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)

[metmom]

My guess is less ethanol. I think that’s what they add.

[penelopesire]

Good idea. Not expecting it to get too bad here..maybe 40MPH sustained winds. Much worse a little south and east.

We lose our electricity everytime the wind blows though..(eye roll).

Wonder if the TCU game has been cancelled? My son was going to go. I asked him to come stay with us for the day, but he is stubborn with a independence streak 5 miles wide..:)

and that’s a good thing (although nerve racking for his mom.)

[McLynnan]

If I can do anything to help any of you contact loved ones or friends let me know. I'll be back and forth on the computer all day and am more than happy to do anything I can.

Where are you Penelopesire? I'm in the southern Waco suburbs. We've had light rain and wind squalls since 6:30 AM. Could have started earlier than that but that's when I woke up. So far nothing alarming. I'm relieved to see so many Houston area FReepers are posting this morning and made it through the night. What a mess!

[NautiNurse]

Hwy 25 near the Hwy 6 exit in Brazoria County (Alvin)—major road flooding. This area was not an evac zone.

[Marathoner]

Wonder if the TCU game has been cancelled?

No, just moved up from 6PM to noon.

[NautiNurse]

Make that Hwy 35 near Hwy 6.

[MEG33]

My SIL and daughter just called from Shenandoah just n of The Woodlands..They have lost trees in front yard..some trees down on houses on their street...they lost power hours ago.Their back fence went down as they were talking..They were experiencing very high winds ..Careless neighbor left out gas cans..cans hit their car.

They are stressed but they are safe so far. No way to recharge their cell phone so I won’t hear more today most likely.
Prayers for all in harms was..
I just slept 3 hours..Hope this is lucid.

[McLynnan]

Allegra, please see my post #623. My cell phone has lots of extra minutes if you need text help.

[metmom]

They’re showing shots of downtown Houston under a couple feet of water.

There are sheets of what looks like metal that have been peeled off high rise buildings.

Sheets of glass have shattered as they fell and there’s glass everywhere.

Old oak trees have been uprooted.

[Uncle Ike]

****trail of breadcrumbs****

[penelopesire]

You are sweet to offer. We will be OK here. We are near the DFW area. I just worry about the trees around our lot. We have lots of very big ones! A few fell earlier this summer and it cost us mucho bucks to remove because we live on a sloping ravine with limited access. A few of them lean over our house which is a bit disconcerning.

Waco will probably get it much worse, so my prayers are headed your way!

[metmom]

Upper windows in high rises blown out.

Bus shelters overturned.

There’s still power in many buildings.

Roofs ripped off.

Underpasses flooded.

Could be weeks before power is restored to some areas.

[stlnative]

I did see the Chase Tower damage on CNN - 1/2 the windows blown in or out on one side of the building.

Nothing on Galveston yet?

[DollyCali]

Good news Meg. I know you are relieved

I only slept a few hours also

naps later for both of us!!!

I find the idea of using a car battery fascinating. I would have no clue how to use it however

[penelopesire]

Thanks for the info on the game.

[NautiNurse]

FNC reporter on Galveston Island: 300 emergency calls for rescues when residents changed their minds about sheltering in their homes. Anything on a pier is heavily damaged or destroyed. Hotels & restaurants have disappeared.

FNC satellite dish is down.

[SaveTheChief]

What did President Bush mean when he spoke about reformulated gasoline to permit increased imports? Is this more or less ethanol?

Haven't a clue and I am not sure what you are talking about. I could take a guess, but I probably would be wrong :-P

[LA Woman3]

View from at 12th floor window in Galveston

The view from the 12th floor of the San Luis Hotel on the Galveston Seawall at 7:30 a.m. was ominous. To the west, literally, was a lake.

Roofs were visible, and the the tops of trees. It looked like the Gulf had come on in.

Behind the hotel, to the northwest, most of the streets and parking lots were clear, and a car even drove by. But only the nearby area behind the wall could be seen; the continued rain and overcast cut visibility to less than a mile.

Seawall Boulevard was covered with broken glass and other debris, but was not under water, although tall waves continued to crash along it.

Wind was gusting and bits of trash continued to fly through the air all around. Palm trees leaned in the same direction, their fronds all pointing east.

No sirens were heard because conditions had not improved enough for patrols to begin. These were expected to start about 9 a.m.

--Lindsay Wise

LINK Posted by Tara Young at September 13, 2008 08:37

[mad_as_he$$]

I just got an emergency call from the facilities superintendent for one of my clients; a very large chemical company that operates several giant facilities from Houston up to NOLA. They are requesting some of our products that can only mean that three of their facilities have been seriously damaged. He is a level headed guy and I read him as in total shock on the phone. We are to charter a plane and fly my experts with the gear out immediately to land at the nearest open airport when they get there. In addition, bring enough food water and shelter for two weeks time for our crew. This will require a a large aircraft (737 or bigger)to accomplish. I have never had this client make this kind of request even when facilities blow up etc.

I am now making the prediction that this storm will make Katrina look like a picnic as far as effect on the rest of the country. Katrina caused a small spike in coffee and energy prices and effected a large area in the South. Ike is going to kill gasoline production in the area for quite sometime and have major ramifications country wide.

[McLynnan]

Glad to hear that. I have family in McKinney who were expecting lots of rain and wind as of late last night. The Waco forecast has been revised for just a few inches of rain and winds up to 40 mph. Yesterday the forecast was much worse. Hopefully this trend will hold as Ike moves through the state and into Arkansas. I am praying the loss of life will be minimal in the Galveston/Houston area. It must have been the night from hell.