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)

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

U2,,,;0)

[Uncle Ike]

Got it..

Thanks...

Replied...

[NautiNurse]

Electricity outages have been widespread, and phone service spotty in the greater Houston area—with a lot of restoration progress made over recent days. If you have more specific details about your friend’s location (e.g. township), there are resources available to find more information.

[NautiNurse]

There are a number of faith based organizations respected for their operations. Salvation Army is excellent. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston/Galveston is a well established organization.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

And,,,Back...

[NautiNurse]

Three of the 15 Katrina threads had over 6000 posts.

[NautiNurse]

While there are roughly 200 shell shocked people meandering around on what is left of Bolivar, I am not completely comfortable chastising them for their lack of preparation. However, I have serious concerns about people who do not have the sense to get out of the way of an enormous hurricane while living on a barrier island.

There is also a possibility somebody is going to end up being a meal for a hungry tiger.

It is ridiculous that the state and FEMA go through the foolish dance you describe when they have had so much time to coordinate and put supplies in place.

The other big dance is thousands of dramatic airlift and boat rescues--for the survivors. I suppose it would be a great story to tell your grandchildren if you survive the storm...at great risk to first responders and great cost to the rest of us.

[Enosh]

Twelve miles from the bay plus refineries sounds like Texas City/La Porte/Pasadena/Baytown, ie SE/E Houston, all of which are still likely without power. Try zip 77501 for your search.

[MEG33]

So good to hear from you.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Thank you for sharing. Hope things are getting a little better at least. Is the water level dropping any?

[RikaStrom]

Thank you. Spencer and Redbluff is right up the road. I will go check it out tomorrow. Did you get your taken care of?

I am still in San Antonio, I am waiting for the morning report on outages and repairs. According to last nights report my zip code INCREASED outages by 2000.

I am probably heading out by 11. I need to get home, even if we have no power. The dog and I need to get back into a routine of some sort.

My office building is closed until Monday so that will give me a chance to clean up and see what FEMA and Insurance say.

I am glad that Spencer and Redbluff is just down the road, bring us back a report, would you?

[DrewsMum]

sure. let me know if there’s anything i can do for ya while i am there...

[texasredtop]

Over and over I read here about the 20,000 people that stayed on the island. It’s just a thought but who could possibly have any idea how many stayed? There have been very few deaths reported in Harris County which has a population of over 5,000,000. I think it was 10 yesterday. Harris County starts about 20 miles north of Galveston. While I realize that Galveston County and Chambers County will be a lot worse, I think judging from the very few in Harris County, it won’t be 10,000 on the coast. The causeway that leads to the mainland from Galveston is high and boats go under it so I’m sure there was time early Friday for many to get out – our friends did. The early incoming tide would have sent me swimming to the mainland if necessary.

If it were me down there and I’d stayed and been buried at sea, I would not want anyone feeling sorry for me. We make our own decisions in life. Some are good and some are bad. Some cost us everything. But I would never want anyone waste a minute fretting over my demise. Life is a beautiful gift and I cherish it but it doesn’t last forever.

Which brings me to posters like Katlyn. There is someone you could spend some time praying for. She has water in the house which is a horrible ordeal to suffer through. It is the living that needs your positive thoughts, your encouragement, your prayers. Dwelling on those that are gone seems kind of fruitless to me. Dwelling on the questionable number of dead will not change that number. What is gone, is gone.

While those human lives that are gone cannot be returned, I would guess that the area will be back in business in 2 years or less. Like someone said earlier, it has been ravaged by hurricanes forever yet it’s still there and was inhabited up until a few days ago. How many said NOLA would not be back? I was there the weekend of Katrina and I returned 16 months later. That was a long spell for me not to go but I could not bear to see it limping so I was patient and waited.

So I’d just hope that no one dwells on the worst things about Ike and spends that time praying for those that are facing a long hard road ahead. All in all, I think the area was very very fortunate. Anyone that lives around the gulf coast knows the possibilities. So please, don’t fret about things we have no control over and let’s spend some time on prayers for Katlyn and others in the same boat as her.

[penelopesire]

Not sure MRE’s are gonna ‘do it’ for those two....LOL!!

Yikes!!

[arkady_renko]

Good morning. Yes, I'm looking out the door at a beautiful sunny day and see that the water has dropped about 8 inches in the night. Hopefully by the end of today I'll be able to drive my truck out of here and sleep in my own bed.

Take care

[texasredtop]

The cooler weather has been amazing and just in time. I remember right after Alicia, it was so hot and the wind wouldn’t stir an ounce. It was so miserable. We were lucky and had power all through Alicia until it was over then we lost power..... and any breeze. I can’t believe I attended 12 years of school in southern Louisiana with no a/c. How did I do that? LOL

[LA Woman3]

It’s time for celebrities to step up with other Americans and help the victims of Hurricane Ike, like they did for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

You mean Sean Penn with his canoe and red dixie cup??

[RikaStrom]

Ask them if they have a mobile unit on the WNW side of town. Just having them south doesn’t help those of us in the northwest. Thanks!

RS

[texasredtop]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beachadam

To see what is really going on, pictures from a local Surfside firefighter. Not just the most ravaged areas, but the entire area which seems more appropriate to me. To show the worst pictures over and over is nonsense. To play on the negatives 24/7 is just a media trick to make everyone stay stuck on death and destruction. It increases the journalists’ job security.

[CindyDawg]

School didn’t start until after labor day and ended in May. We also had a wall of windows that the teacher would open out. I don’t remember it ever being hot in class. The buildings were designed for better ventilation IMO.