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)

[brytlea]

Just talked to my friend in Henderson (Tyler/Longview area) and she said they are already without electricity, and it’s windy. They are expecting some serious weather.
susie

[Gondring]

I’d love to see more focus on making better land-development decisions. Our understanding of the earth sciences has progressed beyond sacrificing virgins, yet we continue to built in geologically unsuitable places. (I say “we,” because even without bailouts, others pay prices for this indirectly.)

Perhaps you could find and post some links suggesting how to select good places to settle?

[NautiNurse]

LOL—Spamming the thread under the influence doesn’t live up to its billing either. SWI...spamming while intoxicated. There ought to be a law.

[tcrlaf]

Nothing close by...
The Chemical is 1/2 a mile away...

[brytlea]

Thanks. I have friends in E. TX, so I’m watching that too. Then again, it won’t be like being on the coast, however all those pine trees like to fall right on power lines. My friend in Henderson said they were already without power. I know that when we had a bad ice storm there a number of years ago, when the power went, we lost water as well because the water co-op was on an electric pump of some sort.
susie

[Miss Marple]

Reports of 14 refineries down. Explorer and Colonial pipelines which supply midwest and northeast are shut down.
Price gouging reported in New Jersey, midwest.

[NautiNurse]

Thanks for your local update. Very pleased to know you are safe. Soon enough, the sweet sound of chainsaws will fill the air.

Nice pic. It illustrates why folks are warned to stay away from windows during storms.

:o)

[mylife]

Thanks

[NautiNurse]

The cost of that Radio Shack tv has come down. Good info. I’ll provide a review of the USB tv tuner when it arrives.

[proudofthesouth]

A FReeper was kind enough to post this website for the Christian Emergency Network during Gustav and I’m returning the favor now:

http://www.christianemergencynetwork.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=435&Itemid=41

[mylife]

We are just now getting some of the water

[LA Woman3]

Obama scratches SNL appearance because of Ike.

Link

[justlurking]

If you are trying to contact someone in the path of the hurricane, please see my posting about text messages:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2081591/posts

The cell phone systems are likely to be overloaded. If you can send a text message instead, it's more likely to get through.

[patton]

I have all kinds of ideas...but who cares?

[El Gato]

The eye hasn’t hit; but will within the hour. Don’t know of any damage downtown Houston; except the resturant.

News 8 Austin (Time Warner Cable channel) reports many windows blown out of high rises in downtown Houston area. Also reports storm surge went over the banks of White Oak (?) Bayou north of downtown flooding that area.

[sheikdetailfeather]

I just got an answer from my friend on Moss Bluff:

“Off of I-10 heading to Moss Bluff is flooded, a new motel completely flooded. There was a report early this morning from Moss Bluff. The rising waters have to be awlful in those areas. I remember hearing of many power outages in Moss Bluff on the news. We did not have the amount of wind damage as Rita, not as many down trees. Tell her if he flooded during Rita then he has more of the same.

Water is the issue with this storm. Water pressure is way down so when this happens there is intrusion into the water systems. Fema said this is priority. Alot of military coming in the area now. Big equipment.

The wind is still fierce in our area.

South of my location power is out all the way down to the coastal areas. Our little area is the only area that still has power in town and the parish.

Elevators wells are full of water in our hotels. Water is now pouring into the main streets from the river/intercoastal a mile away. Windows are blown out on upper stories.

Rescue in Orange County Texas on-going. They are showing animals stuck/trapped in the water now. I can not take looking at these pictures this part breaks my heart. Most people are very protective of their pets.

Water is still rising, when you see it on the news it is amazing how the water is rushing into all areas. Air support will start as soon as the wind settles down.

We are all under curfew. When we go out in front of our homes the military blows their horns at us and wave their hands for us to go back inside! We talk to our neighbors anyway and we stay outside in our own yards. Of course we are being very careful and are not causing any harm.”

[AlaninSA]

Video is now up on the damage in Galveston.

http://www.khou.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=282452&shu=1

[AFPhys]

Yes...

It seems that instead of the surge kind of concentrating just in the area of Ike it spread out in a huge area instead... Did you see the big surge levels out as far as LA are breaching weakened levees? Some of Ike’s surges there seem quite comparable to Gustav’s direct hit.

[OrangeDaisy]

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

Winter blends that are already stockpiled. The summer blends that we are required to use during warm weather are formulated to cause lower emissions. I don't think ethanol has anything to do with it.

[Abigail Adams]

I wonder why there isn’t more video/coverage from Galveston on the local stations?