Running Hurricane Ike thread

I do hate it when the networks put that kind of fear into people. However, the water was higher today than I think anyone expected. According to the press conference a few minutes ago, 40% of Galveston did not evacuate. Unfortunately, that very possibly will equal needless drowning deaths.

 

Never was a more accurate statement spoken. The further the media outlet is from the storm, the more sensational the coverage will be.

 

Was issued yesterday by the Houston/Galveston office of the National Weather Service but has been updated and can no longer be found.

Wait ...

 

Your swimming pool analogy makes sense... it's like a full bathtub: you step in, and water pours over the top. if you stepped in and the tub burst, that's a breach.

 

Well, the seawall should not have been overtopped 12 hours before the storm hit. That really is the biggest concern that I can see at this point here locally.

 

The "face certain death" bit was in a Galveston/Houston NWS bulletin last night.

TV's not making it up.

 

OK. Thank you. That's pretty crazy.

 

The CNN Breaking News alert I got last night at 8:34 p.m. said this:
"People sheltering at ground level at Galveston Bay when Hurricane Ike hits face "certain death," the weather service warns."

I assumed they meant the National Weather Service, but it doesn't explicitly say that.

 

Here's the link:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=hgx&wwa=all

Go about halfway down or just do a search for "death"

 

Maybe Jean Lafitte's treasure will wash up into my backyard. (just kidding)

I have family that live just 10 miles or so from Galveston and they decided to stay put. I pray for them and hope they make it through OK. I know they regret their decision now, but they had a bad experience leaving town for Rita (16 hours on the road, ran out of gas and had to sleep in their car) that they decided they'd rather take a chance than have that experience again.

 

It's very much a concern, because if the storm is 12 hours out and Galveston is already experiencing overtopping, then you can be sure that if this storm shifts west and makes landfall just west of Galveston, severe flooding will take place.

Just about every meteorologist I've seen and heard has been taken aback by Ike's incredible storm surge. It's a Cat 2 storm with a storm surge rivaling a high Cat 3 storm. As someone mentioned earlier, as far east as Alabama is experiencing 7-foot surges, with as high as 10-foot surges.

 

OK. I figured they wouldn't make it up, but that's crazy...