Ominous words from the National Weather Service Houston office concerning Galveston County:LIFE THREATENING INUNDATION LIKELY!
ALL NEIGHBORHOODS...AND POSSIBLY ENTIRE COASTAL COMMUNITIES...
WILL BE INUNDATED DURING THE PERIOD OF PEAK STORM TIDE. PERSONS
NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY
HOMES WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH. MANY RESIDENCES OF AVERAGE
CONSTRUCTION DIRECTLY ON THE COAST WILL BE DESTROYED. WIDESPREAD
AND DEVASTATING PERSONAL PROPERTY DAMAGE IS LIKELY ELSEWHERE.
VEHICLES LEFT BEHIND WILL LIKELY BE SWEPT AWAY. NUMEROUS ROADS
WILL BE SWAMPED...SOME MAY BE WASHED AWAY BY THE WATER. ENTIRE
FLOOD PRONE COASTAL COMMUNITIES WILL BE CUTOFF. WATER LEVELS MAY
EXCEED 9 FEET FOR MORE THAN A MILE INLAND. COASTAL RESIDENTS IN
MULTI-STORY FACILITIES RISK BEING CUTOFF. CONDITIONS WILL BE
WORSENED BY BATTERING WAVES. SUCH WAVES WILL EXACERBATE PROPERTY
DAMAGE...WITH MASSIVE DESTRUCTION OF HOMES...INCLUDING THOSE OF
BLOCK CONSTRUCTION. DAMAGE FROM BEACH EROSION COULD TAKE YEARS TO
REPAIR.
All eyes are turning toward the Houston-Galveston area as Hurricane Ike keeps on a steady path toward the Texas coast. The potential for destructive storm surge is rather high. Ike may be a Category 2 with peak sustained winds of "only" 100mph, but Ike covers a huge piece of real estate. According to Jeff Masters' blog at Weather Underground, Ike's tropical storm force winds (39+ mph) extend up to 275 miles from the center of the hurricane... Katrina's tropical storm force winds were up to 210 miles from the center. Hurricane force winds (74+ mph) go up to 115 miles from the center of Ike. That's roughly the distance from Rockford to Peoria.Hurricane warnings have been posted for much of the Texas coast and even a handful of coastal Louisiana parishes. Quite a few Texas counties a little ways from the coast have been placed in a hurricane watch as winds of 74mph or higher may occur well inland. A good portion of southern Louisiana, including New Orleans, is under a tropical storm warning.
The biggest concern from Ike is the potential for significant storm surge. Ike's winds are displacing a lot of water, and that water has to go somewhere. Unfortunately, when that water reaches land, it essentially goes upward in the form of storm surge. Houston is in an area with a maximum potential storm surge of over 20 feet. Remember that's a maximum potential and not the forecast... but it indicates just how powerful Ike is.You can follow Ike's evolution with the links below:
- National Hurricane Center
- Weather Underground (and Jeff Masters' blog)
- KTRK-TV in Houston (streaming newscasts live)
3 comments:
I hope to high Heaven that the tv networks do NOT send reporters directly INTO the area of danger in hopes of putting them live on national television in the midst of life-threatening conditions.
I hereby pledge to boycott ANY network and ALL its local affiliates (sorry, that includes WREX) for at least one month if the network sends its reporters into harm's way so it can broadcast "live feed" of this hurricane as it makes landfall. I urge other viewers to do the same, and to let the networks know.
I do NOT want to see another reporter or tv weather person standing in hurricane-force winds talking about how the flying debris hurts when it hits your skin. And more importantly, I do NOT want to SEE or read or hear of the (inevitible) DEATH of some reporter or camera crew or broadcast engineer who has been sent directly into harm's way in order to try to get the network a "scoop" on "ground zero" of this hurricane's landfall.
There is NO NEED for that kind of pseudo-reporting that is more focused on providing "shock value" than on delivering important info.
Its time for viewers to Just Say No to this senseless tabloid pseudo-reporting, and I'll start. Please feel free to join me if you feel the same way. I have a feeling I may be dusting off my library card for the next month or so, which is probably not such a bad thing anyway.
WI Wx Buff, I can't control where the "Today" show sends their reporters. Don't abandon me and the morning show! :-(
Even newspapers will be off-limits... I'm pretty sure the AP sends reporters out to the mess, too.
For thinking that sending people out to the middle of a hurricane is ridiculous and dangerous - you're in good company.
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