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)

[TheMom]

Huffman has a downtown? ;-)

Glad you are all OK.

[SE Mom]

It seems with this mayor there’s a lack of strong leadership. She has decided to do a Look n Leave for the indefinite future.

At the SAME time she said there’s a blossoming health crisis on the island. One reporter asked her to reconcile letting people on the island (with health crisis impending) Her answer to that was that it was a hard decision.

So now- between 6 AM and 6 PM every day- in the midst of NO water, NO sewage, NO power, limited access and egress with emergency workers trying to access the island on the same roads...it’s going to go from a bad dream to a damn nightmare.

It’s beyond bizarre the mayor and her advisors are allowing this. IF she had said, for example, ok- by Friday morning people who live on streets ABCDEF can come in from 6 to 6...Saturday GHIJK..etc...that would have given folks time to think, plan and prepare for doing this.

Logistics, logistics, logistics..

[txhurl]

Somebody posted a link on WU where you could view your property, no need to drive to it. I should have bookmarked it.

That article brought up the troubling math again, >20K riding it out, and ~4K rescued/found.

I was watching W carefully, he is very honest about body-languaging his assessment of any situation at his pressers.

[SE Mom]

It was strange he didn’t do a press conf from Galveston- only from Houston.

What did you pick up from the president? I saw him for a second this morning- he looked exhausted.

[CindyDawg]

Eastforker...to me that is just wrong. First can they make the people there leave? Yes they need to look at health issues but people not knowing if they can go back soon or even, ever is setting up a disaster for the next storm IMO. The mayor should be working with the home owners instead of considering them as people that will just get in the way. It's happened to me once and my students have reported the same thing...they come up on an accident and administer first aide , direct traffic etc and then when the professional arrive they are treated as ignorant and in the way. Rescues should be planned to work with the public instead of against them. Not all would, but most neighbors would probably be grateful to be close to home and have a volunteer”job” to do that would free rescuers up for more important things. We don't need police officers passing out ice off a truck. A volunteer could do that. Meals could be cooked by volunteers, etc. JAT

[txhurl]

He’s grim.

He probably won’t land in affected areas, just overfly them.
He has too much concern and decency to detract from the SAR effort by getting in front of a camera.

[eastforker]

This is Bollivar, not galveston, the mayor has nothing to do with it. The only access to the peninsula is by personal watercraft or helicopter. The road and bridge is out as with the ferry landing. The point is, if they make everyone leave they can keep them from coming back where as if they stay they are completely on their own. If they make everyone leave it would be way to easy to condemn the peninsula for residence. It will take many millions if not more to rebuild the roads and infrastructure, the state may not want to do that. After Alicia wiped out route 87 from high island to port aurthur, the state never rebuilt it.

[SE Mom]

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=8492c47815c9a245

President takes tour of storm-devastated island

From staff reports
The Daily News
Published September 16, 2008

GALVESTON — President Bush landed Tuesday on the storm-devastated island to receive a briefing from city, state and federal officials about death and property damage caused by Hurricane Ike.

Marine One landed about 10 a.m. at the Galveston County Criminal Justice Center.

Along with Bush, Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Dave Paulison, administrator of Federal Emergency Management Agency, and immediately met with Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Bush, who later took an aerial tour of the area, declined to issue a statement to the press or answer any questions while in Galveston.

[CindyDawg]

I just saw on the Texas channel something about, that I 10 will be closed from Martin to Garth in Baytown from 3-7 to repair lines. I remember where Garth is but not Martin .

[CindyDawg]

Ok..thanks for straightening me out:’)

[CindyDawg]

Ok..thanks for straightening me out:’)

[OBXWanderer]

***FEMA: We Will Pay Your Hotel Expenses

Just heard on KLVI.com (streaming)...someone from the state just called. Stated that anyone with a Lone Star Card that approximately 60 to 70% of your monthly allotment will be loaded on top of your normal allotment NLT Saturday.

Lone Star Card, aka food stamps.

[CindyDawg]

When Dolly came in here they did the same thing upon request. It’s sounds crazy but what it is doing is providing for replacement of food in freezers/refrigerators that were lost due to no power.

[OBXWanderer]

Addendum to post. That is anyone with a Lone Star Card with an address in or near the affected areas.

I would assume that if you have a Lubbock or El Paso address, one might not look for the added allotment.

[txhurl]

Lone Star carders will have to buy more ready-to-eat food.

[LA Woman3]

Tiger roaming hurricane-ravaged streets in Texas

[CindyDawg]

That's true but some probably already do that anyway. Here, only a small % lost power long enough to have food spoil. Where yall are, the majority probably qualify so it wouldn't be productive to weed out the few that didn't I guess. Anyway..we were told it was to replace. That adds up.

[CindyDawg]

That's true but some probably already do that anyway. Here, only a small % lost power long enough to have food spoil. Where yall are, the majority probably qualify so it wouldn't be productive to weed out the few that didn't I guess. Anyway..we were told it was to replace. That adds up.

[OBXWanderer]

It’s sounds crazy but what it is doing is providing for replacement of food in freezers/refrigerators that were lost due to no power.

I have no problem with this...seems a very efficient way to get help to the needy. As long as they keep talk of those 2k to 3k Visa Gift cards out of the scenario. When Perry was talking on Sunday, in Galveston, he mentioned "As long as we get treated the same as Louisiana"...well, those cards are what first came to my mind.

[jeffers]

Enosh wrote:
“... debris to ride on till they get to the mainland.”

It should be noted that swimmers on the other side of a hurricane will be going in the opposite direction,
out to sea.

************

That is very true and an important consideration. Thanks for pointing that out.

That said, I’ve been going over the post Ike aerial imagery, and have yet to find a debris field indicating failure other than very early in the storm’s passage.

The construction debris tends almost universally to indicate the structures failed while the wind was out of the SE. The big and little pieces show clear trails from the building out to the northwest.

There is considerable evidence that quite a bit of scouring took place in the opposite direction, but that’s all sand and oil slicks. The buildings failed before Ike made landfall, if the debris fields are any indication.