Hurricane Ike

[cumberlandredskin]

Hurricane Ike is headed toward Galveston, Tx. Look at the warning the National Weather Service is issuing. They aren't messing around. :shock: I don't know if anyone in WCN is from down there but if you are it's time to flee.
This looks to be as big as Katrina. Also Galveston had what is considered the worst hurricane destruction is US history back in 1900.




LIFE THREATENING INUNDATION LIKELY!
ALL NEIGHBORHOODS... AND POSSIBLY ENTIRE COASTAL COMMUNITIES... WILL BE INUNDATED DURING HIGH TIDE. PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH. MANY RESIDENCES OF AVERAGE CONSTRUCTION DIRECTLY ON THE COAST WILL BE DESTROYED. WIDESPREAD AND DEVASTATING PERSONAL PROPERTY DAMAGE IS LIKELY ELSEWHERE. VEHICLES LEFT BEHIND WILL LIKELY BE SWEPT AWAY. NUMEROUS ROADS WILL BE SWAMPED... SOME MAY BE WASHED AWAY BY THE WATER. ENTIRE FLOOD PRONE COASTAL COMMUNITIES WILL BE CUTOFF. WATER LEVELS MAY EXCEED 9 FEET FOR MORE THAN A MILE INLAND. COASTAL RESIDENTS IN MULTI-STORY FACILITIES RISK BEING CUTOFF. CONDITIONS WILL BE WORSENED BY BATTERING WAVES. SUCH WAVES WILL EXACERBATE PROPERTY DAMAGE... WITH MASSIVE DESTRUCTION OF HOMES... INCLUDING THOSE OF BLOCK CONSTRUCTION. DAMAGE FROM BEACH EROSION COULD TAKE YEARS TO REPAIR.

[Ukosumu]

Prayers going up for those in the path of this storm.

[PsychoCat]

Judy (Capcat) is just two hours inland in Austin which is expecting 90 mile an hour gusts

This storm looks scary and I pray the coastal residents will take seriously ....the guy on the weather channel last night said this could be the BIG one ...that no of us have seen the likes of :icon_frown: Lets hope they're wrong

[TrueblueCATfan]

God speed to everyone down in Texas.....stay safe and DRY

[misterbluecat]

Ike is gonna do Texas like he did Tina. :icon_mrgreen: Ok, no more bad jokes, I swear.:icon_biggrin:

[capcat]

Looks like we're going to be okay, but I hate to see this happen to Galveston. So much history there from its time as an important port city.

...my sister lives in College Station, which is predicted for a category 1 storm.

[Jeff Craddock]

Looks like we're going to be okay, but I hate to see this happen to Galveston. So much history there from its time as an important port city.

...my sister lives in College Station, which is predicted for a category 1 storm.

Glad you're not getting the worst of it, but take care nonetheless.

We had the remnants of Hanna blow through last weeked--we ended up with lots of rain and 45 mph gusts. I'm switching between CNN and the Weather Channel and this thing is huge, not unlike Hugo that hit the SC coast in 1989. I went through and can tell you that words cannot describe the experience of a major hurricane.

[capcat]

Thanks...we will. Looks like it will be to the east of us, but we have experienced tornadoes from lesser storms.
The size of this storm is amazing.

[CATHYnKY]

Thanks...we will. Looks like it will be to the east of us, but we have experienced tornadoes from lesser storms.
The size of this storm is amazing.

Thinking about you and others in the area this morning. Keep in touch.

[Copland]

I'm not trying to be offensive with this at all, so please don't take it that way.

But, does it seem that ever since Katrina, every hurricane has supposedly been awful? I mean, I remember hurricane warnings before Katrina, and it seemed like they were more honest with things, and didn't attempt to fill the population with fear.

I mean, they evacuated New Orleans at the expense of the tax payers, only to have the hurricane miss The Big Easy. I don't ever remember the entire city being evacuated before Katrina. Now, granted that it was an awful incident, but that was a rare storm that did rare damage.

I've been through a hurricane before, and it was pretty scary. But, it seems like we're assuming certain doom at the mention of a hurricane.

[capcat]

Thinking about you and others in the area this morning. Keep in touch.

Cathy, wondering if you've heard anything about your coworker's daughter. Hope she came through this fine and is feeling better, now that the storm has mostly passed.

As for the comment about instilling fear...it is a fearful thing, because one doesn't know what to expect. Just have to prepare...maybe not for the worst, but be prepared nonetheless and hope for the best. Other than potential loss of life, the problem with not being prepared and heeding warnings is that you put emergency workers at risk and waste valuable resources in rescue operations. Like the Coast Guard rescuing people on Port Bolivar...taxpayer funds go into each rescue, and they did 104 of them. In Katrina...I can't recall exactly, but it was around 32,000 rescues for the Coast Guard alone, not to mention going door to door for weeks and marking the fatalities. As for that agency, it has limited resources and it took mechanical ingenuity to keep their helicopters operating under such a demand with the limited flight hours they have left in them.

I do believe the NOAA (?) warnings were a little strong and thought so at the time. However, it takes strong language to get some folks to think ahead and take responsibility for their own safety when they can. It is amazing the risks people will take and then wait for someone to come and get them.

In any case, the Galveston seawall did its job, which is impressive considering it was built so long ago.

As for us, Cathy, we're having wind but no rain as yet. We appear to be out of its reach overall. Haven't reached my sister nearer to Houston, except to know that her winds were hurricane force and that they were on the western side of the eye, which is weaker.

Hoping that, as the system moves up through the Ohio Valley, it doesn't cause difficulty for you all.

[UFGrant]

I went through and can tell you that words cannot describe the experience of a major hurricane.

For sure. Although I haven't been through a "major" hurricane, I have been through my fair share.

I was living in Gainesville in 2004 when all those hurricanes came through. Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne (who was no joke and left me powerless for 2 weeks).

It's remarkable how these hurricanes can carry so much power and force. Tropical Storm Faye never reached hurricane strength but packed it's own punch when it struck Florida about a month ago.

[BrassowFan]

Capcat, glad to hear that it seems like you fared as well as possible! It's amazing to watch these storms, I cannot even imagine being right in the middle of it.