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)

[PleaseNoMore]

Weren’t there a few or several who were reportedly riding out the storm on their boats?

[palmer]

I noticed the wall is curved so the waves go straight up. It makes some very scary camera shots, but the energy is deflected and helps save the wall itself.

[NautiNurse]

I don’t recall a specific report about that, but there are always yahoos who insist on riding out a storm on their boats.

[PleaseNoMore]

Wow! Looking at live reports from the Clear Lake Hilton now. It’s pretty torn up. Roof is blown off, windows blown out, lower levels flooded...everyone was evacuated, etc. Reporter calling it a wreck. No injuries from anyone who stayed in the hotel.

[metmom]

*survived* in that they didn’t die. That’s it.

I wonder what the death toll is going to be from this. They can count the bodies they find but missing persons? No guarantee they died, even though it would be likely; they’ll just have to be presumed dead.

[PleaseNoMore]

There is a remark on Storm2k from someone about someone who is looking for a friend who rode the storm out in his boat. I thought I’d read here that some were deciding to stay on their boats about the time there were multiple boat fires reported...

[AFPhys]

For some people, a life threatening emergency would be that they have run out of candles, or their cell phone battery is almost out of juice.

[penelopesire]

CNN showing Surfside Beach now!

[PleaseNoMore]

Live feed (click2houston) is showing S&R helicopters searching via air and some ground people searching neighborhoods in Galveston. Estimated 23,000 people did not leave.

[Wonder Warthog]

"That would have to be coming from the DOW Chemical Plant across the river, if true..."

Not necessarily. A lot of places use tanked liquid chlorine for water treatment--even large water parks and municipal swimming pools. If any line breaks on the storage tanks, you'll have a cloud of gaseous chlorine.

[AFPhys]

Last time I could get a read of this, it is possible that Ike could be hurricane for another couple hours.

[NautiNurse]

Port Arthur has banned the sale of alcohol until further notice.

[Allegra]

Thank you, thank you SO MUCH for the prayers, help and offers of help.

I got one of Balde's neighbors on the phone (after about ten "all circuits are busy" messages) and he got the tree moved that had fallen across his driveway and went to check on Balde.

Balde is fine! His place has some damage and a power line came down on his car parked there, but he is OK and sleeping now because he was up all night monitoring the water coming into his home. I am going to give him SUCH a hug when I get home around Thanksgiving.

Thank you again for your support. This is one of the things that makes FR so great!

[AFPhys]

can you give me that link?

[metmom]

Or a hangnail....

Sad to say, I have to agree.

KHOU is starting to show scenes of the destruction and updates on local communities.

http://www.khou.com/video/?nvid=178826&live=yes&noad=yes

[patton]

Ahem - you got something against boats?

[NautiNurse]

Convoy of utility trucks from San Antonio en route to Houston area.

[penelopesire]

Thanks for your expert opinion. I always get more info on FR than anywhere else!! You have been great on these threads and it’s appreciated more than you know!

[PleaseNoMore]

http://www.click2houston.com/video/10903347/index.html

[penelopesire]

So glad to hear that news!!