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)
WTF?
September 13, 2008
Downtown Houston taking the brunt now
It’s 4 a.m. and Ike’s hurricane force winds are battering downtown, together with driving rain. Restaurant awnings and other debris are being blown down the streets.
Trees are down, windows have been blown out of the Chase Tower.
Meanwhile the winds continue to howl down the skyscraper canyons, and things continue to go bump in the night.
TONY FREEMANTLE
Houston Chronicle
I hope that I am very wrong. But I believe the death toll is going to staggering for Galveston Island. I have heard from 9,000 and up to as many as 23,000 stayed on Galveston Island.
95% of Galveston is under water. The highest point on the island is where the media is.
I really think we are going to be in for a shock when the death tolls start coming in. I hope I am very very wrong but I fear that I am not.
Yep- that was on the other thread yesterday. I don’t know what the details are- but it happened yesterday morning.
Thanks, please accept my apologies.
Bizarre that it was attributed to Ike and therefore ...Global warming.
Prayers for that family.
When Fran came through here in the Raleigh area back in '96, she was just a cat 1 then with 75 mph winds here and that was enough. We got 13+ inches of rain then.
It tore the heck out of this place. We got our power back in 36 hours....folks on the other end of the subdivision didn't get their power back for 2 weeks...I figure 55 people (adults and kids) went through my shower the next 5-6 days and half I never had met before. Took me a week to get all the downed trees and debris up.
I know that the folks in Texas are going to have it much worse along the Galveston area towards Port Author and NE.
Ike is going to further kick the US economy (cost of living) in the short term. I'll be tuned in and on line as light comes and damage is assessed in Texas.
Thousands didn't leave the low lying areas...hope they are faring well.....flooding is going to be bad from the storm surge cause it is very very flat in that area most 0nly 8-10 ft above sea level.
I do not think most people are aware of just how low the area is: Digital Elevation Analysis of Galveston, Texas
This storm will wreck havoc there.
They reported a 911 call from Galveston from people pleading for help as home was collapsing around them. Of course, anyone currently in trouble on Galveston are on their own.
Another report from Galveston had water 20 to 25 feet on SEAWALL BLVD in Galveston.
Courthouse in Galveston has 3 feet of water in it. People are inside...
From the Television picture, it is clear that the I-610 loop would easily fit inside the EYE of the storm.
Center of the Eye is now North of I-10 and to the East of the I-610 loop (downtown is west of Eye)...
In the case of Hurricane Camille [1969], a number of people that were lost -- the bodies were never found...
That may be true with Ike -- if Galveston has 20 to 25 feet of water and 100+ mph winds...
” Of course, anyone currently in trouble on Galveston are on their own. “
A little bit ago, Cantore was interviewing a guy who’d *swum* a couple of blocks, then waded some 14 blocks from his now-underwater home to the hotel on high ground....
Said he was the only one in his neighborhood ‘dumb enough to stay there’.. (his words..)
Understanding the power of barometric pressure, was not apart of their consideration for staying behind.
Things are really going to town here in Cypress. Sounds like my house is getting power washed. Every once and a while I can here debris hitting the house but nothing broken yet.
Though 1 million people fled coastal communities near where the storm made landfall, authorities in four counties alone said roughly 140,000 ignored mandatory evacuation orders and stayed behind. Other counties were unable to provide numbers but officials said they were concerned that many decided to brave deadly conditions rather than flee.
yahoonews
Surge maps and weather channel have the worst part of the surge off to the east of Galveston. WC interviewed some guy that had to vacate his house on Galveston. It was 5 feet above sea level and he had water up to his chest.
Good night/good morning stalwart keepers of your fellow freeper brothers and freeper sisters! Continue the watch.
I have not been out, but imagine there are some power outages around from the 12 hours plus of gusty winds.
There was a tornado warning issued for the area between Lafayette and Lake Charles.
The tornados can do significant damage.
And this is a very big storm...
On the positive, I did hear a jet take off at 4 AM from the Lafayette airport, so the winds allow for that.
No helicopters in the air, which means the Oil Companies still have the Gulf of Mexico shutdown...
But no helicopters may also mean there are no medical emergency flights in the area (Lafayette has a number of hospitals that serve this area)...
Does anybody know what time sunrise is supposed to be in Houston??
My sister lives off of Hwy 6 and Bellaire in Ft. Bend Co. and she has been without power since 1:00 am or so. I talked to her around 3ish and the wind was blowing with quite a bit of rain coming down. Her hubby had put a rain suit on to go out and check on any damage. They have tree debris in their frontyard from a tree in the front yard.
She was going to try and go back to sleep. When she calls again I hope to get more info.
She has a landline with a regular phone plugged into it so she has phone service but the ringer on the phone doesn’t work when there’s no electricity. She calls me and I then call her back while she times how long it’s going to be before the phone should have rung.
No, not at all, I should have tested link before posting.
my browser keeps gettin stuck on that page so i didn’t get it all
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