cont’d from previous post:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5998693.html
In Harris County, a curfew started at 7 p.m. and is in place until 6 a.m. today for the areas covered by the mandatory evacuation. The Harris County curfew also will be in effect Saturday night for the nine evacuated ZIP codes only.
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt and Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said they would be strictly enforcing those curfews to protect evacuees’ homes.
The anticipated surge prompted Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, to remark: “This is pretty much a worst-case scenario for flooding the Gulf Coast area.”
FEMA anticipates about 100,000 homes will be flooded and as many as several million people will be without power.
‘’It is a potentially catastrophic hurricane,’’ Chertoff said. ‘’We will move as swiftly as possible to relieve suffering.’’
The Harris County Flood Control District is tracking surge-related flooding along and around Clear Lake and on low-lying areas on the Houston Ship Channel, the San Jacinto River and San Jacinto River tributaries, meteorologist Jeff Lindner said.
The bank is nearly full on Clear Creek east of Bay Area Boulevard and on Greens Bayou south of Interstate 10, he said. The bank is half full on Brays Bayou at Lawndale and Eastward and one-third full on the lower end of Little Vince Bayou, he said.
The flooding is entirely related to the storm surge, rather than rainfall, Lindner said. The county’s natural elevation will allow all rainwater to drain from the upper end of the watersheds to the lower end, he added.
“We really don’t want people to be overly concerned about traditional bayou flooding,” County Judge Ed Emmett said. “The rain won’t necessarily cause those bayous to go out of their banks.”
Several hundred people on the Bolivar Peninsula ignored the call to evacuate forcing Coast Guard helicopter crews to rescue 45 people trapped on the peninsula. Others were rescued by other agencies, Chertoff said.
Helicopters were grounded when hurricane winds picked up, he said.
And once it moves through, thousands of people could be without power and food, said FEMA Administrator David Paulison. Emergency personnel have shipped in 2.5 million MREs (meals ready to eat) in Texas, and another 3 million will be brought in, he said.
The Red Cross expects to feed 500,000 people.
Ike, when its core was still 135 miles at sea, indirectly claimed its first victim Friday when a 10-year-old Montgomery boy was killed by a falling branch as his parents cut down a tree.
Montgomery County authorities, who declined to immediately identify the victim, said the boy was killed about 9 a.m. as his parents cut down the tree, apparently in preparation for the coming storm.
The boy was dead on arrival at Tomball Regional Medical Center.
A 19-year-old Corpus Christi man was presumed drowned after storm surge from Hurricane Ike swept him from a jetty, Corpus Christi Police Chief Bryan Smith said.
Three people were injured in a two-alarm fire at Brennan’s restaurant early today, a Midtown institution on Smith Street.
Friday afternoon, the Coast Guard and the Army aborted a rescue mission to save the 22 crew members on a Cypriot freighter that had lost power in towering swells 90 miles off Galveston’s coast. The ship, loaded with petroleum coke floated helplessly as Hurricane Ike approached.
New Orleans-based Petty Officer Jaclyn Young said the two helicopters and three other aircraft that had been sent could not safely rescue the crew. The Coast Guard will not be able to approach until the storm has passed.
‘’We will talk to them hourly and they have electricity and no injuries,” Young said. “They have an emergency beacon to put on if they get in distress.’’
WTF?