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
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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 |
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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)
The same thing happened along the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana after Katrina.
That’s why I bought flood insurance.
We’re close to the water, but don’t have to buy flood insurance because our property is high enough - but after seeing the Katrina damage, I decided I’d rather be safe than sorry, plus, if you aren’t in a designated flood zone, it’s pretty cheap.
didn’t they try that in mississippi after katrina? they lost in court didn’t they?
Ahhh great minds! ;-)
I watched that thing in Mississippi, because there were nice sturdy homes no one ever thought would flood washed away by that storm surge...and when the rulings came down I decided I’d rather be safe than sorry (not to mention stuck with a mortgage on a house that didn’t exist anymore!)
Thanks for updating the big kitty stories.
I figure either way, I'll end up on the losing end of the battle.
This would just drive me insane not knowing where a loved one was or if they are dead or alive.
Prayers for your step mother’s co-worker and the family.
I got a kick out of the church photos of Shackles in the playpen at the alter, oversized cat toys and all.
LOL! Good kitty.
Of course where I live earthquake insurance it a must also. (I am on the New Madrid and very close to the Wabash Valley earthquake zone)
Oh ick, pink? Gross
Well I certainly hope so, I am watching the weather and hoping. I have two contractors coming out tomorrow for quotes.
Oh I know, I was looking at purchasing a ladder for my place, I have vaulted ceilings in the living room. The price of the ladder was the same price I could pay to have a handyman come out for 4 hours and get more done than just getting my bulbs changed. I went with the handyman instead.
I have my fingers crossed. The worst thing I have decided is that with the pack fence down, my privacy is no longer private. Grrr
Thanks again for everything you did today. I passed the information along to my insurance agent in case other people can have them go to Blue Roof for them too.
They said thank you. :-)
Oh thanks for the info, I will see what my contractors say tomorrow. Once I have quotes from them, I can file my claim with the insurance company.
Hmm.. The drum squad from the school behind me is practicing again. Gotta love the resiliancy of kids. They’re actually pretty good too.
I would love to reduce loss during the summer, but I do have the insulation up to code, that helps, and thank heavens I locked into an electric rate in January, or we’d be hosed on the bill.
I will ask about the roof anyway. Never hurts to ask.
Some Ike victims may not be allowed to rebuild
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2085496/posts
First image or two has the look I associate with shallow water covering most everything, except the elevated road, and the top of the larger squares at right. Later the water goes down, except random puddles in deep spots, and in two smaller squares inside the larger ones at right.
Those large squares look like elevated berms they put around storage tanks, while the smaller squares seem to be...sumps? Areas for ponding to drain after heavy rains so people could work on whatever the berms were there to protect without wading?
Two arrangements of cars at left, before the storm and after?
One of those things probably isn’t a car. Looks to me like a vertical cylinder, maybe painted red and white and it is gone in the after pix. There is suspiciously white debris north of there in the after images too.
This is all close to, but apparantly a little east of, whatever is there that my map calls The East Robinson Lake Gas Plant. Well, berms and cylinders, ok that all fits.
In fact, if you look at what’s coming out of that drainage ditch, it looks very dark, like water that was standing over oil soaked ground would look as it drains away.
But...I see no kind of foundation or even ground scar where that cylinder was in the first pic. Hmmm...
NN, I’m not into viewing bodies and I have NOT seen many to date. I DO, however, want to know the truth of Ike’s consequences. If the officials aren’t giving me the truth and I can find it myself, I will, even if it means looking at something I’d rather not. No need for any help, I’ll d/l the new imagery, take a look and report back here. Probably Saturday at the earliest.
Similar results might apply to West Galveston and the main shoreline behind it.
Finally, High Island isn’t an island, except maybe at low tide, but it IS high. It looks like a near circular knob on the digital elevation maps. The reports that “High Island was wiped out” are false. The buildings atop the knob look mostly fine to me, not surprising since that knob is 25 to 35 feet ASL.
I think the false reports have two sources. Parrot say, parrot repeat media, and the fact that the “town” probably expanded off the knob onto questionable ground. The knob itself escaped major damage, but any buildings around the base of the knob suffered the same fate as Gilchrist.
Apparently quite a few of those who had homes destroyed in Ike didn’t have insurance at all. I guess that means they also didn’t have mortgages, but I can’t imagine not carrying insurance on my primary residence...
If they didn’t have it because they couldn’t afford it, I guess they are going to need whatever assistance the government offers. OTOH, if they just chose not to spend the money, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for that.
Yall doing ok today?
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