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)
I would like to know what happened to the people living in Oak Island. I spent a lot of time there and knew the type of people living there. Very few would have left.
The souls that have passed deserve dignity, along with living family. Amen.
Oh good! The Mom showering? LOL..
Glad y’all are safe.
FR’s acting real funky the last day...
use this as backup, if needed:
http://beta.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index
Reminds my of the terrible tsunami photos in Indonesia. I do remember seeing a number of bodies in the water in those photos. I havn’t seen any yet in the photos, but perhaps they are being censored. Hope the bring in the cadaver dogs quickly.
Awe is right. Over and over we are hearing stories of the stronger helping the older and young.
Excellent site .. trying to
get some location references.
Holy Moses!
I heard a report last year that we are not getting the true fatality statistics on Iraq and Afghanistan either. Apparently you are only a war casualty if you die in country. It you get shipped to Germany and die in a hospital a few days later, it doesn’t count. All those names on the Vietnam wall, are they only the ones who died in country? Does anyone know?
Glad to hear electric is back.
My bosses daughters evacuated thurs and came to Dallas.
The homes are ok but there is no electric as of this afternoon.
I heard a report last year that we are not getting the true fatality statistics on Iraq and Afghanistan either. Apparently you are only a war casualty if you die in country. It you get shipped to Germany and die in a hospital a few days later, it doesn’t count. All those names on the Vietnam wall, are they only the ones who died in country? Does anyone know?
Picture this . . . around 1:00 am the storm starts hitting at our house. As hard as we tried we could not stay awake to watch the damage, so we head for bed. At 1:30 our son calls to ask us what is happening with the storm, told him I have no clue because I was trying to go to sleep! We try to go back to sleep (lulled by the strong winds), at 2:00 we hear a thump/crash . . . from what we could tell it was part of the side fence falling. Around 2:30, just at the point of falling asleep, we hear thump/crash/thump . . . . this was the remaining part of the side fence falling. At this point neither of us could sleep, so we watch the FR hurricane thread and the steaming video of the local news stations (our cable went out many hours ago). Beginning about 3:00 am the power was spotty ~ finally going away at 4:00 am. With nothing else to do we head to bed, it was around 4:30 am when I finally went to sleep. At 6:30 am I receive a text message from my sister asking how we were doing (I did not respond at that time cause I was lacking sleep). At 7:30 am I received a phone call from a dear friend that I could not blow off . . . it took me a few minutes to clear my head, but I gave her a basic break down of what happened.
Saturday morning we did our best clear our minimal damage & prop the entire fence line (both sides & the back side was messed up). After the clean up was complete was done we were totally bored!!
We offered our chain saw to one neighbor . . . but found out that one of the strays had stolen & pawned said chainsaw (Gunner ~ I know where to find this scum!)
After 64 hours without power I am a happy person!!!
God Speed to the rest of Houston . . . .
Glad to be back and thanks for your storm incite too.
Great report! Hope you are caught up on your sleep now. Glad to have you back. :o)
I may need to get the name of your roofer later if you don’t mind. That way I get someone trustworthy.
Almost home now. Just went through baytown...thanks again for your help.
I may need to get the name of your roofer later if you don’t mind. That way I get someone trustworthy.
Almost home now. Just went through baytown...thanks again for your help.
I think the poem goes something like this.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the king was lost.
For want of the king the battle was lost.
For want of the battle the kingdom was lost.
All for the want of a nail!
One thing that continues to amaze me is the interviews with people who say they have no food. They had weeks to stock up, and could certainly carry some canned goods with them even if they have to evacuate. These did not look like people who fled through flood waters after their houses collapsed.
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