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
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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)
What ever missy
Water coming to the lobby of the Clear Lake Hilton Hotel now. People are moving up to the second floor.
Glass ceiling in lobby came crashing down into the lobby but no one hurt.
Per FOX reporter at the Clear Lake Hilton
I hear you — when we lose the cable here, I tether my PDA to my little girl’s laptop, and unlike Houston where they’ve got 3G, out here in Louisiana it’s only the Edge network. I checked the speed and it was only 14K — in other words, one-fourth the speed of a 56K dial-up modem. I can’t begin to describe how frustrating that is, so “Ah feel yer pain!” FReep on!!
to = into
We have some pretty go winds here in Friendswood. So far so good, generator is humming away. Power has been out about an hour.
Yer on the Ground hows about You report to us?
Ike will be a hurricane through this afternoon.
:shaking head:
Whats the situation? You Ok? no power?
i am on the edge network also. very slow and stressful when your worried about home, friends and family and some people on this board wanna be rude cause you ask them to keep on topic at least through the worst part of the storm. :-(
from that board...
Rockin’ N Rollin’
Posted by Will_TX on 9/13/2008, 3:37 am
It is gettin’ it...I am on the 6th floor in my office of St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. Hurricane Force winds have arrived. Lucky for downtown and West Houston Metro we are just enough on the left side that we are being spared the worst of this storm. It is not over by any stretch. But... The wind is doing a number on the buildings. St. Luke’s is in the middle of several buiding that have 26 stories plus. We have a lot of construction going on right now. ninety percent of all the boom cranes arwe down in the Texas Medical Center (many major hospitals. Would like to go to sleep...I am afraid I will miss something... Anyway...will be interesting to see how much rain we get. Our bayou system and Harris County gully have no where to drain for the next few hours.
ARE YOU OK?
Could be that somebody who needed to be fired wasn't.
Rode up front on an Amtrak up to Sacramento, 'n' talked with the Engineer some of the way. The signals are regarded as God's Right Hand by railroad men; ignoring them gets you fired.
What puzzles me is that it didn't seem there wasn't any automated backup. The New York Central had automatic signal detectors on-board their loco's way back in the early days of diesel power. If an Engineer missed a "stop" signal, an alarm would sound immediately, requiring immediate response from the Engineer. If that response didn't come, the automatic detector would trip the brakes, and stop the whole train.
Another thing: signal control responds -- at least in part -- to what are called "block occupancy detectors"; sensors that govern a whole section of track, called a "block". If a train enters a block, that should cause the signals on both ends of the block to change "aspect"; from green to yellow, or from yellow to red, or vice-versa depending on direction of travel.
If my train's in "block 1", the crew of a train coming the other direction will have the green at end of "block 3" that is farthest from my train. They'll have the yellow at the end of "block 2" that is farthest from me, and they'll have the red at the far end of "block 1". All of that is triggered by the occupancy detection equipment in block 1 where my train is.
As my train moves from block 1 into block 2, the signals for oncoming traffic change two full blocks ahead of me. The signal at the far end of block 2 goes from green to yellow, and the one at the far end of block 2 goes from yellow to red.
In practice, it's more involved than that, and actual lamp colors vary on different railroads, and then there's radio, too, that enables more flexibility, but that's a basic description.
In order for two trains to meet in a head-on, one of two scenarios would need to happen:
If my train were in block 1 when the oncoming train was in block 3, the other crew would have to miss the yellow as they entered block 2, and I'd have to miss the yellow (caused by the other train being in block 3), as my train entered block 2. IF the other train entered block 2 before my train did, I'd have to miss the red (caused by the other train already being in block 2), as my train entered block 2. If either of those two situations happened, both trains would end up in block 2 the same time, and there wouldn't be any more signals between us that could give any indication that we needed to stop our trains. Furthermore, since both of us had missed the signals coming into block 2 from our respective ends, we'd both still be highballin' it when we finally got to where we could see each other. At that point there'd be some yellin' in both cabs (probably some real coarse language, and the Engineer shouting at the Fireman to bail out), brakes would get slammed into "Emergency", and -- at least in the old days -- both crews would probably make an honest attempt to "join the birds"; that is, leap out at the last moment and take their chances.
If my train were in block 1 when the oncoming train was in block 4, the other crew would see green as they entered block 3, and -- if I entered block 2 at the same time the other train entered block 3 -- I would also see green as I entered block 2 and BOTH trains would be going at maximum track speed. If I entered block 2 a bit after the other train entered block 3, I'd see a yellow telling me to slow down, but both trains would still be heading toward each other with just ONE remaining signal between them: the signal between block 2 and block 3. That signal would be showing a red aspect in BOTH directions. If I or the other crew missed that signal, there'd be a head-on with one train stopped and the other still going at the track limit.
That second scenario had railroads wiring block occupancy detection to trip signals to yellow TWO blocks ahead, not just one, so as to provide an entire block of additional "padding" between oncoming trains. For a train stopped in block 1, say, an oncoming crew would see green entering block 4, yellow entering block 3, yellow again entering block 2, and -- finally -- red at the limit of block 1.
I don't know how it's set up down there in Chatsworth, but someone definitely wasn't paying attention, and there'll be wrongful death cases coming out of this before it's all said and done.
I just hope Ike is nicer to the folks in Texas than the Laws of Physics were to those people on that rail line.
Making landfall hasn’t taken much out of this storm... although it’s inevitable. In the latest NOAA update, a warning of 25’ surges is possible (in the shallow bays mainly). Hurricane winds out to 125 miles (x 2) covers a 250 mile swath. Tropical storm winds cover over 500 miles in all directions. Inland, Port Arthur, reported a 96 mile an hour gust.
Here in central IL, we should see the remnants of Ike Sunday.
Holy (expletive deleted)! The new 5-day tracking map shows Ike’s path is heading all the way to Lake Erie! I have family in both Erie, PA and western NY State between Buffalo and Rochester, so this really blows my mind!
OK, I have to force myself to log off and sleep now. The reason I’ve been staying awake is the tornado warnings. I feel so guilty that when the big storm finally came at 5:30 am two days after Gustav, I just couldn’t get off the mattress because I was completely exhausted. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I peeped out my bedroom window, when I saw how much water had accumulated in just the 90 minutes that I had been sleeping before the sitter called to tell me her neighborhood was flooded and I couldn’t bring my daughter over. Let’s hope things stay quiet around Rapides Parish for the next few hours, though I kinda doubt it.
Night, y’all — prayers to everyone in Ike’s path!!
For your info I am NOT on the ground, I am 400 miles away in a camper on a cell phone trying to get info on my family and friends still there and figure out if I will have a home to return to...so why don’t you shut up?
Thanks for the info. Typically as a condition for a commuter rail network to run on a freight line, the commuter rail indemnifies the freight line (UP I imagine) for all damages and legal liability.
I was concerned because I thought you were in Houston
Ha... you are near me.
This will come directly over me at about 2pm Sunday.
Expecting up to 40mph winds, 6”+ of rain, and flash flooding.
I am on the Mississippi River in SW Illinois up high on a bluff. (about 80 miles down river from STL)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
