Running Hurricane Ike thread

The Weather Channel has been great this morning. Mike Bettes got blown over a hedge in Clear Lake (just outside of Houston) and then had to seek refuge in his car. I saw a picture of a house on a pier that was about to become a house boat. One of the anchors had apparently been talking for so long, he had no voice left and had to sign off for the day.

Earlier, we had this great quote: "We can't see anything out there! It's so dark."

It was at 1:30 in the morning. Of course it's dark.

But this live feeds out of Houston (and earlier, out of Galveston) were just awe-inspiring. Here's hoping that any SportsJournalists.comers and their families in the path of this thing are okay.

 

Exactly. I feel absolutely nothing for the people who had the mandatory evacuations, KNEW this was coming through, knew what they were up against and then just stayed behind, thinking they could ride it out. That's called natural selection.

Everyone is comparing this to the hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900. There's a big difference between this one and that one: no one knew that one was coming.

Here's a great story about that storm: link

 

I haven't been able to get through to my brother and his mother who are riding out the storm (no evacuation order in their Houston burb, according to my sis). Not sure if it's my phone, which is being difficult, or his, but now I doubt I'll sleep tonight.

 

I'll pray for you and your family, SC. I'd imagine phone lines are down in Houston, I know KHOU is reporting 4.5M people are without power in Houston metro area.

I have family in Texas City that didn't evacuate, and I'm worried about them.

All I can do now is hope and pray. The rest is out of my hands.

 

Am just catching up and all I can say is wow....

 

I think when the sun comes up and people are able to see the wreckage and flooding in Galveston/Houston, they'll say the same thing.

 

The neighborhood where my aunt's beach house was in Galveston looked like it was sure to take a massive hit from the pictures on the Chronicle's Web site this afternoon (it's the neighborhood where the house was on fire). My sister thinks Galveston will be mostly gone in the morning.

 

I spent some great childhood times on Galveston beach (and suffered some nasty jellyfish stings). It sucks to see it take such a hit.

I wonder if any of the buildings that survived the 1900 storm will get through this one too.

 

Spent a memorable Thanksgiving night on one of the Galveston beaches a few years back. Hope all are making it through.

Oh, and thanks for that link, top_dog. Wow -- and major props to Ted Oberg, of the ABC affiliate on that link. He's reporting from Galveston and doing a phenomenal job.

 

There's a church I might put money on surviving. When they raised the island eight feet after that storm, they raised it even more (IIRC). Other than that, I don't know.

 

Something stuck with me from this afternoon watching TWC... someone said that all the houses on the beach in Galveston will be destroyed. Not could be, but will be...

 

I have a lot of good memories on Galveston. One actually included meeting up with a lifelong resident showing me a picture of his house....in 1900, aftr the storm. It was the only building standing. It belonged to his parents and now him. I just hope it makes it. But again, I don't think much will survive. Even the structures still standing will be pretty well ruined.

And that 40 percent staying behind number still amazes me. I am pretty sure they will have no excuse as I found out for sure Wednesday when doing my story on some of the HS game changes/cancellations. I expected coaches to say stuff citing traffic concerns and weather (you never know if it will go north or head to central Texas), but a couple said they simply didn't have the busses. Turns out the evacuation people asked many area school districts to give up school busses for the effort, many of which likely weren't used, but they didn't want to have that excuse of not having enough transportation.

The winds are picking up slightly here. Not greatly, but noticeably.