Hurricane IKE Discussion Thread

[Patrick Degan]

That's going to be Bad. The next question is, how many more hurricanes can we expect this season? Because if we get a few more like this and if they hit the Gulf Coast... It's not going to be good at all.

While it's still hurricane season (lasts until November), usually the deeper into September you get the more conditions become less favourable for storm formation —though there have been storms as late as October in the past. But we're now on the shank-end of the season. If you don't see another one in two weeks, chances are you won't see one for the remainder of the year.

[Surlethe]

My uncle weathered it out in Houston; he had cell access through most of it, and he's fine. He said it was the loudest wind he had ever heard.

Also, gas yesterday was up to $4.17.]

Edit: NPR is reporting that Ike idled around 95% of oil refineries and oil production in the Gulf.

[The Spartan]

Yes Broomstick that's Galveston, specifically, the bridge from the mainland to the island, if I remember correctly.

Just checking in. I ended up bugging out at the last minute and weathering the storm in Fort Worth with my girlfriend, which is where I am right now.

Got out just in time, too; didn't get any rain on me until after I was up here. My parents are ok, just a turbine pulled off their roof. My mom had to spend a couple days at the hospital (as a nurse not a patient) but her wing of the hospital had it's generator fail and part of the roof collapse. No one was hurt, but they had to move their equipment over to the main part of the medical center.

My house seems to be without power at the moment; I called my home line and my answering machine didn't pick up so, not sure what to do to tell you the truth. Not even sure if I have work tomorrow and even if I do, if I want to go in or just burn some PTO or if I would be able to go even if I tried. And the status line hasn't been updated since Thursday.

When I get a chance and some more news, I'll drop in for another update.

[Mayabird]

Oh lovely. All the idiots who didn't evacuate are going to feel vindicated and all the people who did evacuate are going to feel like suckers. The next hurricane that goes through, everybody's going to ignore the warnings and nobody's going to leave.

[Broomstick]

Yes Broomstick that's Galveston, specifically, the bridge from the mainland to the island, if I remember correctly.

Just checking in. I ended up bugging out at the last minute and weathering the storm in Fort Worth with my girlfriend, which is where I am right now.

Glad to hear you're OK - hope you didn't suffer much property damage. Stay safe.

We're just starting to get the remains of Ike moving into my neighborhood now. For now, the storm sewers on my street are keeping up with the rain but there is a LOT of flooding in this area. Not as bad as Texas, but still bad. The wind is picking up some, too.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Shortages about to manifest.

[Death from the Sea]

Oh lovely. All the idiots who didn't evacuate are going to feel vindicated and all the people who did evacuate are going to feel like suckers. The next hurricane that goes through, everybody's going to ignore the warnings and nobody's going to leave.

not really, while it was not near the disaster Katrina was, there are still large areas with no electricity and some without water. Many people have lost there homes, or had some kind of major damage to them. There have even been a few reported deaths.

FEMA has been bringing in food, water and ice to a local distribution center and there have been long (several miles and several hours) waits for those supplies. In addition to the long lines for gas, which has caused many a fight, there are long lines for the few open fast food joints too.

Our police station, here in Pasadena, lost power and is on its 4th generator, as they keep crapping out. Even our emergency command posts we had set up lost power and water, so it has been rough all around. Although from Saturday evening until tonight we had a National Guard unit to augment us and they rode with us on patrol or were stationed at the FEMA distribution centers, but today they moved further east to where they really got hammered in Orange, TX.

I was extremely fortunate that by 6pm on Saturday my power and electricity were both on and my cable/internet was up the next day after that. But my apartment complex has become a have for entire families, my apartment is no exception, my fiance's family (all 13 of them), has been staying with us in my 900 sq ft apartment.

Well, I am gonna get off this computer and go get some much needed rest so I can get back at it again tomorrow. I will try to give some more updates later.

[Broomstick]

Imagine this: your home has been destroyed. You're surrounded by rubble and have no means to go anywhere, if you could even find a passable road. You haven't had a shower for days. Your food and water are scavenged or, if you're lucky, handed to you out of the back of a national guard truck after hours of waiting and standing in line.

Then you see a tiger walking down the street

Me, I'd probably suspect hallucinations at first.

Galveston County Judge James Yarbrough says a tiger has been on the loose since Hurricane Ike tore through the coastal community of Crystal Beach, Texas.

"It's an issue we are dealing with," he tells reporters. "When you think you've seen everything you find something else."

Yarbrough wouldn't describe the tiger as tame, but he says the animal is well-known to the local community.

Update at 2:06 p.m. ET: The Associated Press says the animal escaped from a sanctuary for exotic pets.

"I understand he's hungry ... so we're staying away from him," Yarbrough says.

On a more serious note, apparently the Bolivar peninsula in Texas - just north of Galveston - was devastated, in many cases all that's left of buildings are concrete foundation slabs. They aren't finding bodies... people who stayed and survived can't find any sign of others they know stayed behind. It's beginning to look like some people were simply swept out to sea.

[Fire Fly]

Here's to hoping that the devastated area recovers quickly. That aside, Hurricane Ike should be renamed Hurricane Irony. So I take that Congressman Ron Paul won't be denying federal aid to his constituents? Anyone remember this little quote?

"Is bailing out people that chose to live on the coastline a proper function of the federal government?" he asks. "Why do people in Arizona have to be robbed in order to support the people on the coast?"

[Death from the Sea]

I forgot to say that the day after the storm, it sounded like there was going to be a zombie outbreak. We had someone call in and say that an unknown person came up and tackled the caller and then bite them on the leg taking a chunk out of their leg before being fought off.

I didn't get to talk to the officer that responded to that call, but there was a small group of us working a call together that all looked at each other and said "what the fuck? ZOMBIES!"

[J]

I hope the tiger isn't feeling stressed or people are going to get eaten...

[The Spartan]

Just checking in. I ended up bugging out at the last minute and weathering the storm in Fort Worth with my girlfriend, which is where I am right now.

Glad to hear you're OK - hope you didn't suffer much property damage. Stay safe.

None whatsoever. I even have power. My side of town wasn't hit that hard.

I got in late last night after finding out at 530pm that my office would be open today but if you couldn't make it in you're "encouraged" to take PTO. Which isn't much of a hardship for me besides the inconvience of having to drive back in, not get much sleep, etc. but for the people who were in mandatory evacuation zones and have damage to their homes? Worse, the other building was open yesterday from 1 to 8 and they posted the message informing us of this on our company status line at noon.

[Broomstick]

I'm told this used to be Gilchrist, Texas:


Apparently, the remains of the town have not been located yet. They can't find the debris from the town. And they haven't found any bodies, either - they're hoping to, but they may not.

At least in some places, that "certain death" warning does not seem to have been hyperbole....


Before and after:



Sort of reminds me of some of the Boxing Day Tsunami pictures.

[Mayabird]

Somehow, that one single surviving house that looks mostly intact makes the picture more disturbing. I wonder how that one managed to survive while everything else was wiped off the map.

Although, from those "before" overhead shots, some of the houses look like trailers.

[SAMAS]

They probably were.

Spent Friday at my parents' helping them board the house up for the storm. power went out at 8:30 in the fucking evening, before the main body of the storm even hit!

Spent the night in my nephew's room (which was once mine), had one nightmare, maybe two, about the wall getting torn off.

After Hurricane Rita, my dad had the presence of mind to buy a pair of gas-powered generators. Ended up giving one of them to the neighbors across the street. Getting them started was a bitch, so we've ended up running it all day and night, unless absolutely necessary. Naturally, we keep it outside According to the news, some people didn't and got their asses asphyxiated. Carbon monoxide is a bitch.

With the one generator, we got the TV (and auxiliary appliances), refrigerator, and a lamp or two, plus some fans for the daytime. Thank goodness for that cold front that moved in this week.

No damage to my parents' house, once again, we got lucky. My house had only one area, which had a lower area, get flooded up to maybe an inch or two. Could have been much worse. During Tropical Storm Allison, the entire first floor was inundated up to about half a foot below the ceiling. Thankfully, the sides of the walls of that room were lined with wood along the bottoms, so no sheetrock damage.

Power just came back on in my house this afternoon. My parents' house is probably stuck out until this upcoming monday or tuesday. I only stopped here to check in on what I missed this week, then it's back to generator maintenance. We've been lucky pretty much all week on finding gas for that thing.

Ike hit us hard, but we're still here. In honor of that, Here's Tina (oh come on, someone had to make the joke!).

[aerius]

Somehow, that one single surviving house that looks mostly intact makes the picture more disturbing. I wonder how that one managed to survive while everything else was wiped off the map.

The house is on pilings, if they're high enough and driven deep enough into the ground, the house rides above the worst of the storm surge and doesn't get pounded to shreds or swept away.

[Death from the Sea]

Thank goodness for that cold front that moved in this week.

that cold front really was very fortunate, because in addition to cooling off the air, it also helped make it seem less humid.

Now the mosquitoes are becoming a huge problem down here.

[Broomstick]

Somehow, that one single surviving house that looks mostly intact makes the picture more disturbing. I wonder how that one managed to survive while everything else was wiped off the map.

The house is on pilings, if they're high enough and driven deep enough into the ground, the house rides above the worst of the storm surge and doesn't get pounded to shreds or swept away.

More on the Lone Survior of Gilchrist. Here's a before picture:


And here's another after picture, from a different angle than the one first shown:


Clearly, there was some major damage done. Despite still being in existence, it may not be salvagable. Also, Texas may not allow people to rebuild in some areas, and Gilchrist is one of the areas in question.

[Damaramu]

Did anyone see THIS, by any chance?

[The Spartan]

I've been hearing rumors of someone who stayed behind despite the "certain death" warnings who called 9-1-1 asking for help because they were on the second floor of their house and up to their waste in water. According to the story they were told to use a permanent marker to write their name on their arm and that there was nothing the authorities to do.

Now, I doubt the veracity of this particular story as it has a feeling of urban legend to it and I can't find anything with Google, but I bring it up nonetheless because it's a reminder that when they say "Mandatory Evacuation" what they really mean is, "Get your ass out or you're on your own."

As if we needed any reminder after seeing what happened to the coastline in the pictures that Broomstick posted.

[Broomstick]

I've been hearing rumors of someone who stayed behind despite the "certain death" warnings who called 9-1-1 asking for help because they were on the second floor of their house and up to their waste in water. According to the story they were told to use a permanent marker to write their name on their arm and that there was nothing the authorities to do.

There was at least one woman who stayed late and was one of the last removed by the coast guard before the storm landed. She had written her social security number on her arm - I saw it on CNN.

One authority or another might well have told people to write something on themselves to allow for post-death identification. It's not that unusual a tactic for those engaged in high risk situations. Of course, that only works if they can FIND your body. Clearly, in some areas, that could be a problem.

And they did say that after 9 pm on the night the storm landed that you WERE on your own and they WOULD NOT come get you. Apparently there were 911 calls all that night, but after 9 pm no one went out to rescue anyone, it being too dangerous to travel.

So, the story is plausible, but it also might be concocted from bits and pieces of actual events.

[Lord Poe]

A Live Video friend of mine, Jim Wayne, went for one last boat ride on the bayou before Ike hit. After he posted the video, he said he and his family were evacuating, and he expected to lose everything in his garage. His house is on stilts. Video l

We haven't heard from him since September 11th. Of course, knowing Jim, the last thing he'd do is get online if there's major cleanup to do, or if his house was completely devastated.

Another LV friend, who lives in a different part of Texas from Jim, lost power for a few days, but was able to send text messages sparingly. She made a light hearted video about it once she had power and internet back: Video ll

[Mayabird]

I've been hearing rumors of someone who stayed behind despite the "certain death" warnings who called 9-1-1 asking for help because they were on the second floor of their house and up to their waste in water. According to the story they were told to use a permanent marker to write their name on their arm and that there was nothing the authorities to do.

There was at least one woman who stayed late and was one of the last removed by the coast guard before the storm landed. She had written her social security number on her arm - I saw it on CNN.

One authority or another might well have told people to write something on themselves to allow for post-death identification. It's not that unusual a tactic for those engaged in high risk situations. Of course, that only works if they can FIND your body. Clearly, in some areas, that could be a problem.

And they did say that after 9 pm on the night the storm landed that you WERE on your own and they WOULD NOT come get you. Apparently there were 911 calls all that night, but after 9 pm no one went out to rescue anyone, it being too dangerous to travel.

So, the story is plausible, but it also might be concocted from bits and pieces of actual events.

I read that story in a newspaper article about people who refused to evacuate before the storm. Emergency crews were pulling out people who wised up at the very last moment. In one case, there were still a few people in the group who refused to leave with the others. The crews told them to write their names and social security numbers on their arms and left the idiots to die.

EDIT: Hit submit instead of preview. Anyway, it's possible that a lot of people in many different circumstance were told to write their names and numbers on their arm for ID purposes.

[Mr Bean]

Well I'm back, Storm damage is fun, no power for four days despite being in Ohio at the time, just got internet back an hour ago. I keep hearing how Galvastion was destroyed but I've not had media to confirm that.

NPR leaves something to be desired when it comes to devastation reporting.