Hurricane Ike

[rockymtnhigh]

Jim Cantore on The Weather Channel is reporting from Galveston, and he was visibly upset that 60% of the residents of Galveston Island decided to ride-out the Hurricane. It was interesting to watch. He made the point that is may not be a good idea for us to rely so heavily on describing storms in terms of the Category system.

His point was people he talked to said, "Well I rode-out Carla, and it was a Cat 4 storm, this is only a Cat 2 storm," he responded by saying, yeah, that made landfall 75 miles away from Galveston; but this one is coming RIGHT at it, with Galveston just to the east of where the eye wall will come in. (And this storm is actually BIGGER than Katrina).

He is talking right now about how there have been 120 water rescues in Galveston today. He responded by saying "this is crazy, what the heck are they doing going into the water - there is a Hurricane today, and the water has been boiling since yesterday."

 

[rcdallas]

At the utility I'm with, the line superintendent came around making sure all our chainsaws are in good working order, trucks are fueled up and stocked for anything and everything... from what I see parts our system is under a tropical storm warning... we'll see what happens tonight.

 

[snathanb]

He is talking right now about how there have been 120 water rescues in Galveston today. He responded by saying "this is crazy, what the heck are they doing going into the water - there is a Hurricane today, and the water has been boiling since yesterday."

Personally, I think anyone who ignores a mandatory evacuation should be billed for their rescue.

 

[Bobby]

I agree 100%, in fact I mentioned that to the wife yesterday.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Personally, I think anyone who ignores a mandatory evacuation should be billed for their rescue.

In Colorado anytime you had to be rescued by search and rescue units, you were charged, UNLESS you had a COlorado Hiker's permit. I agree it should be the same way with stupid people going into the ocean in a friggin hurricane.

 

[Neutron]

Raining pretty hard here in the northern part of the DFW area. Fortunately we are on the west side of the now tropical storm, which is the safer side.

 

[allargon]

We got nothing but drizzle here in Austin.

I feel for the folks in East TX and Western LA. They are the same ones that got pounded by Rita 3 years ago. The press is focusing on Houston and Galveston. This one did just as much (if not more) damage as Rita as that Eastern side is just plain nastay.

 

[Stargazer]

Even if they require a fee for a rescue, I can see some people still refusing to be rescued, some just to avoid the fee.

 

[navychop]

Darwin.

 

[Foxbat]

Things are going to be rough for my Brother-in-Law's family for a while. He said they could be without power for up to four weeks! They escaped the worst of the storm as Ike missed their house to the East by 30-40 miles, but they still had trees down in their yard. At least their house is in one piece and they have water, gas, & telephone.

I saw this image over at the Weather Underground of a Synthetic Aperture RADAR satellite image of Ike as it was off the Texas coast:

Figure 1. Hurricane Ike approaching Galveston Island, as seen by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The white dot in the eye is the freighter Antalina, which got caught in the storm when its engines failed. A tugboat towed the Antilina safely to port on Saturday, and all 22 crewmen are well and the ship is undamaged. They'll have quite a story to tell (bet they barfed plenty)! Image Copyright ESA [2008], captured and processed by CSTARS University of Miami under license from Eurimage. CSTARS runs jointly with the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency a Hurricane Watch program where they take routine SAR images of tropical storms during hurricane season.

(copied from the Wunderground.com site. Here's a link to the original page:http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1085&tstamp=200809)

 

[navychop]

Barfed plenty? Naw. Do what I did once as a midshipman. Went up to the bridge during a bad storm and opened a can of sardines in mustard sauce and ate them on crackers.

Like I said, once. Just once......

 

[snathanb]

Things are going to be rough for my Brother-in-Law's family for a while.

Where do they live? I have between 40 - 50 relatives in Brazoria Country, spread between Freeport, Oyster Creek, Lake Jackson, Clute and Richwood.

 

[HD MM]

Ike has even reared it's nasty head here in NE Ohio over the weekend. I was at the Browns/Steelers game last night and it was reported that we received Category 1 levels with 70mph winds and swirling rain.

300,000 people have been without power in NE Ohio since 7pm last night, including me. Some streets remain closed due to trees fallen and power lines down.

 

[JAG72]

300,000 people have been without power in NE Ohio since 7pm last night, including me. Some streets remain closed due to trees fallen and power lines down.

Here in Central Ohio we are up to 500,000 people without power. I just came home today from Michigan and I can not believe all the damage that was done.

It is hard to believe that a hurricane that hit Texas could do so much damage in Ohio.

 

[Rey]

anyone here from the parts hit the hardest from Ike? how are you doing? we hope you're ok.

 

[JAG72]

All of our prayers should go out to all that have been heavily impacted by Ike. I really feel bad for the ones hit the worse as many companies are pulling their support crews that were sent to help because of all the damage that happened elsewhere by the storm.

Personally this is the first storm that I can remember that did so much damage from the south to the North. There are many that hit a large coastal area but not as impacting as for north as Ike hit.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Here in Central Ohio we are up to 500,000 people without power. I just came home today from Michigan and I can not believe all the damage that was done.

It is hard to believe that a hurricane that hit Texas could do so much damage in Ohio.

Its kind of interesting in that the Hurricane (which dumped 5" of rain on us in Illinois) ran into the existing low front; and the combination of the two is what caused the wind problems in Ohio. Indeed, the Tropical Depression was already in Michigan when the front caused the wind issues.

One helluva strange weekend of weather. And 18 hours after the rain stopped, my sump pump still keeps kicking on and off periodically. As I told my wife... "we are not in Colorado anymore!"

 

[rockymtnhigh]

All of our prayers should go out to all that have been heavily impacted by Ike. I really feel bad for the ones hit the worse as many companies are pulling their support crews that were sent to help because of all the damage that happened elsewhere by the storm.

Personally this is the first storm that I can remember that did so much damage from the south to the North. There are many that hit a large coastal area but not as impacting as for north as Ike hit.

Lets not forget the impact it had on the Bahamas, the Turks/Caicos, Haiti, and Cuba -- when it was a Cat 4 storm. It was a bad a@# mother of a storm. And some of the reports I have seen coming out of Cuba suggest that it might take a year to restore power in places like Cameguay.

 

[JAG72]

Lets not forget the impact it had on the Bahamas, the Turks/Caicos, Haiti, and Cuba -- when it was a Cat 4 storm. It was a bad a@# mother of a storm. And some of the reports I have seen coming out of Cuba suggest that it might take a year to restore power in places like Cameguay.

They are all in my prayers also.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

In support of our members in need, I have added some Red Cross banners to our Gold Sponsor ads layout on the top right of the screen.

We had 40 MPH winds here in Connecticut today from IKE.