Running Hurricane Ike thread

Galveston officials have received 60 calls recently for help.

I have a feeling when I wake back up, things will be pretty dire.

Well wishes and prayers are sent out to all of our friends in the area.

 

They also tell you to fill up your bath tub with water.

 

That's where the Chronicle needed its cameras set up on auto-shutter/video.

That's only a few blocks from Minute Maid.

 

For drinking, better to place a plastic bag in the tub (I have a WaterSafe) and fill that.

The tub has shit that, even after the ultimate cleaning, resides on the perimeter.

http://www.mywatersafe.com/

But you should have a tub filled up for toilet flushing.

 

Expecting winds about 40-45 mph here out of the north. No more than your typical strong spring cold front here — we get one or two of those a year here. The worst of it will go east of Dallas, but they're saying we'll get about 4 inches of rain.

 

Per KHOU: Nine feet of water in Beaumont.

Damage list from their website:

Harris County: Harris County Office of Emergency Management suspends 911 service in Pasadena because of problems. People urged to call (713) 920-2136, (713) 920-1604, (713) 475-9714 and (713) 472-0144

CenterPoint says customers with service through above ground lines are without power

Conroe: Half of the city is without power

Liberty County: Reports of roof torn off of a home near 2018 Grand Ave.

Dickinson: Residents asked to boil water

West Houston: Building collapse at the Palm Court Apartments on 90 Country Place near I-10 and the Beltway

Reliant Center: Hole in the roof

Clear Lake: Damage reported at the Hilton Hotel on Clear Lake Blvd.

Galveston: Hooters restaurant damaged

Galveston: Several boats caught fire at the Galveston Yacht Basin Friday afternoon, but weather conditions prevented fire crews from responding.

Houston: Brennan's restaurant burned to the ground. Three people were hurt.

Downtown Houston: Bus shelters knocked over and shards of glass raining down from skyscrapers

Galveston: There's about three feet of water inside the courthouse building, according to Galveston County Emergency officials. There are 27 people currently inside that building but EOC officials believe they are perfectly safe, because they have moved to the second floor. The water was beginning to recede a bit by 3 a.m., so they’re not worried about it coming up further. The courthouse still has power because it is running on a generator. The people inside managed to move most of the first floor computers and several boxes of election materials up to the second floor before it flooded.

Deer Park: The roof has blown off the Casa El Dora apartment complex at 200 Helgra. Six residents were being taken elsewhere and no one was hurt.

Matagorda County: With Ike making landfall on Galveston, Matagorda County found itself more on the “clean” side of the storm.

John O’Connell with the Matagorda County Office of Emergency Management in Bay City said that outside of power interruptions, there were not reports of major problems within the county.

“We’ve had some gusts of wind and some rain, but no major rain,” said O’Connell.

Kemah: City adminsitrator Bill Kerber said there is high water across Kemah. Six feet deep even in higher areas. City hall and the fire station have some water in them, not sure yet how much. City Hall, which is on Highway 146, sits at roughly the high point in Kemah.

La Porte: With the eye of Hurricane Ike approaching, officials in this Galveston Bay community had reports of widespread street flooding, but no major damage.

But EOC head Jeff Suggs said the true extent of Ike’s damage wouldn’t be known until an assessment of the city could be made at first light after Ike had moved on.

Texas City: Officials in Texas City were breathing a presumptive sigh of relief early Saturday morning as it appeared that the levee system that encircles the city held back the vicious storm surge of Hurricane Ike.

Most of the city is without power and there are lots of downed power lines and tree limbs. Clawson said too that what water was coming into the city was quickly receding.

The local refineries and chemical plants also reported no significant damage.

He stressed that the city won’t be totally out of the woods until Saturday afternoon.

“It’s not where we wanted to be, but it doesn’t look like we suffered any major damage,” said Clawson.

Friendswood: Officials in Friendswood have been unable to assess what damage has occurred because of Hurricane Ike. Police Chief Bob Wieners said there have not been any calls to the public safety building of major damage within the city.

Power has been cut off to most of the city, he said.

He also said there were no calls from residents of life-threatening instances.

Angleton: A large chunk of the Brazoria County Courthouse was blown off by the winds of Hurricane Ike. It also damaged some cars that were in the parking lot.

Freeport: A police car had a window smashed out by flying debris. There are also downed street lights throughout the city.

San Leon: Boats pushed up out of the water into yards and houses

Jersey Village: The roof was blown off a hotel on 290 and Jones Road in Jersey Village and into power lines. The lines are across a feeder road. About 55 occupants were moved to a temporary shelter.

 

Here's what jumps out from that story:

<blockquote>The forecaster on duty in Galveston back then, Isaac Cline, had tried to issue a warning, Emanuel said.

"His hands were tied rather badly by the Washington bureaucracy," Emanuel said. "The U.S. Weather Bureau had forbidden Cline from issuing his own hurricane warning, it had to go through Washington first.

"He understood a hurricane was coming, but his hands were tied."

At the time, Cubans had become expert hurricane forecasters and had established "the very first hurricane observation network." But just three weeks before the deadly storm, the federal government sent out an edict that meteorological information from Cuba to the U.S. was forbidden.

"That one was a confluence of a lot of silly politics," he said.

After the flood, which claimed his wife and their unborn baby, Cline "was instrumental in agitating for a more advanced network of observations," Emanuel said.

"He realized that the whole business of collecting meteorological information was by its very nature international," Emanuel said. "He called for an internationally run network to eliminate squabbling between nations."

His endeavor was eventually successful and has evolved into the complex forecasting system that warned coastal residents this week that failure to evacuate could result in "certain death."</blockquote>
Forbidden to issue a hurricane warning? Asinine.

 

That game and as many others as needed should move to the Alamodome.

 

Big D will have had November icestorms worse than this.

 

While I sympathize with those who are trapped, I can't sympathize if you are trapped because you refused to evacuate. When an officials tells you that if you decide to stay to write your social security number on your body so they can identify you, I think that's indication enough that it's time to leave - FAST!!!

 

Won't be close to Dallas. Texarkana will have a long day.



The Chronicle's editorial writer has a question: What were the ride-it-out people thinking?

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5999238.html

 

Any other weather enthusiasts volunteer news side today? (The overtime's gonna help. ;D)