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
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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)
The report I heard with my own ears was downtown Beaumont under 9’ of water...though I have found no reports online yet either.
Good grief, having a mayor have to say information in two languages... really ticks me...
Why ohh why do we have two languages in America...?
CNN reporter now saying it was Bridge ‘something’ city with 9’ of water downtown. Not Beaumont.
Ok, thanks.
Thanks for the info, BlueAngel. Sounds like Katy and the surrounding areas to the West avoided the worst.
Prior to Katrina, we lived SE of New Orleans, in one of Katrina's hardest-hit areas. We lost our house and everything that didn't fit into our 2 cars when we evacuated. We understand fully the effects of a major storm. I truly hope the impact of Ike is not as great as I fear it will be. I have many friends in the Freeport/Galveston area. Those I spoke to yesterday had already left, and were safe. The casual attitude I've seen on the news from those who wouldn't leave is appalling.
Some "journalist" with the New Orleans' Times-Picayune newspaper wrote a column after Gustav describing the horrors of evacuation, blaming Jindal, FEMA, and everyone, and advocating staying home (in NOLA!) if a storm approaches. His ignorant tripe, and my reply, can be seen here.
After Gustav, I put together GustavHelp.com, a site designed to focus on the medium- to long-term issues following a storm. I wanted to provide a short, simple list of helpful tips, agencies, contact info, etc. I based it largely on our own experiences following Katrina, and with the resources that helped us directly.
We're about 15 miles east of Baton Rouge, and lost power for 3 days, and Internet/phone for 5 days, following Gustav.
Even here, Ike's winds were strong enough yesterday morning to knock over our fully-loaded garbage can!
Last night, I mirrored the GustavHelp site to AfterAStorm.com to make it less Gustav-specific.
It's a work in progress, so if you know of any really excellent links, sites, resources, etc. please tell me about them and I'll add them. (Especially new ones pertaining to Ike.)
I guess I need to put my tagline in Spanish for our DU lurkers.
I guess Ray Nagin has this same special disease...
Nancy Pelosi has also suffered severe outbreaks of this disease recently...
Hotel space is probably very scarce in Louisiana, on the serious side. The Baton Rouge newspaper, The Morning Advocate, had an article about a shortage of available rooms for the LSU - North Texas game (being played tonight in Baton Rouge), and the Southern game (also being played today in Baton Rouge)...
Bridge City makes a lot more sense, and my software shows it underwater at this time, based on surge reports so far. More like 7 feet, instead of nine, but that will vary place to place and the satellite radar elevation data, at the granular level, is not perfect either.
“12 Galveston firefighters managing injured at Ball High”
Good grief..that is the place that the Dhimmwitt mayor sent folks to..while she stayed in the safest hotel on the island...(eye roll)
So if they still keep having fires there’s no way to fight them without water pressure.
from yahoo article....
Kemah Boardwalk at the mouth of Galveston Bay, ringed by million-dollar homes, was submerged, state officials said.
Nothing on the restaurant, or how deep waters are.
yeah, like drilling would help refining.
From what it looked like, I guess the HOTEL where the reporters stayed is on an old fort, which I imagine in those days they were smart enough to build on high ground.
City vehicles were moved there so that Police/Fire/etc could be dispatched from there this morning...
I do believe reports of Galveston Island being under water...
A Motel 6 lost its roof in northwest Harris county. From witness accounts that the reporter shared, it sounds to me like it was a tornado. They also said the 1 guy who stayed in Seaside did survive. Per ch. 11.
Out to make breakfast, kids are here, back in an hour or two.
“wow those are great however does not show that Galveston is 2-4 feet under water like reports say.”
According to the buoys and other stations near Galveston that I’ve looked at, the water has already receded 7-9 ft from the max surge levels.
The pictures we’re seeing now don’t have much to do with what it looked like in the middle of the night - six hours ago.
Doesn’t seem like there was much gray matter there.
Let’s hope the pregnant daughter is passing along the mother’s genes. ;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
