Houston/Galveston about to be devastated

"cnc66 wrote:

Heraldo goes down..

YouTube - Geraldo Spilled By Ike

Storm surge is already at 8 feet in Houston/Galveston.

Haha, the surge is working in Galveston too. :)

Amazing stuff I have always been a fan of the weather if you can call it that and follow it as much as possible.

Its to bad that there will be people that die because of the storm though.

so are those 20k people in real danger of their lives? i hope not

Drunk and stupid don't mix.

"cnc66 wrote:

That is an item of discussion over on the weather board. The media downplayed it locally, politicians made serious errs in judgement, and folks are just hardheaded and stupid. There will be alot of folks that will die tonight regretting the inconvienience of evacuation. Inland, the VERY early surge scared a bunch more people into action, BUT, the same surge cut off coastal communities and barrier islands much earlier that expected. Pluses, and minuses.

40%.. that's 20,000 people and the sea wall is not an inclosure dike or levee, it is simply a surf barrier, while the surge is pounding upon the wall, it will also be coming around from the backside too. We won't see scenes like Nola with people on their roofs for days like Katrina, but the surge and the 15-20ft waves on top of it will chase them all into their attics and maybe onto their roofs in the fury of the storm.. right before their home turns into rubble beneath them. 1000 prisoners trapped there too..

Here's that great power point which illustrates the innundation about to occur.. at the same levels. It shows the water coming around behind the sea wall on Galveston Island. This is a savable file btw.

Houston/Galveston storm surge

The main difference between Florida and the gulf states IMO is that; for Florida, hurricanes and hurricane awareness are state wide issues. The entire state is vulnerable. Everyone is at risk. Whereas, with the gulf states it's really only the coastal areas at risk. - a pretty small area in proportion. This results in that "Oh how bad can it be?" attitude from the rest of the state(s)' constituency. Which probably contributes to the areas at risk being ill prepared and poorly informed. It's a damn shame to be sure.

Its starting to blow over in force a bit now. Wind isnt to horrible though, everything is holding OK, hopefully that part of the 'cane wont be to bad (Cat 2-3 levels). No sign of any water here atm either, but I didnt expect there to be. Feel for some of the coast though, they are getting nailed.

I'm up and watching the progress.. you are in my prayers bro.. be safe.

well.. daylight has arrived on the affected areas to find that we had some luck last night. Because of the location of landfall, Galveston Island never had onshore winds thus the surged feared for them didn't fully realize. It is my opinion that a landfall just twenty miles further south would have taken MANY more lives on Galveston Island, luck of the draw. I am afraid there will still be horror stories a plenty before we are done. My money says none of the survivors will ever NOT evacuate again.

Setting that aside, the area of destruction which is ongoing, is massive. There are winds of 100 mph going on in east Texas and west Louisiana right now. We still have few reports of anything north and east of the "big story". Like Katrina, to the news, only the "bog news city" gets any press, if you don't live there, you are ignored. Wind speeds are to great for any aerial reconnaissance of the affected areas, so it will be later today before we see pictures.

There were several fires that burned unattended on Galveston Island, a marina in the bay, and a famous Nola style resturant in Galveston.

KHOU TV

Many interesting videos, plus this story of survival.

khou wrote:

Father, daughter wade through neck-deep water
September 13th, 2008Tony Nemarich and his daughter had to wade through neck-high waters to escape their flooded home and reach relative security at the Galveston Island Convention Center.

Yeh...I think its imperative and should be a Federal mandate that they come up with a new Hurricane Rating system...

As well...on MSNBC they brought up a good point...how much does the media need blame for people staying behind...this point was brought up by their own reporters...and I thought it was spot on....here the media and the Government keeps saying "evacuate" and then people turn on the news only to see weather people all decked out in gear right in the thick of it...kind of sends a mixed message. I guarantee you, people said..."Well this is only a Cat 2 storm", that thought probably got quite a few people killed last night...as well put a whole lot more at risk with Coast Guard members putting their lives on the line to try and save them.

Harris County EOC is having a presser. Said 911 is back up, they are working through a backlog of more than 6 THOUSAND calls for help.

KHOU situation room

The bad luck for Houston/Galveston has not ended. Even before the surge has fully retreated, Ike pulls down a cold front and now the areas already flooded and having trouble draining are getting copious amount of rain. First, here's Ike's track up to present, notice how just before landfall Ike tightened up and started to intensify

Here is where Ike was yesterday. 9-13 at 0845 est

here are the storm totals relative to the radar loop above

here is current radar showing the cold front pounding the area with more rain.

Here is the current storm total.. as if the resuers didn't have it difficult enough...

Officials are still struggling to reach parts of Galveston Island, Cyrstal City and the Bolivar Peninsula.. death toll is at 4.. but will rise.. it COULD have been thousands.. like Katrina spared Nola, Ike spared Galveston Island..

"Celtkin wrote:

Drunk and stupid don't mix.

here is the "after".. think they stayed? Please credit The New York Times.

This will break your heart. Same areas, before and after;

before;

after;

before;

after;

I found another match.

Crystal Beach before

after;

and a before with the now missing beach marked

i never understood why they never built a sea wall like they have in galveston(granted it didn't help much with one of the largest canes in history)all the way across the gulf coast or a flood gate/wall like they have in morgan city louisiana(i believe thats the town).
granted one could argue it is too expensive but if they are gonna have to pay for the destruction clean-up and rebuilding of 100's of cities across the gulf then it should be something to look into.
i would imagine to help with cost the federal gov should get these insurance companies involved to help pay the cost. if i'm a insurance co. i would rather pay one billion dollars to help put that wall then pay 3 billion every other week when a decent sized cane comes around. one could easilly get the military/the tobacco industry,the oil refinarys,the casinos and other large orginaizations involved in the cost as well to help protect it's people and investments.
this is what fema should consist of..agencies not agency..putting the bulk of cost on one agency is going to see that agency bankrupt and unable to perform the task it was made to do alone.

instead of taking a military type stance in destroying something so they can spend billions of dollars to rebuild it we should spend the biillions to have something not destroyed for a change.

Bah, I JUST now got my internet connection back. Thankfully no real damage to my house. A handful of shingles blown off and a very minor water leak. Our fence is a loss as well, but really nothing that will cost, thank heaven. Many houses in my neighborhood and throughout the entire houston/galveston area have tarps covering their rooves. Pretty much the entire coastline got wiped, those pics CNC posted are quite accurate sadly, the galveston west end, bolivar peninsula and many other coastal areas were hit very hard. Absolutely devastating. At work I have a coworker whose home was innundated up to the roof. Another had a beach home in the crystal beach area ... had. Nobody I know lost their life though, and though there were some nasty rumors, the death toll released so far seems fairly minimal for a storm many are saying will be the third costliest after Katrina and Andrew.
On an aside, this was my first hurricane experience. I was around for Rita, but evacced for that one, which ended up missing anyway. This one was a direct hit on my house, had the eye pass over and everything. Quite the experience I must say, was scared stiff the whole time. Still and all, it went fast and I was actually back at work (I work for a walgreens drugstore) on Sunday for the absolute craziest busiest day I will ever have working lol.

I think in the next couple weeks here I may be sent down to Texas City for work directly related to the hurricane, It's supposed to last from Oct-May, so I guess we'll see.

"Stitches wrote:

I think in the next couple weeks here I may be sent down to Texas City for work directly related to the hurricane, It's supposed to last from Oct-May, so I guess we'll see.

Hehe come down for the Texans game :up:

I didnt get tickets to it this year though, watch it be the one we actually win bah. Ah well. Texas Citys about 10 mins from me, I assume you have something to do with the oil or refining companies? Or some kind of cleanup relief?