The storm surge from this monster storm will indeed take lives and some of those lives will perish because of a false sense of safety in that Ike will be in all likelihood at most a Category 3 on the SAFFIR-SIMPSON scale approaching the Texas coastline. I feel it is imperative that the Integrated Kinetic Energy (IKE) scale become as much household name as the SAFFIR-SIMPSON scale in order to save lives.



Best post of the day! The S-S scale is part of the public lexicon now and I am more than sure that many folks are thinking- well its a 2 now, and may "only" become a 3....but this is almost completely irrelevant in many cases re: the surge/water rise/wave setup. Although Dr. Masters has been overdoing his intensity forecasts so far, and I am not so sure that Ike will attain a IKE index higher than Katrina, it will be much more dangerous than a "normal cat 2 or 3 storm and that cannot be emphasized enough to the public. That is why the "certain death" wording was used, so shake folks out of their complacency.


Sometimes I wonder whether these scales should even be released to the general public. If they dont have the education to utilize them properly, then why publicize them so much? Its better to just give them a simple response: "Get the hell out if you want to stay alive!"

Despite Ike's rated Category 2 strength, the hurricane is much larger and more powerful than Category 5 Katrina or Category 5 Rita.