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)

[stlnative]

Yes that is it... You can see the blue thing to the left of the house (go back to the large picture of the house)

So the house is up past Rollover Point

[STARWISE]

Hmm .. and it looks like it was behind a GeoTube.

[stlnative]

Satellite image of the house left standing it to the right of the Rollover Pass Channel
(wait for the picture to fully load)

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/ike/geo-C25883946.jpg See the blue thing in the yard to the left of the house?

Here is the original picture

This shows the location of Rollover Pass

[stlnative]

Satellite image of the house left standing it to the right of the Rollover Pass Channel
(wait for the picture to fully load)

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/ike/geo-C25883946.jpg See the blue thing in the yard to the left of the house?

Here is the original picture

This shows the location of Rollover Pass

[STARWISE]

Good detective work .. that's it .. and there's the GeoTube. But still, there has to be something else special about this one house.

Still astounding, no matter how many times I see it.

[stlnative]

Sorry for the double post

Rollover Point = Rollover Pass

[stlnative]

So the mass of Land you see in the upper left corner (is that large chuck of land east of Boliva (sp) Penn.

[STARWISE]

So, the Pass isn’t really a pass thru .. from the Gulf inland.
You see paved highway right there.

[stlnative]

Right... The large satellite picture shows the bridge over the pass (relief water channel) as being damaged - buckled) but I don’t believe it is a lift bridge for boats and such.

[STARWISE]

Slideshow

****

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/09/15/us/0916-IKE_index.html

Heroes with utility trucks, others with airboats,
more herding cattle on horseback. God bless them all.

Make sure you see the Crystal Beach before and after pics.
It’s all so sad.

[stlnative]

This picture is looking to the west (the house would be on this side of the channel closet to the camera) - The East Bay on the right and the Gulf is on the left in this picture. The house may have been built when this picture was taken.

[STARWISE]

To my tired eyes, it doesn’t seem like
the same plot of land as in my pic above.
But that could just be the hour and me.

I don’t see all the flattened debris all
around it, with that one tallish home
sticking out from the rest.

I’ll check your latest tomorrow .. time to
get flat, with prayers on my pillow for all
those suffering souls.

Night.

[stlnative]

night Starwise

[gleeaikin]

“There has to be something else special about thisone house.”

Another poster suggested that unlike most houses which are nailed to their pilings, this one may have been bolted. I hope the construction code people give this house a good going over for future advice and legislation.

[stlnative]

Here are some street maps of the whole Bolivar Peninsula

You can see the Rollover Pass on this one (this is the east side of the Peninsula) - the house sits on the right side (east) of the Rollover Pass and probably sits on what was Hebert Street.)
The left side of the map is west and right side of the map is east. The bottom of the map goes to the gulf and top of the map goes to the east bay of Galveston Bay.
http://www.bolivarchamber.org/portals/0/BolivarPeninsulaRight.pdf

Here is the west side map of Bolivar Peninsula (closest to Galveston Island)
http://www.bolivarchamber.org/portals/0/BolivarPeninsulaLeft.pdf (you can see Rollover Pass to the far right side of this map also.)

This picture shows the house to the east of Rollover Pass. (you can see the blue thing to the left of the house)
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/ike/geo-C25883946.jpg

This picture is pointed directly east (towards High Island)
(notice the blue thing to the left of the house)
http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/ike_09_15/ike11.jpg

This picture is of Rollover Pass but is taken from the east looking west towards Galveston Island.
http://www.bolivarchamber.org/Portals/0/rolloverpassaerial.jpg

(the house would be on the left side of the road towards the gulf and close to the Rollover Pass as shown in this picture if it was built and standing when this picture was taken)

If you compare this picture (even though they are taken at different angles you can see how much was wiped out)

http://www.bolivarchamber.org/Portals/0/rolloverpassaerial.jpg (looking west)

http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/ike_09_15/ike11.jpg (looking east and taken just east of the Rollover Pass)

[jeffers]

No problems on this end, jut setting the record straight.

While I’m here, I don’t think those are sat images, high altitude aerial instead. Seen those collections before, after Katrina and again after Rita and memory seems to tell me they were aerials.

[jeffers]

It happens a lot. I was amazed reading about people like that in the 1938 hurricane. All i can figure is that people washed off barrier islands in hurricanes find enough debris to ride on till they get to the mainland. Funny thing there too, they all seem to clump together on landing. Guess the current, even though hurricane-chaotic, takes them all the same general direction and dumps them off close by.

[stlnative]

These Bolivar Peninsula street maps will match up with the satellite photos for those who want to know exactly what section they are looking at on the satellite photos.

http://www.bolivarchamber.org/portals/0/BolivarPeninsulaRight.pdf

http://www.bolivarchamber.org/portals/0/BolivarPeninsulaLeft.pdf

Bolivar Peninsula Satellite Photos (click on the yellow boxes for a closer look)
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/29094D6_IKE.HTM
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/29094D5_IKE.HTM
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/29094E5_IKE.HTM
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/29094E4_IKE.HTM

[jeffers]

You hang in there. You’re already doing the one best thing you can, seeing the glass as being half full.

Keep it up, ask if you need something.

[Mila]

In Katrina, Louisiana lost about 1,500 people. I’m hoping that the tally in Texas comes nowhere near that number.