There is not very much wind on the street level, but the trees are moving a little bit, and it is, what most forecasters might call, overcast. When you look at the clouds, you can tell they are moving, so I know there is some wind up there.
The outer-bands are brushing Galveston, but They have not seen Hurricane force winds yet. Last I heard, the Gulf was 18' above its normal level, and the seawall is 18' tall, so you know what that means. They have showed a few shots of the water slamming the top of the seawall and cresting over the wall. I heard a report that the strand was flooded this morning at 10:00 am. The flooding was caused by the storm surge without any rain water, so once it starts raining, Galveston Island could be totally under water with just buildings and houses sticking out of the water. They have had two fires that they could not get to because of flooding. One was a house fire, and the other was a "boat storage facility", whatever that is. I have heard of marina's , but I have never heard of a "boat storage facility", so your guess is as good as mine.
The eye of the Hurricane is now 65 miles wide, and if the eye gets smaller, the wind speeds will increase, so there is still possibility of a Cat 3 or higher. Galveston Bay is supposed to see a storm surge of 17'-22', but we shouldn't see an inch of storm surge where we are.
Weatherman just said the storm is not going to take a Rita turn, so they are pretty certain Houston is going to get Hurricane winds. The wind speeds are now 110 mph (Cat 2). If they hit 111 mph, it will be Category 3. The storm surge with Ike is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane, and they say this is because of the massive size of this storm. I think I heard them say that Ike has tropical storm winds extending to a radius of 250 miles. That means the storm is 500 miles wide. Looking at a map, that is the distance from Houston to Lubbock.
They just showed a clip of I-10 near Uvalde (east side of Houston Greens Bayou) and the hotel parking lot is completely flooded. Water from Greens Bayou has flooded an entire hotel parking lot, and once again, this is not from any rain. The Houston Ship channel is several feet above normal. All from Tidal Surge.
We just had a nice wind gust here, but it is pretty calm still. When the video camera finishes charging look for live video updates!!!
3 comments:
Man alive. this is the most exciting report i have heard and i am a bit concerned. How about you. Some things you say are coforting, then you speak of floodig without any rain and that scares "mother" and you know we dont want "mother" to be scared. love to you and yours...jk
Whoa Nelly! Are we all staying up all night for the updates? Do you think the tidal surge will peter out before it gets to Shinnecock Hills? Maybe you better go tether that truck to the garage.
I feel better knowing you just talked with your dad. We had to check on Karsen and you guys. Wish you were here and we could protect you in the dry desert climate! :) It is sad to me to know the storm is striking the city I loveand impacting you all. You are in our thoughts and prayers. Love to all, Dana
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