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
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| 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 |
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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)
Any news on the Galvez hotel. I haven’t been to Galveston in many years, but I think it’s still there.
From http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/906481.html
The morning after
In Galveston, city officials and first responders had their first look at the damage wreaked by Ike at daybreak. Hundreds of calls for rescue to 911 had to be ignored Friday night because conditions were too dangerous for emergency personnel to venture out.
Game wardens are attempting to reach Galveston to help with high-water rescues.
“We’re just now getting to leave toward the island,” said Capt. Eddie Tanuz of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. “The storm has been too strong.”
Alicia Cahill, Galveston’s public information officer, checked in from the San Luis Family Resort, an old war bunker, where city officials and media are in shelter.
“Seawall is here ... No confirmed deaths .... City has not been able to leave and make assessment ... We are not deploying emergency personnel yet ... Conditions still unsafe ... Surf is receding ... Bay is rising,” she reported.
Cahill said all inside the San Luis, along the seawall, are safe. Some windows on the upper floors blew out, but the structure is intact as far as they know.
An unidentified 64-year-old woman called a Houston television station and said she had stayed in Galveston because she didn’t think the storm would be too bad. She is a widow, she said, and is frightened. The station’s meteorologists tried to calm her and tell her what to expect next.
Eva-Marie Ayala and Aman Batheja in Houston contributed to this story
cant recall many at all in over 12 hours watching it I've been watching since about 2:00 yesterday...save time to commute home and time to sleep...and I can only remember a few commercials...and then only early on yesterday afternoon.
cant recall many at all in over 12 hours watching it I've been watching since about 2:00 yesterday...save time to commute home and time to sleep...and I can only remember a few commercials...and then only early on yesterday afternoon.
One thing you don’t see in those images, big piles of debris.
Going out on a limb here, it’s early, but anecdotal evidence is building...
Galveston and Houston dodged a bullet.
Think we’ll see some pretty sobering sights before it’s all said and done, there’s probably going to be some...missing blocks...from LA to Freeport, but not block after block after block, massive catastrophe. Exceptions will be the coastal towns right on the beach, north and east of Galveston.
Still, it looks like the big cities made it out with heavy cosmetic and /or localized damage, but not catastrophic structural losses.
Oh gosh, I hope so!
Yeah I’ll go with you on that assessment. The big thing is we’re not hearing about people dying on the island last night. So it’s all fixable wood & concrete and restorable power, without that tragic news.
First, consider why people instinctively prefer to live on margin.
Lion comes, run in the water. Shark? Run for land.
Note that in EVERY culture, waterfront property is the most valuable.
Some lessons are so deeply part of us, we don’t know why we like it, we just do - and that like is reflected in prices.
Next, consider that the margin is always dangerous - so, now what?
Build for cat 5, and damn the torpedoes.
;)
On the other hand...one could assess the opimum use of land, and decide that all hosing should be in the desert.
You choose. ;)
WOW - that IS a major story.
If it pans out, it will merely confirm what speculators and investors were believing on Thurs & Friday...
Let’s hope so - they were driving gas & oil prices lower, not higher.
Sorry I was away painting for a while. My neighborhood continues to have flickering lights now and then. Wonder if it’s from something way down the line because we are only getting gentle rain and light winds.
"The Galveston Fire Department received more than 100 calls after emergency personnel had ceased rescue operations at around 7 p.m. Friday night," the Houston Chronicle reported from fire chief Michael A. Varela Sr. Callers were told to stay patient and safe until operations could resume, he said.
Varela, speaking to reporters in the San Luis Hotel, where the city's mayor and emergency personnel are staying, said they would respond to needs on the west end of the island first, since it was hardest hit.
At least eight to 10 feet of water was on the streets when they ceased operations, and the second half of the storm, which came after that point, was far worse than the first, he said.
But the San Luis has its issues as well. CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 blog just posted the following: "At our hotel - The San Luis Resort - officials were going room to room to evacuate people to a safer spot due to glass blowing out."
Posted by Patrick Cooper at 08:27 AM/ET, September 13, 2008
I am so glad your friend is okay. This is one of those times when your imagination can run wild.
I think all the weather reporters are pretty darn brave! Geraldo included. I know I wanted to know what was happening since I have a young grandson in Houston and another in Houma, LA.
Seems to me the storm was so big, and from the way the water levels rose throughout the Gulf, that what happened was that the kinetic energy of the storm was well-dispersed instead of being focused mainly at the point around the landfall. So while the speculation was that Galveston would get a Cat 4 surge because of the tremendous kinetic energy of the storm, it turns out that wasn’t the case.
What worries me now are localized pockets of very heavy damage, with attendant casualties. West end of Galveston, potential breaching, west coast of the Bay, up past Port Arthur over to Lake Charles, Orange especially has some serious reports and the water is still rising...
No massive widespread catastrophe, but the potential for tens of casualties in one location remains.
That beats the predictions of thousands dead we were hearing last night, by a long long way.
thanks for posting this great story
Agreed, but I wasn’t willing to make that call last night. Could have been a wall of water around the eye, or a wide dome as you state. We got lucky...so far anyway...
Thanks. That's very good news.
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