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)

[Abigail Adams]

What is the news?

[Enosh]

Good news to report:

I went to the local fishing hole to see about supper and found the “T” pier flooded... barely, 6” at most. This status proved to be a midget magnet as they were all splashing and hooting to the occasional screech of “piranha!”

So, the twits are all happy, if soggy.

[Xenalyte]

Part of that has to be chagrin at realizing that a majority of Galvestonians were stupid enough to elect Lyda Ann Thomas.

[af_vet_rr]

I have to disagree with this. Everyone has months to plan for each hurricane season, and the better part of a week to know the intensity and landfall potential. Failing to get out of the way of an enormous hurricane when living on a barrier island is not a good reason to expect air drops of food and water at your convenience.

I actually agree with you, and it's a very unpopular view to have - they took their lives into their own hands. I even go so far as to agree with the state of Texas that many of these people shouldn't be allowed to rebuild in the same spots (they are called barrier islands for a reason).

But, and it's a big but, I expected FEMA to learn from Katrina. I also expected better from Texas at the state level - we aren't the liberals of Louisiana floundering around and screaming for George Bush. We've had a couple of dry runs in the last few years, and over the past 30, we've had Alicia and Allison and a handful of others to learn from.

I'm watching these press conferences and interviews, and I'm seeing FEMA complaining about the Governor's office backing off on what they said they could do, and I'm seeing the state complaining that FEMA can't feed the very personnel who they have doing the rescues, and I'm seeing the Governor not knowing who is in control of an area, and I'm seeing vacuums here and there that nobody wants to fill or is hesitant to fill and so on and so forth. Basically, I'm seeing the left hand not talking to the right hand, and at times neither is talking to the brain and it all contributes to a lot of wasted time.

[DrewsMum]

“Large traffic jam leading into Galveston.”

I still think that could have been coordinated better. Is this mayor crazy??? It is frustrating to watch....a little bit of common sense should tell the stupid woman that wouldn’t work and would create mass chaos...

Sorry, I am venting b/c this is making our area look so bad.

[NautiNurse]

Thanks for your thorough analysis. Nice work.

[CindyDawg]

It’s over at 6 isn’t? People still in line aren’t going to be too happy in about an hour.

[DrewsMum]

Yes and they are doing a mini press conference about it right now and said they are about to start turning people away who have been in line for hours. Major goof up there and no organization...should have let Bobby Jindal give that mayor some advice...

[NautiNurse]

Sounds like “he needed killin’” will probably work as a defense.

I wonder if this incident will even make it to court.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

WOOHOO!!!,,,Great News!!!...;0)

[CindyDawg]

I still think management ought to set up a tent with porta-potties near their home but somewhere already cleared that is safe and kind, and expect the home owners and volunteers to organize and run it.. People could be taken once a day to their property after it's been searched. . This way a lot of people are going to mad and riled Texans are not a pretty site. No telling how many spit car washes have already been done.

[CindyDawg]

Fema and the elected leaders need to act like doctors instead of nurses. No one should expect perfection the first few days but they need to stick together. Fighting confuses people and gives the media ammo. Take it behind closed doors.

[NautiNurse]

Generator claims the lives of two men

05:00 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 16, 2008

KHOU.com staff report

HOUSTON – Two Houston men may have been victims of a generator death.

Houston police said 20-year-old Francisco Garcia and 32-year-old German Rojas had secured their mobile home at 14100 Del Papa by covering the windows with tin.  They then placed their generator inside the home to provide power after last week’s hurricane.

Both victims then started the generator and went to their rooms. 

On Monday, Garcia’s brother went to the residence and found both Rojas and Garcia dead.

Police are investigating the deaths, but think they may been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning from the generator. 

[CindyDawg]

Sad. I heard earlier that a man died sleeping next to one.

[DrewsMum]

And I think you should be mayor of Galveston ;0)...

But if the majority of people there are dems, then your idea of “home owners and volunteers running it” might not go over very well...I mean actually expect people to do for themselves??? Ridiculous!

[CindyDawg]

She’s about to get a valuable leson in communication in about 20 minutes. Maybe they will behave but I doubt it.

[DrewsMum]

A little hurricane advice needed here...

We don’t own a chainsaw and have a medium side tree (a main branch from it) split and on top of our shed...

Is there an alternative to a chainsaw to cut it down?

The chances of us finding a chainsaw are slim...

[STARWISE]

Hah .. true.

[LA Woman3]

Thanks for the laugh!

[NautiNurse]

I was rather disgusted with congress critter Culbertson grandstanding the other day. He was screeching about problems in front of the cameras and essentially telling us he would be the better candidate in charge of hurricane relief efforts.

He was strictly getting free airtime for his political campaign ad.