Hurricane Ike

VaderDSL

VaderDSL

VaderDSL

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Things starting to look pretty grim for Galveston/Houston.

I've been reading Storm2k forums this board and it seems like Ike is gearing up to strengthening.
From what I can make out, the High Pressure dry air to the west was prohibiting strengthening, however now the tropical air mass is now starting to wrap itself around Ike, allowing for re-intensification.
They reckon it could get to a Cat3. by landfall, and the storm surge looks incredible!
Some models put it up to nearly 30ft! And I've been reading that the seawall is only 17/18 feet high.

Anyway anyone else following this?
 
Yep, have family friends who live in Galveston, well Seabrook actually which could be described as more of a suburb of Houston than Galveston but it's still only about 20 miles away.

Had an email from them yesterday, at the moment they're safe and on their holidays in Washington (State not DC) and are in two minds whether to just stay put or go back and see if they need to try and save their house.

Looks like it could real nasty real fast down there if this thing hits with the force they say it will. :(
 
Hope they'll be ok and are safe!

Just read some reports that the eyewall has dissipated and pressure is starting to climb so they've pegged it back to a cat. 2 now. Let's hope it further weakens, although the general consensus seems to be that the storm surge appears to be a couple of categories above what the sustained wind speeds are doing.
 
Azagoth said:
Yep, have family friends who live in Galveston, well Seabrook actually which could be described as more of a suburb of Houston than Galveston but it's still only about 20 miles away.

Had an email from them yesterday, at the moment they're safe and on their holidays in Washington (State not DC) and are in two minds whether to just stay put or go back and see if they need to try and save their house.

Looks like it could real nasty real fast down there if this thing hits with the force they say it will. :(
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Just looked up Seabrook and it is right on the edge of Galveston Bay? Glad they're currently safe, but it looks like a high risk area for being inundated.
 
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VaderDSL said:
Just looked up Seabrook and it is right on the edge of Galveston Bay? Glad they're currently safe, but it looks like a high risk area for being inundated.
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Yeah, it's a great place for windsurfing. :D

Sadly, if the surge is as high as they're predicting then yep, it looks like there might be some serious damage to their home. Don't know if they've already started sandbagging the place, but it's a close knit community where they live (plus he's military, so gets quite a bit of help when he's not there) so the neighbours should have started on their house too if they're still around that is.
 
Ah man! The coast of Galveston and Galveston Bay are already suffering flooding, in Seabrook water is already several inches deep under the coastal housing.

They invented a new scale recently as the Saffir-Simpson scale only measured wind speeds, as such Ike is a cat 2, the storm surge they expect is currently estimated at 5.6 out of 6!!! Katrina was a 5.1.

Seriously as it stands, Galveston island just going to be completely inundated!
 
my dad is in houston on business - trying to get a flight back to paris at the moment

he said things are pretty hectic over there at the moment
 
Yeah, my family are a bit further north in Dallas / Plano...hopefully they'll be ok. My prayers go out to the people affected.
 
http://www.maroonspoon.com/wx/ike.html

Good link 4 streams of live coverage of Ike, some amazing shots there, like water already a few inches deep inland yet sun still shining, can't imagine how strange that must feel.

Imgae taken from storm2k showing storm surge heights

i46gl2eohwwk5.gif


Just wow, I really really hope people got out of galveston
 
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Jeez it's getting desperate, the Mayor she hasn't got a clue! Telling people to stay put, and they think that 45% have stayed, 10's of thousands of people.

Now the sea wall is 17ft, the surge at minimum say 15ft and 15ft waves .... I wonder what will happen, the waves are already overlapping the seawall and it's still 115 odd miles off the coast.

Look at this tidal guage!

8771510_2562032.png


The main surge hasn't arrived yet.
 
I just don't understand why people ignored the warnings, I guess they saw the Cat 2 hurricane with reports of weakening and thought, bah we'll be fine. What a lot of people either don't know about, understood or plain ignored is the storm surge is going to be the major killer here.

There is major flooding everywhere along the Galveston island, down the west end of the island, over to the east on bolivar and all the way inland along the coast of Galveston Bay, all of the roads out of these areas are now flooded and inaccessible, and there are tens of thousands still on Galveston island according to officials.
 
Azagoth said:
Holy hell, I'm watching KHOU and it looks like Galveston is going to get wiped from the map. :(
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It is certainly not looking good, I fear that many people are putting too much faith in the seawall, the thing is, when Galveston bay experiences the surge, the water will back fill around behind the seawall ayway :(
 
I know someone who lives between Galveston and Houston and I think she has managed to get out with her family, but it looks like her home is right in the path of the hurricane. It was only a couple of weeks ago too that she was desperately trying to make arrangements in case of evacuation with Hannah, such a horrible and stressful time :(.
 
I hope they got to safety ok! If she's still there then my thoughts go out to her. I really hope everyone who stayed will be ok at the end of the day.
 
Yet it still isn't mentioned on the main BBC news page. New Orleans and Katrina were plastered everywhere, Galveston doesn't warrant a big headline by the looks of it.
 
Azagoth said:
Yet it still isn't mentioned on the main BBC news page. New Orleans and Katrina were plastered everywhere, Galveston doesn't warrant a big headline by the looks of it.
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I know! It's really really odd! Melodramatic this may be, but there are a lot of experienced people on storm2k that are getting very bad feelings about this.
I just hope another Katrina doesn't happen.

Bear in mind in 1900 Galveston suffered the worst loss of life in a hurricane in the entire history of the U.S.A, around 6000 people died and the entire island was pretty much wiped off the map. After this they built a 17 foot seawall and raised the east part of the island a few feet, the seawall has protected them since them, but in all that time, the extent of flooding Ike has already caused, 110 miles off the coast has never happened before.

It's this flooding with the centre of the hurricane so far away that is causing the major concern right now.
 
My wife's Aunt lives just north of Galveston and their house is 8 feet below sea level :( They've evacuated up to Austin and just hoping there's something left to come back to.

The State Governor has just been on TV saying that it's estimated that in Houston alone there could be 120,000 houses destroyed and damages estimated at $91 billion. I think Katrina caused about $50 billion :eek:
 
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