Evacuations begin in Texas ahead of Hurricane Ike

[Richard]

By MONICA RHOR, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago

HOUSTON - The frail and elderly were put aboard buses Wednesday and authorities warned 1 million others to flee inland as Hurricane Ike steamed toward a swath of the Texas coast that includes the nation's largest concentration of refineries and chemical plants.

Drawing energy from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the strengthening storm was expected to blow ashore early Saturday somewhere between Corpus Christi and Houston, with some forecasts saying it could become a fearsome Category 4, with winds of at least 131 mph.

Such a storm could cause a storm surge of 18 feet in Matagorda Bay and four to eight feet in Galveston Bay, emergency officials warned. The surge in Galveston Bay could push floodwaters into Houston, damaging areas that include the nation's biggest refinery and NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Four counties south and east of Houston announced mandatory or voluntary evacuations, and authorities began moving weak and chronically ill patients by bus to San Antonio, about 190 miles from Houston. No immediate evacuations were ordered in Harris County, which includes Houston.

Just across the state line where Louisianans were still cleaning up from Hurricane Gustav, Cameron Parish residents were told to evacuate, as were those in a few other low-lying coastal communities.

In Texas, Johnny Greer, a 54-year-old retired plant operator at Dow Chemical Corp., boarded up his house a mile from the Gulf of Mexico in Brazoria County and planned to hit the road.

"Gas and stuff is high. But you can't look at all that," he said. "I think my life is more valuable than high gas prices."

About 1 million people live in the coastal counties between Corpus Christi and Galveston. An additional 4 million live in the Houston area, to the north.

The oil and gas industry watched the storm closely, fearing damage to the very heart of its operations.

Texas is home to 26 refineries that account for one-fourth of U.S. refining capacity, and most are clustered along the Gulf Coast in such places as Houston, Port Arthur and Corpus Christi. Exxon Mobil Corp.'s plant in Baytown, outside Houston, is the nation's largest refinery. Dow Chemical has a huge operation just north of Corpus Christi.

Refineries are built to withstand high winds, but flooding can disrupt operations and — as happened in Louisiana after Gustav — power outages can shut down equipment for days or weeks. An extended shutdown could lead to higher gasoline prices.

Meanwhile, the storm's approach also forced University of Texas officials to postpone the school's home football game against Arkansas until Sept. 27.

As always, some hardened old-timers decided to ride it out. Fourth-generation fisherman James Driggers, 47, planned to spend the storm aboard his 80-foot boat docked in Freeport.

"We like to stay close to our paycheck," he said.

At 11 p.m. EDT, Ike was a Category 2 storm with winds near 100 mph. It was about 676 miles east of Brownsville, Texas, and was moving northwest at 7 mph, after ravaging homes in Cuba and killing at least 81 people in the Caribbean.

No matter where Ike hits, its effects are likely to be felt for hundreds of miles, said Mark Sloan, emergency management coordinator for Harris County, which includes Houston.

"It's a very large storm," Sloan said. "The bands will be over 200 miles out from the center of storm, so we have to be aware of its size as it grows over the next 24 to 48 hours and what impacts it will have on Friday, Saturday and Sunday."

Isaias Campos, 27, boarded up the church he attends in Freeport. He said he was grateful the church planned to evacuate much of the congregation to Houston by bus.

"If it wasn't for the church, it would be difficult for many of our members to leave," Campos said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080911/ap_o.../ike_texas

[Sily]

Yikes, Ike!  :shock:

[VIOLETCAVE]

I've gone through tropical depressions in Houston that have flooded major portions of the city, add all the wind and further erosion that has happened in the last few years and you have a situation for disaster, my thoughts are with the people in Houston and Galveston.

[Sily]

Galveston, oh Galveston, I still hear your sea winds blowin'
I still see her dark eyes glowin'
She was 21 when I left Galveston

Galveston, oh Galveston, I still hear your sea waves crashing
While I watch the cannons flashing
I clean my gun and dream of Galveston

I still see her standing by the water
Standing there lookin' out to sea
And is she waiting there for me?
On the beach where we used to run

Galveston, oh Galveston, I am so afraid of dying
Before I dry the tears she's crying
Before I watch your sea birds flying in the sun
At Galveston, at Galveston

:(

---

From here:

Tall waves crashing on Galveston's seawall Before 5 a.m. today, the first of Ike's heavy waves were crashing against Galveston's protective 17-foot seawall.
With sunrise approaching, winds picked up and waves grew larger as some parts of the island began to flood and people wondered just how much storm surge Galveston will take on.
On the eastern end, near the San Luis Hotel, water splashed straight up as the waves slammed into the seawall, wetting mainly the sidewalk overlooking the beach.
From 69th Street westward, the waves were hitting harder and splashing water across three and four lanes of Seawall Boulevard in some places. The spray from the waves was breaking at twice the height of the traffic signals.
Just beyond the end of the seawall, west of 103rd Street, the eastbound lanes of FM 3005 already were flooded along the equivalent of several blocks. The location is one of the lowest near the central part of the city and usually is the first stretch of major road to go under water.
There seems little question that the 20-mile portion of Galveston Island west of the seawall will be under several feet of water by late this evening.
- KEVIN MORAN

[Polly]

Many thousands of people -- over a hundred thousand -- are riding it out on the coast of Texas. Good luck to all of them, come what may!

[Richard]

Colossal Hurricane Ike bears down on Texas coast

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer
12 minutes ago

GALVESTON, Texas - Hurricane Ike bore down on the Texas coast late Friday with driving rain, crashing waves and fierce gusts, threatening to rattle the skyscrapers of America's fourth-largest city, shut down the heart of the U.S. oil industry and obliterate towns already flooded with waist-high water.

Though nearly 1 million people evacuated coastal communities in the days leading up to the storm, tens of thousands ignored calls to leave and decided to tough it out. But as wind-whipped floodwaters began crashing into coastal homes, many changed their minds. Galveston fire crews rescued more than 300 people who were walking through flooded streets, clutching clothes and other belongings as they tried to wade to safety.

"We were going street by street seeing people who were trying to escape the flood waters," Fire Chief Michael Varela said. "I'm assuming these were people who made the mistake of staying."

At 600 miles across, the storm was nearly as big as Texas itself, and threatened to give the state its worst pounding in a generation. It was on track to crash ashore early Saturday as possibly a 3 storm with winds topping 111 mph and a two-story storm surge near Galveston, the same site that suffered the nation's worst natural disaster when a storm struck without warning and killed 6,000 more than a century ago.

Officials were growing increasingly worried about the stalwarts, and many communities imposed curfews to discourage looters. Authorities in three counties alone said roughly 90,000 stayed behind, despite a warning from forecasters that many of those in one- or two-story homes on the coast faced "certain death."

"We don't know how bad it will be, but as soon as we do, we will be asking for help," Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said.

At dark Friday, the Coast Guard suspended a search for a 19-year-old man who was lost in 6- to 8-foot waves off North Padre Island, about 10 miles east of Corpus Christi. Michael Moxly was with three other people on the southside of the Packery Channel Jetty when he was swept away.

In communities all along the coast, rescue crews were forced in the face of heavy wind and rain to retreat and leave the stubborn to fend for themselves. Three buildings were destroyed by fire in Galveston because water was too high for fire trucks to navigate.

"I believe in the man up there, God," said William Steally, a 75-year-old retiree who planned to ride out the storm in Galveston without his wife or sister-in-law. "I believe he will take care of me."

A disabled 584-foot freighter with 22 men aboard was left tossing about in the waves because winds were too dangerous for aircraft. Late Friday, the Coast Guard reported the crew was still safe after weathering the brunt of the storm, and a tugboat was set to arrive noon Saturday.

Power was knocked out to hundreds of thousands of customers in Louisiana and along the Texas coast. That number that was expected to climb quickly throughout the night, according to Centerpoint Energy, the primary electricity provider for the region.

As of 11 p.m. EDT, Ike was centered about 55 miles southeast of Galveston, moving at 12 mph. It had winds of 110 mph, making it 1 mph shy of a Category 3 storm, and was expected to strengthen by the time the eye hit land. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore somewhere near Galveston early Saturday and pass almost directly over Houston, with the strongest winds and highest storm surge after the eye makes landfall.

Because of the hurricane's size, the state's shallow coastal waters and its largely unprotected coastline, forecasters said the biggest threat would be flooding and storm surge, with Ike expected to hurl a wall of water two stories high — 20 to 25 feet — at the coast.

Bachir Annane, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Research Division, said Ike's surge could be catastrophic, and like nothing the Texas coast has ever seen.

"Wind doesn't tell the whole story," Annane said. "It's the size that tells the story, and this is a giant."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said more than 5.5 million prepackaged meals were being sent to the region, along with more than 230 generators and 5.6 million liters of water. At least 3,500 FEMA officials were stationed in Texas and Louisiana.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked President Bush for a "wide-reaching emergency declaration" in all 88 counties being affected, a move designed to secure emergency funding to help defray storm costs.

Ike would be the first major hurricane to hit a U.S. metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago. For Houston, it would be the first major hurricane since Alicia in August 1983 came ashore on Galveston Island, killing 21 people and causing $2 billion in damage. Houston has since then seen a population explosion, so many of the residents now in the storm's path have never experienced the full wrath of a hurricane.

Authorities instructed most of the city's 2 million residents to just hunker down to avoid highway gridlock. Residents prepared for a sleepless night.

Before midnight, the storm surge had started to flood some low-lying areas of the city, and some of the seven bayous that snake through the city were overflowing.

"With the water at these levels, you can assume that there is water in homes and homes are damaged," said Frank Michel, spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White. "But right now, it's dark, the storm is building and we don't have anyone going up and down the streets yet determining the extent of the damage."

On the far east side of Houston, Claudia Macias was trying unsuccessfully not to think about the trees swaying outside her doors, or the wind vibrating through her windows. She had been through other storms, and other hurricanes, but this time is different because Macias is a new mother.

"I don't know who's going to sleep here tonight, maybe the baby," said Macias, 34. "I'm not sleeping."

If Ike is as bad as feared, the storm could travel up Galveston Bay and send a surge up the Houston Ship Channel and into the port of Houston. The port is the nation's second-busiest, and is an economically vital complex of docks, pipelines, depots and warehouses that receives automobiles, consumer products, industrial equipment and other cargo from around the world and ships out vast amounts of petrochemicals and agricultural products.

The oil and gas industry was also closely watching Ike because it was headed straight for the nation's biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants. Wholesale gasoline prices jumped to around $4.85 a gallon for fear of shortages.

The storm could also force water up the seven bayous that thread through Houston, swamping neighborhoods so flood-prone that they get inundated during ordinary rainstorms.

Though Ike's center was heading for Texas, it spawned thunderstorms, shut down schools and knocked out power throughout southern Louisiana on Friday. An estimated 1,200 people were in state shelters in Monroe and Shreveport, and another 220 in medical needs shelters.

In southeastern Louisiana near Houma, Ike breached levees, threatening thousands of homes of fishermen, oil-field workers, farmers and others.

In Galveston, a working-class town of about 57,000, waves crashed over the 11-mile seawall built a century ago, after the Great Storm of 1900 killed 6,000 residents.

While the Galveston beachfront is dotted with new condominiums and some elegant beach homes on stilts, most people live in older, one-story bungalows. The National Weather Service warned "widespread and devastating" damage was expected.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ike

[VIOLETCAVE]

Made it through Ike with only a downed tree on power line,winds very scary. Galveston under water, downtown Houston a disaster of broken glass, highways under water.My thoughts go out to those who lost so much.

[Mercy Now]

Violetcave, Good to read damage was minimal in Palestine and you're okay:). I lived in Brazoria County for a few years. One of my children was born in Lake Jackson. We were evacuated twice for hurricanes and unless one has been experienced an evacuation one has no idea what is involved. No nice at all!

 Over at earthboppin' someone in Conroe, I believe, had a visionary dream about this hurricane in June and posted it . This dream had the date correct and the location ,complete with a vision of a pic that CNN posted. Thankfully their dream was ,so far anyway, incorrect in the extent of the damage.  

[Sily]

I have been watching Gas Buddy's USA Gas Temperature Map because our local Sam's Club was out of gas yesterday.  This causes me a bit of worry. 

[topaz]

thank god im in the uk we rarley have dangerous huricanes