Major Hurricane Ike

reply to post by Hellmutt


Great pictures some very scary looking data, however this picture really looks like an eye in the storm...

anatar, I'm not sure what the water vapour image of the Atlantic is for?

As for what's going on in Houston.
I have been talking to a friend up until a few seconds ago, I believe her power must've died. I don't know much, but there are quite a few areas in Houston that weren't evacuated, hers being one of them. From what I know...Galveston is under water though now.

[edit on 13.9.2008 by Shugo]

Yeah, something about the ... 1st level of the hospital, west Galveston is taking water. It's not even the worst yet? Waves are coming over the walls. Flooding sounds like... huge potential?

reply to post by Shugo


I am with you, I know this is so freaking upsetting, hence it is 130 am here and I am up, waiting, just concerned about this situation and the people suffering, large parts of Galvaston underwater now... Wow, tens of thousans still on Galvastan Island. Pray for the children, the parents need to be up on charges.

They were saying the risks in order of severity were going to be flooding, in attribution to storm surge and heavy rainfall of over 14 inches in some areas, followed by wind, and then severe weather. Something Ike has with it, is all factors...this really could be more devistating than Katrina.

Ike is to make landfall on the mainland in the next few minutes, if he hasn't done so already...I'm looking at radar images, but am unable to actually see if he's made landfall due to radar distortion.

Reports that frantic calls for rescue continue to come in hard & fast to Galveston 911. Still no chance of rescue until Saturday morning.

It seems that the eyewall has passed over Galveston. Ike is so massive that it's hard to tell where official landfall will be (official landfall is measured when the exact center of the storm passes over land), but to my eye it looks like it'll be left of downtown Galveston, probably over by Jamaica Beach.
Pressure in Galv. is down to 953mb; looks like they're indeed in the eye.

Storm surge at Galv. is 12.33' currently. It's going to go up once the eye passes and the dirty south side of the storm reaches land.

Over 1 million without power.

...latest from the AP:

Wind-whipped waves surged over a 17-foot seawall in Galveston and filled streets with waist-high water. Homes were flooding, utilities said more than 4.5 million people were without power and there was fear hurricane-force winds could shatter the windows of the sparkling skyscrapers that define the skyline of America's fourth-largest city.

Rescue crews worried daybreak would bring a nightmare scenario: Thousands who defied evacuation orders and became trapped in submerged communities. Already, dozens of calls had come into 911 dispatchers begging for help.

Firefighters left three buildings to burn Galveston because water was too high for fire trucks to reach them. But there was some good news: a stranded freighter with 22 men aboard made it through the brunt of the storm safely, and a tugboat was on the way to save them.

www.nytimes.com...

[edit on 13-9-2008 by arktkchr]

As Hurricane Ike pushed a swelling surge onto Galveston Island this morning, many of the estimated 23,000 Galveston residents who ignored a mandatory evacuation order phoned for rescues to no avail because emergency workers were called off the streets, officials said.

Help wasn't expected until after dangerous storm conditions subsided.

"We don't know what we're going to find tomorrow," said the city's mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas. "We hope we'll find that the people who didn't leave here are alive and well."

City Manager Steve LeBlanc went so far as to ask the media not to photograph "certain things" in the aftermath, referring to the possibility of dead bodies.

chron.com

Stormpulse site has user-friendly tracking:

www.stormpulse.com...

voices.washingtonpost.com...


[edit on 13-9-2008 by arktkchr]

Check out this NOAA rainbow picture, it shows the trail of very bad looking hotspots still rolling in long after the main body of the storm passes over.

Six feet of water in the Galveston courthouse and surrounding areas.
-KFDM

Seven feet of water in The Strand in Galveston
-KPRC

Clear Lake, TX: aerial shots of a parking lot completely inundated with several feet of water with whitecaps breaking.
-TWC


Official landfall appears to be happening right now, ~3:20am EST

reply to post by arktkchr


That is a great site, saved to favorites.

...IKE MAKES LANDFALL AT GALVESTON...

RADAR DATA AND SURFACE OBSERVATIONS INDICATE THAT THE CENTER OF IKE
MADE LANDFALL AT GALVESTON TEXAS AT ABOUT 210 AM CDT.

NHC

I need to get some sleep, gang. Was gonna try and make it longer but I'm nodding off at the computer.

Daylight will tell us how bad this was...until then, we can only hope for the best.

reply to post by antar


If you click the small pictures on that page, you'll get a bigger picture. And the picture you'll see is automatically saved on climatepatrol's server, so you don't have to host them yourself, and can post them using im-tags. Like this:





Here's the link to the feeds again:

www.climatepatrol.com...

Oh man, thanks for all the updates. Work is SOOOOO busy tonite, making it so hard to get updates myself, or even here... Off soon, then catching up. Good work

Two hours after landfall winds are still 110, and eye is clearly visible going right up Houston Bay. This at least keeps Houston out of the right front quadrant. I thought the eye would break up quickly, but it is still a hurricane and well organized.

Its over the Houston Ship Channel. so despite landfall, its still over water.

The eye was said to have passed over Galveston bay.

There is flooding along the southern end of the bayous. White Oak north of downtown is at 40 feet with flood level at 32 feet. Looks like a bit a Allison-like flooding might occur again. Lots of street flooding.

Just checked with the first family members in Houston, they are OK. More to go.

Edit: virtually all of Houston served by above ground electrical service is without power. Only downtown and med center are with power.

[edit on 9/13/2008 by roadgravel]

Originally posted by KMFNWO
Its over the Houston Ship Channel. so despite landfall, its still over water.

Immediate economic impact:

Forecasters warned Ike would send water surging up the Houston Ship Canal, the second-busiest U.S. port, a complex of docks, pipelines, depots and warehouses that receives automobiles, consumer products, industrial equipment and other cargo from around the world.

www.swissinfo.ch...

Live-feed link, Houston station KPRC:

www.msnbc.msn.com...

[edit on 13-9-2008 by arktkchr]