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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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 Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:37 pm Post subject: Ike draws a bead on Galveston |
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Cars and trucks streamed inland and chemical companies buttoned up their plants Thursday as a gigantic Hurricane Ike took aim at the heart of the U.S. refining industry and threatened to send a wall of water crashing toward Houston.
Nearly 1 million people along the Texas coast were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm, which was expected to strike late Friday or early Saturday. But in a calculated risk aimed at avoiding total gridlock, authorities told most people in the nation's fourth-largest city to just hunker down.
Ike was steering almost directly for Houston, where gleaming skyscrapers, the nation's biggest refinery and NASA's Johnson Space Center lie in areas vulnerable to wind and floodwaters. Forecasters said the storm was likely to come ashore as a Category 3, with winds up to 130 mph. |
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/Travel/wireStory?id=5776981
I'm really looking forward to hearing the evangelical crackpots explain how devastating Houston and America's oil refineries is all part of God's will.
It is, of course, but I think I and they might disagree what the Big Guy has in mind.
I wonder how America will like paying $6 a gallon for gas? Do you think they will catch on?
Oh, and guess what else is in Houston?
Mission Control.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2008/09/hurricane-in-sp.html
This is a mighty wind.
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200809.html?MR=1
For those of you too young to remember, Galveston, Texas, was the site of the deadliest natural disaster in the United States.
People bandy about the phrase "storm of the century;" the official "Storm of the Century" was the hurricane that nearly wiped Galveston off the face of the Earth.
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Funeral pyres were set up wherever the dead were found. In the aftermath of the storm, pyres burned for weeks. Authorities had to pass out free whiskey to the work crews that were having to throw the bodies of their wives and children on the burn piles.[14] More people were killed in this single storm than have been killed in the over three hundred tropical cyclones that have struck the United States since, combined, as of 2006. Thus, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston_Hurricane_of_1900
The city largely ignored the dangers for years, and ignored what little weather warnings of the storm they received.
My guess is the three most vulnerable areas to hurricanes in the U.S. are the Florida Keys, New Orleans and Galveston. But that is discounting the protective structures that have been built.
There has been so much over-building along coastal areas that they are pretty much all vulnerable to a big enough hurricane. But if a Cat 4 or 5 made a direct hit on a coastal city, there would be billions of dollars of damage, again, as in Hurricane Andrew.
Some say the modern system of weather forecasting in the U.S. grew out of the Galveston Storm of the Century.
Ike is nothing compared to the original. But even though forecasters in the U.S. have done a remarkable job of predicting tracks for the past 10 years, it is still impossible to predict the extent of damage with precision from wind, rain and storm surge. Hurricanes are still essentially unpredictable.
We are already seeing more frequent hurricanes and stronger hurricanes, on the whole, because of warmer ocean water. As the water becomes even warmer in coming years, they will become an even greater threat.
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| The potential for a large loss of life exists along the upper Texas Coast due to the increase in population, greater exposure to potential storm surge, and the lack of experience. A fundamental purpose of the NWS involvement in all of the 1900 storm commemorative activities has been the hope that increased awareness created by a look back at the most devastating storm in the nation's history - measured in terms of loss of life - will serve to educate the citizens of the upper Texas Coast and minimize the potential for destruction and loss of life in any future storm. |
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/topics/attach/html/ssd00-22.htm
http://www.1900storm.com/ |
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canuckistan
Mod Team
Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:16 am Post subject: |
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I have a friend in Houston who is at this moment parking his many vintage trailers together in a bunch in an effort to minimize damage. Doesn't know what will happen to his house or his business. Just knows that there isn't a lot that can withstand 100 MPH winds for too long.
I'm hoping for the best outcome. |
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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:42 am Post subject: |
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Houston's pretty far inland. The winds probably will have died down some by then.
Actually, 100 mph winds are not as destructive as you might think. A well built home can withstand it, from what I have seen of wind tunnel tests. The damage to homes usually starts with 110 to 120 mph winds, with 130 destroying pretty much everything of a frame house if not hurricane-proofed.
A well built travel trailer can be pretty resilient, given they are built to be towed at 70 mph or more. The "vintage" trailers tend to be heavier and more solid.
I think those TV reporters during hurricanes tend to exaggerate, don't you?
It is the storm surges, rain and flooding that will probably be the greatest threat, along with the risk of tornadoes within the hurricane area, and strong winds near the core of the hurricane.
But you never can tell. The extent of damage from Katrina over such a wide area was mind boggling.
Good luck to your friend. Let us know how he fared. |
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canuckistan
Mod Team
Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 12:24 pm Post subject: |
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My friend has an infirm 90-something yr old mom to take care of as well.
But he's pretty handy--my guess is he's probably battened down the hatches as well as they can be.
I think what also causes a lot of damage is flying debris--trees, barbeques and whatnot. Hopefully Ike will veer east to less populated areas once it hits land. |
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Kikomom
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: them thar hills--Penna, USA--Zippy is my kid, the teacher in ROK. You can call me Kiko
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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Ike could strenghten more yet. Offshore are warmer waters, the 70-mile eye is shown to be tightening and that usually means it's gaining strength.
Preparing for a hurricane means putting everything away before you evacuate the area. We used to 'hurricane stack' helicopters in a hangar that normally held four (blades spread), to holding ten--all folded up. Clear the decks then get home and clear the backyard.
There's a 24-25' storm surge predicted, that'll put a lot of Galveston underwater. The hard-headed that stay behind best have a zodiac or their jet ski strapped to the roof. The authorities are advising them to write their names on their arm with water-proof marker. Staying there really isn't a good idea. But if you're going into an attic because of rising water... take an axe, hatchet, saws, hammers to be able to break out if you have to.
GALVESTON STORM SURGE MODELS:
ftp://ftp.tpc.ncep.noaa.gov/surge/Latest/i47_bp3.gif
ftp://ftp.tpc.ncep.noaa.gov/surge/Latest/i47_gl2.gif
Watch Houston Live:
http://www.maroonspoon.com/wx/ike.html |
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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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Some refuse to evacuate as Ike closes in on Texas
By JUAN A. LOZANO � 42 minutes ago
HOUSTON (AP) � Hurricane Ike, a colossal storm nearly as big as Texas itself, battered the coast Friday, threatening to obliterate waterfront towns and give the skyscrapers, refineries and docks of the nation's fourth-largest city their worst pounding in a generation.
But even as towering waves crashed over the 17-foot Galveston seawall and floodwaters rose in low-lying areas, it became clear that many of the 1 million coastal residents who had been ordered to get out refused to do so and were taking their chances.
Authorities in three counties alone said roughly 90,000 stayed behind, despite a warning from forecasters that many of those in one- or two-story homes faced "certain death."
"I believe in the man up there, God," said William Steally, a 75-year-old retiree who planned to ride out the storm in Galveston without his wife or sister-in-law. "I believe he will take care of me."
At about 600 miles across, the hurricane was a monster. As it zeroed in on the coast, it trapped 60 people who had to be rescued by helicopter from the floodwaters near Galveston, breached levees in rural Louisiana, and stranded 22 crewmen on a disabled 584-foot cargo ship in the Gulf. |
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jG1m4XT341oCKXPMIZlKffdhP9vwD935HAM00
The conceit of people like this is just breathtaking. Did it ever occur to him that it might be God's will that he drown?
Anyone who stays in Galveston must have a screw loose. No place on the island has an elevation of even 9 feet above sea level. Everyone there knows the history of the 1900 storm.
I take it back. If you commit suicide, your wife doesn't get anything from your insurance. If you drown in a hurricane, the insurance would have to pay up, even if the person is virtually committing suicide, I would guess.
The radar and satellite images are striking. The outer bands are sweeping over New Orleans and Fort Worth at the same time.
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200809_sat.html#a_topad
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200809_radar.html#a_topad |
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hogwonguy1979
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: the racoon den
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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| wife has a lot of family in the houston area. galveston and the areas along the ship channel are going to get devasted by the storm surge. even inland its gonna get nasty |
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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:06 pm Post subject: |
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CNN has a story about the 1900 hurricane that struck Galveston.
Some things never change. No matter what experts tell people, some will simply ignore all the warnings.
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The flood waters began rising before dawn that morning, and initially the people of Galveston thought nothing of it. For the most part, they even ignored the warnings of U.S. Weather Service meteorologist Isaac Cline, who took to his horse and rode up and down the beach warning people to seek higher ground, an urging that ultimately meant little to a city 8 to 9 feet above sea level at its highest point.
"In reality, there was no island, just the ocean with houses standing out of the waves which rolled between them," Cline wrote in his 1945 memoirs. |
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/09/12/galveston.1900/?iref=hpmostpop
Let's face it, there are a surprising number of people in this world who are just plain stupid.
I hope the people along the Gulf Coast come out of this safely. But it seems to me that in a sane, sensible world, people wouldn't be building homes, offices and oil refineries so close to sea level.
And it is 100 percent inevitable at this point that the world's sea level is going to rise significantly in the coming decades. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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| Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 9:07 pm Post subject: Ike |
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| Houston's pretty far inland |
Yes, but Galveston Bay & the Houston ship channel, make Houston's south eastern suburbs, very vulnerable to storm surge. Luckily, it wasn't the 20-25 feet predicted.
I worry about the 20,000 who stayed behind in Galveston, some of whom were calling on their mobiles for help, as the water rose around them. The calls ceased in parts of Galveston, after the eye passed. It was too dangerous for rescue crews to go out & the calls were ignored. Guess they'll start finding bodies, soon enough. Hope I'm wrong, though.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jG1m4XT341oCKXPMIZlKffdhP9vwD936AMDG0 |
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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:48 am Post subject: |
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There are times and places where I could imagine taking a gamble and trying to ride out a hurricane at home. Galveston is not one of them.
Staying in Galveston with a mandatory evacuation ordered is suicidal. This woman stayed to help an elderly person, so I suppose you can't say everyone was a total fool. But if you are going to stay, at least you should pack some scuba gear, or at least a very long snorkel.
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Galveston Is Transformed Into an Island of Second Thoughts
By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 14, 2008; A01
GALVESTON, Tex., Sept. 13 -- This island has been beaten to a pulp. There is debris everywhere: chunks of asphalt, sheet metal, roofing tiles, uprooted trees, unidentifiable flotsam. The ocean ripped heavy concrete benches from the seawall and threw them across the road as if they were made of Styrofoam.
The landmark Balinese Room used to sit on pilings just off the sea wall. It's gone. The storm surge chewed it up and spit it out onto Seawall Boulevard. Souvenir seekers rummaged Saturday through the debris field.
The worst place to be in a hurricane is just on the right side of the eye wall as it spins onshore, the wind speed of the eye combining with the forward motion of the overall storm to deliver a roundhouse blow. Saturday, that worst place was Galveston.
The residents had ample warning. The city issued a mandatory evacuation order for the island. But thousands of people chose to stay, many of them fearing a repeat of the horrendous traffic jams in advance of Hurricane Rita three years ago. They stayed even as Ike grew to stunning dimensions, seemingly filling up much of the Gulf of Mexico.
Few people had a more harrowing night and morning than Lela Goff. She's the caretaker of an elderly man who couldn't be moved. She stayed with him all night and watched in horror as water, surging over the seawall, filled her neighborhood. The water rose to window level.
"We looked out our bedroom window, and we saw the Gulf of Mexico," she said.
It got worse: A house next door caught on fire. It spread to two adjacent houses. Firefighters rescued the elderly man; she caught a ride back home with journalists even as the houses were shooting red flames from their roofs.
This was an island full of second thoughts as Friday night turned into Saturday morning and the storm found new volume, new ways to hiss and whistle.
"I really felt like everything was going to cave in," said John Covington, 43. "I'm thankful to be alive. God bless." |
Great story! more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091300843.html?hpid=topnews
A lot of people lost everything. Some people undoubtedly lost their lives. It is sad. But no one is forcing them to live there.
I lived on a barrier island for a while. It was really pretty. We had some near misses, and one strike by a Cat. 1 hurricane. I was in the eye of that storm. I left, in part because of the hurricane danger. Sure enough, it was clobbered by two hurricanes. I would have lost everything. But I didn't. Someone else did. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:01 pm Post subject: |
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Should Galveston rebuild?
The island is barely above sea level. Another storm like this is going to strike sooner or later. This was only a Cat. 2. If it had been a Cat. 4, would there have been anything left?
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Texans warned to stay away from areas hit by Hurricane Ike
By P.J. Huffstutter and David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 16, 2008
GALVESTON, TEXAS -- The road leading onto this barrier island was a jumble of crushed homes, splintered boat docks and mounds of sand. City officials who had ordered residents to leave ahead of Hurricane Ike were telling them Monday to stay away -- maybe for weeks.
But for Vernon Baines, pastor of the tiny Live Oak Baptist Church, the need to come back was too strong. So he, like hundreds of others who had fled this slice of land along the Gulf Coast, sneaked back -- hungry for a glimpse of the familiar and hopeful that their homes had escaped the storm's wrath.
They discovered much of the town had been turned into a garbage dump.
At Baines' church, a foot of dank water covered the sanctuary floors, the roof was peeled back and muck covered the pews in thick, black streaks.
"There's nothing untouched -- nothing at all," said Baines, 53, his eyes tearing. "Inside, outside, everywhere. There's no place that's untouched."
Officials were in the early stages Monday of assessing the effects of the storm, which battered Galveston over the weekend with 110-mph winds and a 15-foot storm surge before roaring north to Houston. There was no electricity on the island. No running water, functioning sewage system or telephone service. Galveston's west side -- neighborhoods and resorts that extend beyond the protection of the city's 17-foot sea wall -- was inaccessible to all but rescue crews.
"It's going to take weeks and months to get this place cleaned up," City Manager Steve LeBlanc said.
With thousands of people failing to heed mandatory evacuation orders ahead of the storm and mosquitoes seemingly everywhere, LeBlanc said, "Quite frankly, we are reaching a health crisis."
Four people were confirmed dead in Galveston, bringing Ike's death toll to at least 40 as flooding caused by remnants of the storm stretched from the Gulf Coast through the Ohio Valley.
LeBlanc estimated that as many as 20,000 of Galveston's 57,000 residents were still in their homes. About 2,000 accepted an offer Sunday to take buses to shelters in San Antonio and Austin. An additional 3,000 asked to be evacuated Monday.
Fallen trees blocked the island's streets, and rows of once-elegant beach homes had been reduced to story-high piles of twisted steel and sodden clothing. Elsewhere on the island, houses that appeared unscathed from a distance were waterlogged inside.
Depending on which way the wind was blowing, the air reeked of saltwater, fuel, sewage -- or a combination of all three. |
more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ike16-2008sep16,0,6854926.story
These Texans have shown they weren't even bright enough to comply with a mandatory evacuation order. Those who stayed behind have put the lives of rescuers and searchers at risk.
I feel sorry for the loss of their homes, belongings, cars and pets.
But should the taxpayer help these people rebuild homes on an island barely above sea level, with a sea level that is rising?
At least New Orleans has economic importance and cultural value to the nation. But Galveston? What are they going to do, build a 20 foot high wall all around the island? Who is going to pay for it?
There comes a time when policy makers need to put on their Spock thinking caps and put emotions aside. The rational response is to buy the private property on Galveston and turn the island into a national park. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:07 am Post subject: |
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| canuckistan wrote: |
I have a friend in Houston who is at this moment parking his many vintage trailers together in a bunch in an effort to minimize damage. Doesn't know what will happen to his house or his business. Just knows that there isn't a lot that can withstand 100 MPH winds for too long.
I'm hoping for the best outcome. |
I have been trying to put my head in the clowds and not read the news too much. I have family in Texas, though not in Houston, and people we know in Houston have moved out of there to be with people from North Texas that they know. I do remember Texas getting hit very hard in 1907 with Galveston getting hit very hard. I remember some years ago I was almost caught up in a storm in Texas when I was in the Padre area, and I was telling my friends that we need to get out of there, but they didn't listen until it really hit us. I looked at the sky, and it didn't look good. God help those folks stuck there in Houston. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:55 am Post subject: Ike |
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Sorry to hear that Adventurer. We get tropical cyclones, back home in Australia, too. I have a friend in Houston, Texas, & she's doing fine. Power's still out, & they wash clothes by hand. A neighbour has a generator for chilled meat. They stocked up on groceries before Ike arrived, & they're all having bbq's, each night.
The cold hearted analysis of rebuilding Galveston, could probably wait, until eveyone's back on their feet, & emotions aren't so red raw. Hurricanes bring out both the best & worst in people. Over 40 people have died, & they're still finding more casualties. Probably not a good time to start pointing fingers & fault finding. Maybe in a month or 2?
Oh & I think you meant 1900, not 1907. |
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