waiting for it to dry out so we can blow the debris off.

We had power back in 24 hours. It went down at 12:30 AM on Saturday and it came back on almost exactly 24 hours later. We’re well stocked and ate some deer meat spaghetti for lunch. We had to cook out on the pit Saturday but that’s okay, it beats cold canned food. I found several packages of Oreos that the Mr. must have snuck in the grocery basket last week. I’m glad he did now :-)

All in all, we were very very blessed.

Oh, and Tim, your Mom says you’re the best son a Mom could ever hope for ;-) (they banned my ghost-LOL)

[Romulus]

people didn't leave for Katrina

Yes they did. Don't peddle myths.