Texans Don't Like Ike (Hurricane Ike)

Well, first Gustav (hello, Louisiana) and now Ike.

I'm in the area of Galveston, so our eyes are wide open right now. They're already calling for mandatory evacuation of parts of Galveston.

How are you other Gulf Coast Texans doing? Anyone else along the coast setting up for a hit?

Things are changing rapidly here as the hurricane seems to be edging more to the north. Ugh...nighttime landfall is expected. Scary stuff once again.

Al

I hope nothin major happens. I wish the best for you and your family!

Don't mess with Texas

I'm close by in Houston, I hope it doesn't create too much damage here either, hope the storm doesn't do a last minute change and hit us head on, right now according to stormpulse.com, it looks like the eye is going to make landfall about 74 miles south of Galveston

AlexGT

I've been tracking it using these sites, let me know if you find other good ones.

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/hurricanecentral/update/index.html

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

http://www.stormpulse.com/

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

There's also a tropical storm that may hit Texas from the west at the same time as Ike. You Texans are between a rock and a hard place. Feel free to evacuate any time. Use your best judgement when deciding to leave, prepare for the worst, and pray for the best. I'll be praying for those of you in harm's way. Good luck and stay safe.

Yeah, good links, Alex.

I've been using StormPulse and like it quite a bit for this sort of thing (a nice graphical interface and tells a lot).

Last I'm seeing at 10 p.m. is that the Houston-Galveston area has the highest probability of the hit (not by much, but still...). It's going to be close one way or the other. If it hits just a tad south of us, that could even be just as bad because of storm surge and rainfall. That surge into Galveston bay could be serious. I'm about a 5-minute drive from the bay, but at least not right on the water.

And Matt, you folks up in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area will likely get a lot of this, too. Won't be like the coastal hit, but you'll get a lot of storm weather probably, since it looks like it's going to curve right up your way.

Tomorrow, I'll be boarding up the house.

varuscelli said:

And Matt, you folks up in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area will likely get a lot of this, too. Won't be like the coastal hit, but you'll get a lot of storm weather probably, since it looks like it's going to curve right up your way.

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Yeah, we could really use the rain too but I think I could live without the flooding and winds..

varuscelli said:

Tomorrow, I'll be boarding up the house.

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Are you going somewhere out of the way or are you gonna stay where you are?

Stormpulse now predicts landfall basically in Galveston/Houston area! Crap!

AlexGT

matt0 said:

Are you going somewhere out of the way or are you gonna stay where you are?

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We're not sure yet. I want to protect my home and business (business is run out of the home), so I need to board up and pack up. Whether we have time to go after that...or whether we're forced into a mandatory evacuation...I don't know yet.

AlexGT said:

Stormpulse now predicts landfall basically in Galveston/Houston area! Crap!

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Yeah...crap.

Outer bands are massive. 200+ miles in RADIUS.

Well, Galveston island has called for a mandatory evacuation of the entire island. We're in the first area (Zone A) to have to do mandatory evacuations after Galveston.

What we're most worried about here is storm surge (that is, for those of us within that first few miles of the water). My own home is about a mile from Clear Lake. Normally, Clear Creek runs into Clear Lake which runs into Galveston Bay. With this, Galveston Bay will be running into Clear Lake and into anything else around Clear Creek, which make a direct flood threat to us. So...even if the storm comes in just south of us, we're on the surge side, and I think that the lands immediately around Galveston Bay are going to be tested by surge.

At this point, it seems like Ike might come in just south of us, or it could come in right on top of us. Either thing is bad for anyone near Houston-Galveston.

Good morning,

Ike is something else. As far as New Orleans is from Ike's track they've forcast Tropical Storm force winds for us tonight and we've already had 51 mph gusts in Belle Chase on the west bank.

Stay frosty...

I am in Huntsville TX attending Sam Houtson. Looks like were going to get a large amount of wind and rain here. I am going to stick it out here and ride out what nature brings us(closed school is always a plus!). Got a nice Nikon D200 set up for time lapse photo, looking at the south. So that should be interesting.

I am not expecting a lot of damage in my area though, as you may be able to tell.

-C

turbodog said:

Outer bands are massive. 200+ miles in RADIUS.

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Yes, this storm is unusual in that it still has a nominally low intensity (category 2), but the central pressure is very low, and the wind field is huge.

Take a look at Brendan Loy's weather blog for an explanation of why the storm surge with Ike is expected to be bad:

http://pajamasmedia.com/weathernerd/

There is also the National Hurricane Center site, which includes the technical details of the forecast as it evolves. Click on the hurricane on the map first, then click on "Discussion".

Good luck and stay safe to all who may be in Ike's path. I have been through Katrina and Gustav so I know what you are going through.

We are boarding up hear in east Texas.:shrug:

I feel for you guys good luck!!!!!

All these hurricanes and tornadoes make me feel lucky I'm in earthquake country.
CRAP!!! now that I think about it we are way overdue for another big quake.

OK, this might be my last post for a while. Spent the whole day boarding up the house and putting everything I could up off the floor, expecting likely higher flood waters via storm surge than we've seen in this area in my lifetime.

I was going to stay and send my wife and daughter off to the southwest part of the state (toward San Antonio) with my parents. But, since the track of the storm seems to be putting it right on top of us, everyone has pushed me into accompanying the rest of the family (including my parents) away from the Galveston Bay area. So, no more holding down the fort for me. Even though the storm might not hit with the intensity predicted, we're still too close to the water for comfort.

Getting ready to take down this PC in the next hour or so...thus, no more from me likely for a few days.

Wish us luck!

I already finished boarding up, good thing our company gave us the payday in advance, HD had a good supply of lumber but lights and batteries were out of stock, and as I confirmed DL123A had full stock, good choice for a backup light since almost no one touches them, but of course I have plenty already.

Water was out of stock too! I bought a Brita water filter to fill some containers and have enough.

I am going to set my AC really cold tomorrow just in case the power goes out I would at least have a good night sleep.

There was a shortage in gas in some stations, I had to do a 20 min line in one gas station to finally fill up the tank.

I'll keep you guys posted, I hope I can take a pic of the eye of the storm if it goes over us.

AlexGT

I've been out working in the gulf for the last few weeks, we ran last nite from ike to Mobile AL, then flew back home tonite. Should be a wild ride, we're ready. 3 weeks food, plenty of fuel for the gennie, 30 or so flashlights out and prepped for us and the neighbors, and of course at least 40k rds of 223 on hand If anyone truly needs help, anything, don't be afraid to ask. We've got more than enough preppd for an event such as this. West side Houston here. God bless, and good luck.

g