Posted on 09/12/2008 5:12:09 AM PDT by NautiNurse
Large and dangerous Hurricane Ike approaching the Upper Texas coast. Mandatory evacuations began in earnest Thursday as an estimated one million coastal residents headed inland. There were widespread reports of gas stations running out of fuel.
The National Weather Service posted dire storm surge predictions of 20-25 ft storm surge along the coast and bay heads. Hurricane warnings covered a 400 mile swath of the Gulf of Mexico.
Wholesale gasoline prices spiked 30 percent Thursday, or nearly $1 a gallon, out of fear of what Ike might do.
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
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 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)
Poor kid.
I don't know how any of us are going to sleep tonight.
sw
That’s just sad. How horrible.
During Alicia, the wind screamed like a banshee. It almost drove us crazy. The roof creaked like it was going to be pulled off at any minute. We were in SW Houston (Alief)
“Maybe not, but it gave us kids something to do.”
:0)
You probably need the rest by now anyway.
The fun will begin tomorrow—clean up.
The only argument you will get from me is I call them IDIOTS.
Oh no, how sad. That father's going to hate himself for the rest of his life for not evacuating.
Did any Freepers experience Hurricane Fran in Raleigh in 1996? When it Raleigh it was still a CAT 3.
My family and I didn’t have to worry about the water but the wind alone was enough to make you fear for your life. I can’t imagine a CAT 3 right next to the ocean!
We are also in Alief.
On KHOU, they said that three people are on the roof of some building, and then 15 people are on a roof of a church across the street and they’ve roped themselves together. I missed the location.
local media reporting:
people trapped on roofs in Crystal Beach... weather too bad to go check it out. 15 trapped on Church across street. All unconfirmed... 15 apparently tied themselves together.
KHOU: Unconfirmed report of 15 people trapped on roof of church in Crystal Beach. Tieing themselves together.
http://www.khou.com/video/?nvid=178826&live=yes&noad=yes
Just a reminder, be sure to fill up your bathtubs and any extra containers with water. You can use this water to flush toilets in the event you lose power. If the power goes, there will be no way to power the water pumps and hence no water.
If the glass is tempered you better have a lot of tape, because when the glass shatters it will shatter into a thousand pieces, and then the wind blows the tape in.
But if your glass is temper it will take one hell of a beating before it breaks.
Could have been cause I asked Hubby “did he just say...” and hubby said Yeah!
Fox News flash on bottom of screen...
Southwest levees in LA have been breeched.
Maybe for just a few more hours, then.... I find myself rather angry with him, and the rest of those fools who were too smart to heed the warnings.
Boy, I couldn't tell ya. Anybody know?
While I can't say specifically about your community ( I was the night operator of the Island water & sewer plants here decades ago ), our plant had electric pumps drawing on deep wells, which lifted water into gravity tanks- as long as the mains were not broken and there was water in the tanks, you had pressure in the mains, even without power.
Naturally, when the tanks ran dry- no water.
We had one pump rigged with a donkey engine ( gas motor ) so in theory we could keep some water in the tanks, depending on the drawdown- problem was, half the time the #$#! engine wouldn't start and run...
sw
That's exactly what they tried to do with the children in the St Mary's Orphanage during the 1900 storm. They didn't make it. This is real bad, folks.
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