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)

[soycd]

Related, but not as bad as the news of destruction in Texas...
reg unleaded is up from 3.65 to 4.15 overnight here in WV.

Bubbling crude indeed.

[greyfoxx39]

placemark

[Gondring]

What software?

[jeffers]

NautiNurse wrote:
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.

********

That’s why I didn’t say anything last night, I was having vanilla ice cream, submerged in cranberry juice, sugar buzz echelons above reality, and kept my silence to avoid PWI fallout.

Loose lips sink ships.

[wazoo1031]

Is this what it looked like after Alicia? I remember you and my friends saying that it looked like a giant had walked through Downtown with a slingshot!!!

[NautiNurse]

Three people decided to weather the storm on a pier (? Galveston). The pier fell apart, yet somehow these three people survived. They called for help, and a FEMA chopper plucked them from the remnants of the pier this morning. They said they had done the same during Hurricane Rita.

Please tell me these people will receive a bill for the air rescue due to their stunt.

[Gondring]

Was the other one the 10-year-old killed when his dad cut down the tree to avoid it falling?

[AlaninSA]

Is there anything at all about what the condition of the Boardwalk is?

Any condition of the piers in Galveston? That hotel?

The Flagship Hotel is heavily damaged, but standing. The ramp leading to it collapsed. The Balinese Room is gone. It's no longer there...and neither is are the businesses near it - including a store and a restaurant.

[Gondring]

We can hope.

..in vain, I’m sure.

You and I and those brave rescuers have to bear the burden.

[Gondring]

Insurance subsidized by the taxpayers.

Ridiculous.

[NautiNurse]

There was a report yesterday afternoon of a boy in Galveston hit by a tree his father was cutting down. There was an uncomfirmed report of a man with a camera on a jetty who was washed into the GOM past night.

Otherwise, it is still too early for casualty stats. That will take days.

[jeffers]

Watch for damage reports from the west side of the Bay, from Texas City to Seabrook. Of all the populated areas, the wind and surge coincidence seemed to focus there at landfall.

[Allegra]

Is this what it looked like after Alicia? I remember you and my friends saying that it looked like a giant had walked through Downtown with a slingshot!!!

Alicia banged Houston and Galveston up pretty badly. From everything I've heard and read, I believe Ike was even worse.

[CindyDawg]

Well since the media is spending a lot of time talking about downed trees and power out I'm hoping (and praying) fatalities will be very low or non at all.

Last night the media was predicting towns would be wiped off the map. I'm not playing down the damage though. It looks severe but Galveston will rebuild.

[Gondring]

Too dramatic in his delivery....quite distracting.

Did he drive through a downed utility wire waving in the wind?!

Thanks for the link!

[jeffers]

Good deal.

[jeffers]

Good deal.

[Arrowhead1952]

Southbound I-45 lanes appear destroyed

Interstate 45 southbound lanes from Houston appears completely destroyed leading into Galveston. 12:01 PM

Southbound I-45 lanes appear destroyed

Men walk on a flooded I-10 in downtown Houston after Ike on Saturiday Sept. 13, 2008.

[lainie]

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.

I saw pictures on KHOU. Two high rises they showed have more blown-out windows than intact ones. There is glass everywhere. There are office desks, computers, etc. on the streets. They showed a couple of restaurants with blown-out windows, also.