Major Hurricane Ike

I am really astonished of the surge caused by Ike (without even arrived to the coast)... I am watching khou.com hours ago and this hurricane is extremely dangerous.

I´ve never seen such a broad hurricane...

Please, keep safe all of you. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.
I hope you did evacuate. It is going to be a disaster.

reply to post by roadgravel


To quote the National Weather Service: Those who choose to stay in Galveston face death.

End that quote.

There is a strong chance that the entire island will go under water. If that happens, the thousands of people that stayed in Galveston will likely die in Galveston.

It is going to be awful.

The police are requesting people who stayed in Galveston to take a black marker and write on their arm their name and their social security number.

Remember what the mayor of Galveston said recently? She said we were past the window where people can be evacuated.

She just gave up. The next day, she ordered the evacuation.

She better hope there is not a God because if there is, she will have to answer for that blunder. Someday.

But we really shouldn't blame her. Everyone that choose to stay made that decision themselves. We shouldn't blame the government for our own stupidity.

But it would be nice if those in the government would not say something so stupid.

On a side note, we talked about our in house fire arms tonight, how they will and won't be handled, and when they will and will not be accessed.

Hopefully, it won't come to that.

reply to post by Genfinity


There are a few Galveston residents who are in concrete building that have survived the 1900 and other past storm who believe they will be OK. Maybe so. Those who are in wood frame may find out it was a mistake.

I feel for the Coast Guard having to fly helicopters in the building winds to pull people out of Boliver. Hopefully these men will not be harmed doing what they do to help those who were not able to make a simple decision to protect their own life.

reply to post by Ptolomeo


Thank you for providing the link to KHOU and the live news feed. I've been trying to get a good feed all afternoon and this is the best I've been able to connect to.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the anticipated effected areas.

Im getting the outer rain bands now. Winds actually picked up around 6am this morning. Should be a pretty good storm.

Praying for all of you who are down there in that mess.
I have been watching the link all day (Thanks for the link).
They just said there may be some people already at Crystal Beach trapped on their roofs.Just from the surge alone.They have not even gotten rains yet ..

We rent cabins every year at Chrystal Beach ...*Beautiful place

This is disastrous, I live in Decatur, Al and everywhere is already ran out of gas because of the prices expected to go up. I saw regular unleaded for $6.30 a gallon. This is going to break the American economy.

Thinking of everyone in the path of Ike... I have a few friends in Houston, and am watching the news links closely, and I am really nervous about the size of this storm. Good thoughts to all...... be safe.

Catching up on the last 3 hours, but...Ike has been upgraded to 110mph winds. Cat 3 strength begins at 111mph, so do the math.

The TX and LA Gulf coasts are now facing landfall of a massive strengthening category 3 storm pushing a cat 5 storm surge.
Katrina was a smaller storm and was a weakening cat 3, to put it in perspective.

It looks like we're 6-8 hours from official landfall.

The News said out of 26 Refineries there are 13 Shut down for now ..
Also they are out of gas down there in the gas stations and if people wanted to leave now ..they cant ..no gas till after the storm .

They also said it could be a few weeks (considering the damage) before the refineries start back up again ...

Everyone needs to get gas before they end paying an arm and a leg and whatever else you may have .

KHOU-TV, Houston is being broadcast live on C-SPAN right now. Very good coverage.

Prime time disaster.

Good luck, and our prayers are with you in Galveston and surrounding areas. Let's hope that worst-case surge does not materialize.

Originally posted by Simplynoone

Also they are out of gas down there in the gas stations and if people wanted to leave now ..they cant ..no gas till after the storm .

That's not what I heard on WHOU. Here's what I heard. Shell has reported that 50% of their gas stations in the Houston area are out of gas.

Wow. I just flipped through the various sites and I'm shocked at the what's been happening while Ike is still offshore. 15 people on a roof, houses collapses, flooding all the way along the coast. This storm is crazy scary. Thoughts and prayers with you all tonight especially for those who made the mistake of not evacuating from a surge zone.

Most of Galveston Island has lost power in the last 30 minutes.
An estimated 40% of Galv. residents have not evacuated and are staying on the island. A shelter of last resort has been designated at Ball High School in Galveston; this school is about 6 blocks from the beach and is at an elevation of just 7 feet above sea level. From what I can tell (via Google Street View) this is a 2, maybe 3 story building.
Galveston is now under curfew until 5am local time Saturday.

Just a little info on Galveston Island: the highest point of the island is the 17' seawall on the Gulf side. The elevation rapidly drops off behind the seawall with much of the island anywhere from 3-10' above sea level. If you have Google Earth, you can zoom around the island and the bottom middle portion of the screen will show you the elevation.
The back side of the island is completely unprotected. Whatever storm surge doesn't come over the seawall will just wrap around the back and flood the island that way.
Here is the Google Maps sat view of Galveston Island so you can see what I'm talking about. Seawall Blvd on the SE side is obviously where the seawall is. The NE side is the back end and is unprotected. In addition, the seawall is only 10 miles long; the western part of the island is also unprotected so the water will freely flow over it. In some places it already has done so.


EDIT: Jim Cantore just reported that 24,000 residents have elected to remain on Galveston Island, then stated "Boy, have they got a hell of a night ahead of them." Bit of an understatement there.

EDIT 2:

It's Darwin Bear!

[edit on 9/12/2008 by anachryon]

I am located 4 hours north of Galveston and we are supposed to get winds from 74 to 95 miles per hour. Rain won't be a problem but downed trees will be our biggest problem. We will probably be without power for at least a while, so the flash lights are loaded with fresh batteries and the cell phone is charged. We've got enough gas for trips too town till mid October. It is going to be an adventure for us, we haven't had to deal with winds this strong while living in a trailer.

reply to post by hypervigilant


You're in a trailer as in a mobile home? I realize you're inland but wouldn't it have been wise to go a shelter? Main concern would be the tornados, hope you have weather radio and best of luck to you and yours.

reply to post by anachryon


That's what I said back on page 6

www.abovetopsecret.com...

THe seawall shouldn't be the focus ( the media is fixated on it). The real damage will come from the bay and the surge and the entire Island will be submerged with a 20 foot surge.

I wish those luck that decided to stay. They'll need it.

Just bwanted you guys to know Im here with you tonight. Let me know if I can help.

reply to post by hypervigilant


By "north" I hope you mean inland. Please tell me you mean inland.

Do you have 1 gallon of water per day per person to last 2-3 weeks? Do you have enough food to last that long? Do you have a gun and lots of ammo?



EDIT: I'm trying to edit info into my posts so I don't post multiple times in a row but my edits are only taking after I try 2 or 3 times. Anyone else experiencing this or is it just me?

[edit on 9/12/2008 by anachryon]

I just heard in the news it's Category 3 now!