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)

[NautiNurse]

Katlyn has not checked in yet. Lives in La Porte, evac 100 miles inland.

[Aggie Mama]

I was watching the local news and the Farmers rep. said that the Katrina devastation pales in comparison to Ike. Basically what all of us in the Houston area know—Houston/Galveston is densely populated and tremendously spread out, and since Ike was a huge storm, the damage is huge.

I’m not sure if anyone else has seen the pictures of the oil tankers lined up off Galveston, but that sure would be a great picture to use in some campaign video as to why we need more refineries.

[LA Woman3]

Rollover Pass Texas

[sweet_diane]

"There is a builder on my street who bilds like that -"

My Husband builds like that. He built our house himself over a three year period (we lived in a trailer on the property). When the framing inspector came he said "I know where I'm going during the next hurricane!".

There is a smart way to build houses and there is a cheap way. Since your home is,for most people, your largest investment, it should be your priority to have it built to withstand whatever nature tends to throw to your neck of the woods. Hubby builds 'code plus' whether he's building from ground, remodeling or even just adding a deck... only way to do it down here, IMHO.

[Uncle Ike]

bump for later....

[txhurl]

There you are!

[STARWISE]

Praise the Lord. We’ll “talk to you” in
good time. So heartened to hear from you.
Keep hangin’ in there .. you’ve already had
the most important huge blessing. Thank God.

Wonderful news.

[WillVoteForFood]

Just checking in. I live in NW Houston. Got power back yesterday afternoon. Running water has been available for good stretches since landfall.

Infuriated with some of the irresponsible reporting from people like Miya Shay (13), Wayne Dolcefino (13) and Greg Hurst (11).

[Enosh]

Dubya’s in the house.

Great to see ya’, jpsb.

[onemiddleamerican]

Good news to read that you are OK. I’ve said it before on this thread (perhaps too much for some other posters’ to stomach), my prayers continue for all affected by Ike; and that prayer list now includes the states beyond TX and LA who are dealing with Ike’s aftermath.

[CindyDawg]

Thanks for checking in. Take care.

[STARWISE]

Ohmylord ... how starkly dramatic and ominous. Totally stranded on the 13th .. an island. It still stuns me. Keep wondering, who is the builder, the owner?

[STARWISE]

Awesome site .. the whole thing.

And in your pic, there’s that GeoTube.

[STARWISE]

A thread here? Thank you!
Hope you’re doing ok today .. hugs.

[CindyDawg]

Yeah. My husband built our house too. The inspector was looking at all the hurricane ties he added to the roof and said if our house blew away the whole city would be in trouble.

[Deaf Smith]

09/16 bump

[STARWISE]

I posted a video from Oak Is last night.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2081430/posts?page=2907#2907

***

Current KHOU videos

http://www.khou.com/video/

[penelopesire]

OMG! That’s unbelievable.

[STARWISE]

***FEMA: We Will Pay Your Hotel Expenses

http://www.kfdm.com/news/fema_27846___article.html/texas_housing.html

[STARWISE]

Lots of updates here

~~~

http://www.kfdm.com/news/fema_27846___article.html/texas_housing.html

***Monday’s Open Businesses and Restaurants (including Salvation Army Soup Kitchens)

http://www.kfdm.com/news/county_27827___article.html/open_mlk.html