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)

[Tail Gunner John]

Yesterday in Cincinnati we had winds approaching 80 mph. In the eight county Cincy metro area 700,000 plus with no power.

Large numbers of these people won't get power back until this weekend. The local power company had sent many of their work crews to help in TX and LA. Of course these crews are now high tailing it back home.

Local weather guys are calling Ike a hundred year weather event for this area. I know in my 50 years I've never seen anything like it.

[mfccinsd]

Katlyn wrote saying they knew everything was gone and she wasn’t there, but that was very early on and she’s not been back since about 9 PM PT on Friday night. I’d PM’d her also and haven’t heard from her.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The story was relayed to me several weeks later in my local cable office. The lady was working in another office at the time in the next town where the goofball lived.

[CindyDawg]

Another con is to give the lowest bid and then demand more money half way thru, to finish. They tell the owner that it is going to require more work than they anticipated. They figure people will pay it just to get it finished.

[Tail Gunner John]

Oh, by the way. In Ohio we're pretty inexperienced with hurricanes. I lost some shingles. When does FEMA start passing out the debit cards? Can I use my FEMA card at the track?

[RedWhiteBlue]

Wow, what a story. Thankfully you have power again, and can start to get back to normal. I can’t imagine being on the roof of a two story house at 8 Saturday morning, it was still TS winds at that time!

Other than losing power (at 10:30pm, but got it back @ 3pm Saturday), everything was uneventful (aside from the stress).

Congrats on getting to the other side.

[mylife]

Best wishes. lemme know if there is anything you need.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

You can use the FEMA card anywhere, although it's not recommended for use buying necessities as it sends up red flags. People who sell big screen TVs and places that give lap dances have no problem handling the cards.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Hey,Ike,,,

Battery TV was good to have,,,

The no FR part was AWFUL!,,,;0)

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

At midnight EST Friday night she said she was 100 miles away, in Huntsville, and was safe. I haven’t heard of any problems in Huntsville. This is a lot better than a last post saying that he hadn’t decided to leave a place that doesn’t exist today.

[LA Woman3]

Great news about your friends! Glad they were able to get out safely and that more relief is on the way.

[Jaded]

Glad to see you back.

[CindyDawg]

Hide or gather the facts first? As awful as it is to post, someone said the other day that it takes about 3 days for bodies to wash up:'( That said, a lot may have got out. If my house blew away and I had to wade thru miles of high water, I don't know if I would take the time to call the mayor. I would probably take my family and get away as far as possible. Anyway, I'm hoping a lot had 2nd thoughts and left and will start checking in

I wanted to comment about something else though. Have you noticed how most aren't talking to the media. They look at each other and then just mumble something and walk off.

[txhurl]

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=bc8628c780c2a319

Media access starting to be restricted

‘Reporters were also forbidden from visiting areas on the far West End of FM 3005, Thomas said. She did not explain why.
‘

[seeker41]

My friend got off the island with pictures today and they are sick. Bodies everywhere! The numbers on the island are 4000+. Where is the national media....where is the outcry. By this time in Katrina there were telethons...and here nothing. The pictures have been sent to Nytimes, cnn, etc and nobody has posted about them. Mark my words tomorrow there will be headlines, and if not in the papers than in the blogs because this is a higher death count than Katrina and 9/11 combined. This is sick...and it is true. On the island they are telling them not to talk so as to give them time to notfy the families..but a national spotlight is needed. This is bigger then the DOWJones and wall street. This is huge.

This was just posted here http://www.khou.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27523&start=30

Have no idea if true

[CindyDawg]

HMM. Well in health care , staff are forbidden to talk with reporters. All questions must go thru administration. It’s been that way for years and protects patients so I see no problem with her directive. She can’t tell the folks sheltered not to talk to reporters though but I’ve noticed that many seem reluctant to do so. I wonder what’s up with that.

[CindyDawg]

I too hope it isn’t but if it is...what do they want? People decided to stay. Some died. We have laws against dragging people out of their homes. Besides notifying the next of kin..what is a telethon or the media going to be able to do to help.

[SE Mom]

Ok- so there’s an FAA no-fly zone- media restricted access and no discussion about how many folks might be missing.

ALL of this may be completely innocent- and a result of chaos, shock and mis-communication.

At the same time- the reporter at Channel 13- after confronting Gov Perry yesterday - said he reported on Katrina- was there the next day- and they were allowed EVERYWHERE- even to the grimmest areas- there was no attempt to hide from the press. He suggested if the authorities are having problems with getting a LOT of press people in- just send one reporter for now.

The point he kept trying to make is that we only see this kind of thing in 3rd world countries- not in America.

The problem is- because they’re not letting anyone down there- the citizens of Texas, their friends and families don’t know if there is something really serious- or if it’s just typical bureaucratic nonsense exacerbated by the chaos.

[txhurl]

I completely agree that surviving family should not get the news via footage or photos.

[seeker41]

Like I said, don’t have a clue if it’s true. I just think they (authorities) are being way to tight lipped and there is a reason...to avoid people panicking and trying to come into the area...just my 2 cents...