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)

[stlnative]

I truly hope I am wrong...

read this when you get time if you have not yet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2008/09/13/pm-galveston13.html?hpid=topnews

[spectre]

No one knows yet...and that’s the truth. Dallas is getting hit harder than they estimated..groan.

[topher]

They have time to move to Dallas/Fort Worth area... If that is necessary...

Tyler is close to I-20, so evacuating people should not be a problem...

It appears the track is towards Tyler and then to the Texas/Arkansas/Oklahome/Louisiana border area and then into Arkansas.

Hopefully the Hurricane force winds will not reach Tyler and I-20. That will be bad -- just because of the number of people that may be without power in far North Houston (Conroe, etc).

[proudofthesouth]

I totally agree they are idiots (and this includes the media there!).

However, the medical, fire, police, and rescue people who stayed behind are heroes.

[stlnative]

he will look like a roasted marshmellow if he is not careful

[spectre]

I was ill after I read it. I repeat, how many times were they told if they didn't evacuate to write their social security number on their arms? How many times!!

sw

[topher]

It is a TEXAS sized storm...

[abb]

I saw that live shot. I suspect it’s merely a waste gas flare - normal in any refinery. The rain reflects/refracts the light given off and sometimes makes it look ominous.

[spectre]

Yes, they ARE heroes.

sw

[stlnative]

cantore sounds grim. He says... we are on Galveston Island, well what is left of it. (we know the area the media was at is the highest point and the hotel is built on a old military base)

[topher]

That was a live picture from the Weather Channel.

Soneone in the studio asked about the fire in the background, and the reporter said it was just the refinery behind him.

He said he was going to investigate.

Maybe we can get a live shot before... Well loss of signal...

They shut down the refineries, but if pipes break during the storm and debris is flying around, this could ignite a fire and there could be an explosion.

Refineries have trouble not blowing up without being pounded by a hurricane...

[spectre]

Thank you. We've had to "gas up" and conserve gas here in Arkansas due to expected supply disruptions. Waiting for the storm to get here tonight and tomorrow.

sw

[topher]

I hope that is the case -- about the refinery.

The reporter claimed it was brighter than normal. But what do reporters know...

But there should not be any waste gases burning in a hurricane... The refinery should be totally shutdown...

[Uncle Ike]

Cantore - ‘unconfirmed report of roof blown off retirement home’...

Prayers up...

[Allegra]

Can anyone give a quick report about overall damage reported so far? Gotta leave in few minutes and won’t be near the computer until later this afternoon.

I'm not in Houston right now, although it is my home.

I'm getting all of my news from here and from AFN News.

I'm waiting to hear from loved ones in Houston.

[DrewsMum]

My dad is on hurricane watch in one of the chemical plants there and he just said that he was told there was a small refinery fire but they took care if it.

[abb]

It may have been down. But waste or tail gas may still have to be flared off.

[stlnative]

Cantore says it will be many hours before anyone can get out and see what the damage is and the scale of it. He believes it will be huge and awful.

[spectre]

The good thing is the eye might have afforded people the opportunity to save themselves, somehow, someway.

Fox news needs to STAY OFF the election coverage. I don't care about it today!

First light approaches here in Arkansas.

sw

[Rebelbase]

I don't know, just woke up. Last thing I remember was Geraldo getting hit in the head with debris.