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)
There were 45 other people in the building. They were on the second floor.
He said that if it got that high they could go up to the next floor that was about 50 ft high.
If he was talking about a three story building, I think it would make the building 3 floors.
From the conversation, it sounds like, they were already roughing it out, and that was way before it got really bad.
Bet he is going to release some of the strategic reserves.
I want to say this..."HOW MANY TIMES WERE THEY TOLD THEY FACED CERTAIN DEATH?"!! People, in order to deal with this, we must hold on to that.
Yup, sad to say. They WERE warned.
Wonder if the Rats will propose drilling in ANWAR now??? Yeah...right.
sw
i think he’s safer in the plant than his house. he said they of course have power and it’s flooding by his house.
You can be sure that there is going to be a deal killer in it.
post from Hurricane City this am......
“Reports of roof rescues in Orange, TX are coming in as people stand on their roofs with their homes surrounded by surge there.”
I think I'll be calling my congressman come Mon.
We can't afford to have this kind of thing happen again, literally.
I just did a google search on Faye. Some areas reported 24 inches of rain. There weer forcasts for over 30 inches in some areas.
I believe that I once saw over 30 inches on the ground during the storm.
Some of the lakes overflowed which added to the rainfall. Several areas were still underwater a few weeks later.
The problem with Ike seems like it will be more from the surge than from rainfall.
While the rainfall won’t be as bad as from Faye which moved extremely slow at less than 1/2 mph, the rain on top of the surge won’t be good.
La will probably get the worst in terms fo rainfall.
Galvestons flooding would have happened from the surge alone.
Scanning thread to see if folks that were posting last night from the area are posting this morning. Praying that they are all OK!!
I am afraid the nation is in for a real shock with the morning light.
I'm going to get dressed and head out to the grocery store for supplies and cash before the storm gets here in Little Rock.
sw
I know this is off topic but I urge everyone to email and phone their Congressmen about this.
I emailed mine yesterday and will continue to do so.
Congress knew after Camille hit that this would eventually happen again but yet they ignored it. Its too irresponsible for words what Congress HASN’T done!
Refinery fires are in Clute TX.
TWC guy is 3 to 4 miles away and he can clearly see the flames. (he is out of harms way)
He suspects that a valve was broken open during the storm.
Just heard that 911 service is suspended in Harris County.
yes, the people are on their own for now
Congress can not stop a storm. What they CAN AND SHOULD DO is allow offshore drilling and refineries in other parts of the country instead of having all of our energy infrastructure in the GULF!!
I was living in Bolingbrook Il about 20 years ago when one of the refineries caught fire. That particular averaged over 120 fires each year.
There were several fire departments there and they were concentrating the water on several LP tanks.
The FD said that if the LP tanks blew, it would be like a small nuke going off.
I think it took over a week to extinguish the fire.
I happened to just arrive home the day the fire started. I just flipped the switch on my Ac and immediately heard an extremely loud explosion.
I ran outside thinking my AC compresser blew up.
It turned out to eb a cracking tower which landed almost three miles from where it was standing before it exploded.
they we’re told to hey butts out of Orange TX 2 days ago.
It’s relevant. It affects the whole country.
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