Major Hurricane Ike

In Sugar Land, TX, a red cross evacuation center has opened as well as a distribution center giving away food, water, and ice.

Sugar Land is an upscale community (not everyone here is rich but the city has a fair number of millionaires) so this news ALMOST shocking. But a hole in your roof is a hole in your roof so....

In Baytown, the mayor has SUSPENDED the sale of alcohol, firearms, and ammunition. So it must be getting dicey out there. See why everybody needs a gun and ammo?

My company is partially opened but I am on vacation with family attempting to fly in so with fuel limited, I'm not going anywhere.

I work for a bank and it is important to get money into the hands of our members but I can tell you, there WILL be restrictions on cash withdraws and check holds would likely be more liberal since attempts to commit fraud spike during crisis like these.

Last I heard, Galveston was closed to anyone not already there. The Harris County Comish still doesn't want people on the freeways in Houston.

If you have food and water for the next 24 hours, stay home unless you work for the government or you have a recovery skill you are willing to volunteer.

Houston also still has a soft curfew which means it's there but it's usually NOT being enforced unless your out and about acting stupid. For example, many, many people are going through black out intersections as if there is no intersection at all. I am waiting to hear about two idiot drivers and some perfect timing whiping out an entire family.

I haven't heard anything about the west end of Galveston but I have heard that over 2000 people have been rescued and around 50 are dead. 50? Yeah, right.

A quick update as battery power is kinda low, still without power and cell service is long gone as well. Expectations are sometime today or Wed for electric. Duke services Cincinnati and surrounding areas. They estimated 700, 000 meters were out affecting some 1.2 million people. As of Tues at 5am 560,000 meters still without service.

Most of the line crews were sent to help in Texas and had to make a U-turn. Crews are now arriving from the Carolinas to help. I bet a fortune could be made in wind-up alarm clocks in Ohio right now as they seem to be an item from people's foggy memories if visit a store today.

Here's a Youtube video from a stormchaser who was in Galveston for Ike. Video of damage (including a flooded cemetery) is included, so I'll link it for those who'd rather not watch.

I just got back from orientation with Texas Windstorm (TWIA). I already have claims in my queue and will be headed there this weekend to begin working them.
Sometime when I catch a break Ill upload some up close and personal images of the most severe of the damages that I encounter.
Im not sure how bad the homes ill be working will be damaged because I only work wind claims, flood claims are from the feds and require entirely to much BS to work on.
Im sure the most severe damage was done by the flooding as apposed to high winds.

This picture of Gilchrist really saddens me, the structures to the left of the channel is an RV park, I stayed at that park for over 8 weeks when I worked Rita claims in 05 that little city and its people, especially the owners of the RV park, were some of the nicest ive ever met
Sucks that its gone now

Why did Gilchrist get destroyed? It's rare to see a town so completely destroyed by a hurricane, to the point where you can't even see the wreckage. The neighboring towns of Crystal Beach, to the south, and High Island, to the north, were also mostly destroyed, but weren't swept clean of nearly all structures and wreckage. This is because Gilchrist was built in an unusually vulnerable place. It's bad enough to situate your town on a low-lying peninsula, as was the case for Crystal Beach. But in Gilchrist's case, the town was located at the narrowest point of the Bolivar Peninsula, at a point where it was only a few hundred meters wide (Figure 2). Not only did Gilchrist suffer a head-on assault by Ike's direct storm surge of 14+ feet, topped by 20' high battering waves, the town also suffered a reverse surge once the hurricane had passed. As Ike moved to the north, the counter-clockwise flow of wind around the storm pushed Galveston Bay's waters back across the town of Gilchrist from northwest to southeast. This second surge of water likely finished off anything the main storm surge had left.

[edit on 9/17/2008 by Kr0n0s]

I have not reviewed all the pages of this thread but still wanted to share a photo and story I found.

The story about this house is touching. Story








The devastation takes my breath away. I am awe struck to say the least.

My thoughts go out to all the people who lost their homes to Ike.