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)

[STARWISE]

From that site, discussion of the GeoTube.
Doesn’t look like this home was part of the
program, as it stands undamaged but alone.

The concept sounds very interesting
for vulnerable beachfront property.

http://www.texasgulfcoastonline.com/portals/0/PDFs/BolivarPeninsulaGeotubeNews.pdf

~~~~

FEMA Funds Geo-Tube Repairs

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=7296

[STARWISE]

So you think they’ve got Texas
City and San Leon switched,
directionally?

I don’t know the area, but I’d be
more inclined to accept the FAA
map is likely more accurate than
Google maps. I’ve definitely gotten
bad info from Google maps.

[stlnative]

The guy that was found 12.5 miles away made it to Rollover Pass and found a vacant house to take shelter in. The house was blown away with him in it. He ended up all the way across the east bay. You can see Rollover Point here...(it's that cut out section to the far east of East Bay before you get to the land mass)

[STARWISE]

I know .. I don’t find any either.

[stlnative]

no not switched... The “E” in Texas City on that no fly map is where Google maps say San Leon is. (it is not on the east side of the bay and it not o n Boliva Penn)

[stlnative]

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Ain’t that the truth!,,,

With all the storms they have in that area,,,

The last time I was down there was in 65’(Gilchrist),,,

Me and 3 more Fools spent 2 weeks at a beach-house in the

first row off the water,,,(100 yards from the water),,,

You could drive rite on the beach in those days,,,

Spun-out my Chevy into the Gulf,,,LOL;0)

Sadly that place ain’t there no more...

[STARWISE]

I see what you’re saying
about Texas City.

As I look again at the FAA
map, I can construe Texas
City to be correctly placed.
The lettering is just too far
to the right, making it look
like it’s in the no fly zone
when it’s not.

[Allegra]

Our power went out Saturday morning at about 4:00am and just came back on at 8:00pm a few minutes ago!

YAAAAAAY!! So glad to hear that! :-D

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Yup,,,saw that on his posts,,,

I bet he don’t hang around “next time”...

[kingu]

For those who use Google Earth, the NOAA overflight photography has been overlayed onto Google Earth for ease of viewing the photos.

The link is at: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/09/aftermath-of-hurricane-ike.html, just click and it should start up Google Earth if it is installed.

[stlnative]

The no fly zone is all of Galveston Island and All of Boliva Penn (aka Gilchrist, Crystal Beach).


I altered this picture to point out the general loactions of some of the towns we keep hearing about. Some of damage is on "The Point" and right now I don't recall the names of those little towns.

[STARWISE]

Well then, that is plain weird .. that
the FAA map is so off. Thanks.

[stlnative]

Galveston officials restrict media access
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2083270/posts

[STARWISE]

Just clicking on one of the boxes on the NOAA National Geodetic Survey index map of sat photos after Ike hit is stunning.

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/IKE0000.HTM

You have to scroll all over the enlarged photo (click to enlarge) to really get the big picture from overhead. It’s a huge debris field.

I didn’t look closely at it when it was first posted.

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/ike/geo-C25883768.jpg

[stlnative]

Bush is going to view the area today (Tuesday)
He may be just doing a fly over.

[stlnative]

Here is Rollover Point - you can see the unearthed scour tubes along the coast (the tubes that were suppose to protect the homes)

(this is the far east end of Boliva (sp) Penn about where that one guy made it to the vacant house and was tossed acoss the east bay over to “the point”)

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/IMAGES/ike_c25883946.htm

[STARWISE]

Those horizontal dark streaks?

[txhurl]

Yep. The tubes are fine, the homes.. not so much.

[stlnative]

yes...

I think I found the house that was left standing

Here is the large version of the same view I sent you in my last post (Rollover pass) it to the right side past the Rollover Point Channel

Dark gray/nearly black roof