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
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Additional Resources:
Navy Tropical Cyclone
Storm Pulse Very cool site
KHOU Houston
ABC 13 News Houston
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KPLC Lake Charles
KFDM 6 Beaumont/Port Arthur
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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 |
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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)
My prayers to all involved atm and those in the near future.
N. of Cedar Creek Lake here and I’m losing visibility and wind is increasing dramatically.
This sucker is HUGE!
Be careful
Bad storm, yes. Catastrophic, no. I had a lot of fears of a 1900 replay, but thankfully it stayed a Cat 2.
I don't know what we would do without all the off beat stories and info you find. During Katrina's aftermath, you were a newshound finding all sorts of info that busted MeeMaw and her whining.
You are a treasure!
That is a wonderful story to read. Thanks for posting it, Lanie. Galveston had the potential to be a massive tragedy, but now it looks like things may not have been as bad as feared. Keep praying.
crossing my fingers..
Local DFW Red Cross spokesperson just put out a call for blood here on local news. We have numerous critical patients relocated fr the GC area prior to Ike, in addition to a preexisting national blood shortage.
Oh yeah, and she’s also requesting Spanish translators. Gracias.
vanilla ice cream, submerged in cranberry juice
—
mmmm.. sounds good to me.. the cranberry is good for ya too. :-)
That is an unbelievable picture of the interchange. Is that a residental area to the left?
GALVESTON, Texas — A historic Galveston, Texas, nightclub that once attracted some of the world’s top entertainers was washed away by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike.
The 79-year-old Balinese Room was once a popular dance and gambling hall. It hosted performances by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, George Burns and the Marx Brothers in the 1940s and ‘50s. Howard Hughes was a patron.
The structure along Galveston’s sea wall had extended 600 feet out into the Gulf of Mexico. The building was added to the Natoinal Register of Historic Places in 1997.
It had survived Hurricane Carla in 1961 and Hurricane Alicia in 1983, but Ike was too much for it as the storm’s surge ripped the building apart early Saturday.
It is way too early to write a summary for this storm. There are still areas inaccessible due to flooding, including burning structures. Search and rescue takes days when there is such a wide swath of damage.
Despite having hit land starting over 12 hours ago, Ike still looks like a very well organized hurricane over placid waters, in the 1730 satellite visible. Quite remarkable.
Too early to dance in the streets, but so far, both wind and surge seem to be juuuuust under catatrophic levels.
Still, one breach across Galveston, or wave/surge combination on the Bay’s west side could take out a good sized area, and if unluckly, generate a lot of casualties too.
The final all clear has to wait till the aerial surveys are done, and I’m not sure they’re even off the ground yet.
Cautious optimisim is my watchword for now.
Good luck! I hope you don’t lose electricity. I miss that part of the world. I was laughing to my friend this morning that I could have stayed THERE and gotten hurricanes, apparently, I didn’t have to move to S. FL!
susie
Debris on the I-45 highway at the entrance to Galveston is seen after Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston September 13, 2008. Hurricane Ike barrelled into the densely populated Texas coast near Houston early on Saturday, bringing with it a wall of water and ferocious winds and rain that flooded large areas along the Gulf of Mexico and paralyzed the fourth-largest U.S. city. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
It was rather speculative. But a big factor was that unlike the 1900 storm at 931 mb, this storm was 952, so the winds didn't feed as much inward to the center of the storm. A second factor was the winds weren't as strong in approach to Galveston (all the way from Cuba) so there wasn't as much of a wall of water being built up.
A man looks at the damaged windows of the JP Morgan Chase Tower
caused by Hurricane Ike in Houston September 13, 2008. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
I know! I’m watching it now and looks better organized than many storms at sea.
Marshall, Little Rock, St. Lou, Chicago, Indianapolis and lower Michigan better be ready. Chicago and lower Michigan are already in flood trouble, with half the current storm yet to go, PLUS Ike tomorrow.
Twisters and heavy rain.
Houston is largely still standing, but this isn’t over yet.
As was observed earlier (palmer, and others) the main reason this wasn’t (hopefully) that bad has mostly to do with many people long dead who built the Galveston seawall a century ago.
Those Texans should be considered the real heroes of Ike.
I haven’t seen any news specifically about the Galvez Hotel. I did hear that structures across from the perished Balinese were also damaged/destroyed.
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