This one is for Texas --IKE

[mikim]

WHO did you Texan's tick off?

that could be quite a list ....given the general attitude....that we are durn proud of too ...

 

[dmccarty]

In all of the years I lived in FLA we never had a major storm. I left the day Andrew arrived. I was moving to NC and the week Andrew decided to visit was the week I had decided to pack up the rental truck. Kinda lucky looking back but it was close. Do you stay or do you go? I got in the truck, my mom handed me a bag of plain hamburgers for the trip north and I got out of there. Got a few miles down the road and the rain started.

Moved up here and we have had our share of 'canes. I slept through Fran. We did not take any damage but it was bad in spots around us. I hear wind when I'm asleep and I wake up. Did not sleep through Floyd.

I was down east helping keep the lids on things after Floyd. The destruction was unreal. And over vast areas. I have photos somewhere of the ribs of milk cows in a burnt out trailer. A farmer had 100 head of cows that drowned. A few of them busted up a door into a trailer as the water rose. They got inside the trailer and eventually drowned. FEMA burned the trailer. It was destroyed anyway and how to you get a couple bloated dead stinky cows out of a trailer? It was surreal.

And the Feds did nothing to help out. Just the Babtists, the guard, Red Cross, volunteers, and Menonites.

Our land, which we did not own when Fran visited, still has trees down from that storm.

Anywho, Wunder Blog : Weather Underground has some interesting wind models in Figure 2. Shows wind speeds inland. And there is also a rain map.

There is a new tool they are using to measure the size of storms besides wind speed. Ironically its called the Integrated Kinetic Energy aka IKE. IKE is measuring Ike as 30% larger than Katrina when Katrina hit. And Ike aint hit yet.

All this extra energy has gone into piling up a vast storm surge that will probably be higher than anything in recorded history along the Texas coast. Storm surge heights of 20-25 feet are possible from Galveston northwards to the Louisiana border. The Texas storm surge record is held by Hurricane Carla of 1961. Carla was a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph winds at landfall, and drove a 10 foot or higher storm surge to a 180-mile stretch of Texas coast. A maximum storm surge of 22 feet was recorded at Port Lavaca, Texas.

What is scary about Ike is that its only a Cat 2 and might hit as a Cat 3. Which does not sound bad.... But it looks like the storm surge will be worse the the worse Cat 4.

SCARY,
Dan

 

[txdon]

Mike, are you still there??

The wind is really howling here, about 130 miles from the eye, but no rain yet. It looks like it will start raining soon and I'll probably loose the internet connection.

Any other reports from our TEXAS TBNers.

 

[polo1665]

Best wishes from one Ohio family to the Texans in the path of this storm. We sincerely hope you are all safe and well.

Mark

 

[mikim]

Don - what kind of winds are you getting? any idea at all? .... I was still asleep when you posted -- but got up for an 0600 conf call. We had the eye pass over the office around midnight which is also when we lost utility power. I expect to lose comms anytime. Local telco switches have battery backup that usually works for about 6 hrs - we're at that point now. Here in the office we're fat & happy. Building is holding up really well, breakfast was good, (county hired a caterer to feed us 3 meals a day plus midnight leftovers) I'm eating better here than I would at home. Winds should die down in an hour or so as it moves north. News had a reporter in Angleton this a.m. -- street lights were still on-- so there's hope for the house. I won't hear from Bernice til later today - no cell reception at the barn. Daughter is at the trailer with her in-laws - I'll call her in just a bit. Downtown took a beating -- you'll get all that news on TV. ...Talk to ya later...gotta go

 

[Bird]

At Denton we only have a 10 mph breeze and overcast skies, no moisture yet, but with a 90-100% chance of rain forecast between 1 p.m. today and 1 a.m. in the morning.

 

[mikim]

Bird - you may not get much of anything -- Steph & Eddie & Frank will see more. Ike is slated to hook east thru Texarkana and outta heah.

 

[billbill1]

I just came in from checking the rain gauge, it's full, I guess 6-1/2" since Thursday and it's supposed to rain until noon Sunday. I have one of the TSC "big gauges" and it maxes out at 5-1/2" and it's about 1/2" from the top of the funnel.

 

[jinman]

At Denton we only have a 10 mph breeze and overcast skies, no moisture yet, but with a 90-100% chance of rain forecast between 1 p.m. today and 1 a.m. in the morning.

Same here, but probably even less breeze. We had 3" of rain earlier in the week and I'll be surprised if we get even .3" more before Ike takes a hike. We are just too far west. On the other hand, Eddie may get to test his lake's spillway as Ike passes him.

 

[txdon]

Mike, we are having wind gust about 25-30mph on the hill, no rain, cloudy and dusty. Looks like it missed us.

 

[mikim]

yep - it's headed N-NE now so you won't get anything from Ike. Just heard that Angleton has no power or water and they're not letting anybody back into town yet. Guess I'll be here at the office another night.

 

[EddieWalker]

Bird - you may not get much of anything -- Steph & Eddie & Frank will see more. Ike is slated to hook east thru Texarkana and outta heah.

It's 10am, and we're it's just started to rain now. The winds are light and steady with strong bursts that really make the trees dance.

The forecast and track is for Ike to pass right over us at sometime around 7pm tonight. They are predicting 6 to ten inches of rain today!!!!!! Flooding is what we're mostly concerned about and the loss of road.

Oncor has 500 crews out here for power outages with Tyler as their main hub for those crews. We figure we'll lose power, that's almost a given, but for how long and if we'll be able to drive anywhere due to flooding will be the real mystery.

Last night, we went to eat at Chilis in Lindale and Steph took these pictures of the clouds.

Eddie

 

[mikim]

don't know when the Boss will let me go -- but as soon as he does I'll be able to go to S'ville, pick up the wife, generator, window ac, and 500 gallon water tank. Haul it all back on the trailer and should be able to survive in the house. last word is Angleton has no water or elect. Almost hate to leave the office ... got all the comforts here .... guess I don't need to rush it .... wife & family are fine where they are too.....gonna be interesting.

 

[txdon]

Mike it's starting to rain. The pictures from Galveston look devastating, especially the collapsed driveway bridge to the Flagship hotel and destruction of the memorial statue of Galveston's 1900 hurricane on the seawall.

 

[mikim]

yeah -- the island took the biggest hit -- there and bolivar ---- I'm hoping Angleton not making news is a good thing.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Frank, keep your head down.

Eddie and Steph, make sure your stuff is tied down. Its coming your way.

Vernon, you all are just outside the edge of the H1 wind zone (74 mph).

 

[texbaylea]

Frank, keep your head down.

Eddie and Steph, make sure your stuff is tied down. Its coming your way.

Vernon, you all are just outside the edge of the H1 wind zone (74 mph).

I have been off line for about 12 hours. I could get an occasional e-mail but could not get on the web. I think that moisture got into the transceiver on the tower. I went off line about the time our wind gusts were reaching 40 mph. We have a neighbor to the east of us with a weather station that is on-line and I just checked. That plus about 2.5 " of rain so we got off light.

We did not really hear the wind. I have this place well insulated now so it is very quiet. We have been watching KHOU in Houston. That area has some large problems.

TxDon - from what I have seen and what I know of the area NASA may not be open for tours when Vin and Mary are here. Space Station and Shuttle operations should not be affected but they may not put a high priority on the visitors center. A report I heard said that the whole area grid is down. That will take some time to restore.

Vernon

 

[txdon]

Thanks Vernon for the update on NASA. I PMed Vin two days ago when they closed. They will be lucky to have the tour open in a week and a half. I'll call NASA late next week.

Mike do you know if NASA went under water? Austin news has a lot of evacuee news. I really miss the Houston news group.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I was down all day yesterday with an ear infection. Yesterday evening after it was over I went out and emptied three inches of rain out of the rain gauge. We just got wet. No wind damage I could see.