Hurricane Ike pounces into Gulf of Mexico

Ike is a Gulf Coast hurricane. It is official. Wish it weren't but it is.

That sends shivers up the spines of people along the Gulf Coast. Especially along the middle Texas coast which is now the center of the cone of uncertainty. Maybe they should be rejoicing, though. As local forecaster Bob Breck noted tonight, with the way these forecast go, this far out, being the target is a safe place. The original target was up the East Coast of Florida,

• then the west coast of Florida,
  
• then the panhandle,
• then New Orleans,
  
• then the Upper Texas Coast,
  
• then the Mexican border area,
• then they moved it back up to middle coast of Texas.
  

He was just joking, of course, but, it does strike a chord. If you want to see what I am talking about, check out this animation of the predicted track for Tropical Storm Fay and watch how it changes over time.

Whoops. I almost forgot, you want to know about the numbers for the storm. Here's from the 9 p.m CDT National Hurricane Center advisory.

---------------------------
"THE CENTER OF HURRICANE IKE
WAS LOCATED NEAR
LATITUDE 23.2 NORTH...LONGITUDE 84.3 WEST
OR ABOUT 120 MILES...
195 KM...WEST OF HAVANA CUBA.

IKE IS MOVING TOWARD THE
WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 9 MPH...15 KM/HR
..AND THIS GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED
TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT DAY OR TWO."
-------------------------

Winds are still 80 mph, but a clear eye wall is appearing and forecaster expect it to develop into a category 2 or 3 storm quickly.

(Notice that the speed has dropped to around 9 mph. That could play a role in where landfall happens. The longer it takes to hit land, the longer the atmosphere has to mess up the NHC predictions.)

--steve buser

Ike slides along Cuban coast -- Texas is the bullseye

The new Hurricane Ike path from NOAA keeps New Orleans just on the edge of the cone of error. The Central Texas Coast is in the center. This puts a real burden on the Houston and Corpus Christi areas to keep and eye on the storm but pushes back likely landfall to Saturday.

Cuba is also taking its toll on the storm with the maximum sustained winds down to 85 mph.

Weather in the Keys
The winds are starting to pick up in the Florida Keys with the Sombrero Key buoy reporting 28kt sustained winds and long key reporting 22kt winds. Sand Key, the furthest buoy on the strand out from the mainland is reporting 31kts winds.

Real Time Buoy data
Here's some real time buoy data from the west side of the storm.

--steve buser

Hurricane Ike gathering headlines on trek toward Gulf of Mexico

Fema evacuees return to New Orleans from their shelters for Hurricane Gustav, only to greet the possibility of Hurricane Ike emerging into the Gulf (FEMA photo by Barry Bahler)


Some miscellaneous news of interest to Hurricane Ike watchers.


President declares emergency for Florida in advance of Ike

Corps starts Blue Roof Program in Louisiana for Hurricane Gustav damaged homes

Disaster Recovery Center Opens in Houma to Assist Residents

Ike Slams Cuba, Keys Could Be Next (Channel 13 Central Florida)

Hurricane Ike
slams Cuba, Haiti death toll passes 600 (AFP)

Entergy restores 80 percent from Gustav; awaits Ike
(Beaumont, TX Enterprise)

Recovering from one storm with and Eye on Hurricane Ike

You expect trees to fall across power lines during a storm, leaving customers without power. But when the big towers end up looking like pixie sticks, you know you have some work to do to get power back on This pictures from Entergy.com, Entergy's web site, show some of what they had to do with up and down the state of Louisiana. This tangle is from Plaquemine, but similar pictures are posted from St. Gabriel and elsewhere.

Can the system be hardened enough for another hurricane barrelling into the Gulf this week?

Here's a excerpt from an Entergy PowerPoint that shows how fast power was brought back up in the New Orleans region. I left out the other regions of the state to make the file smaller. Also, I converted it to PDF, so most people can see it.


Keep Track of Ike's Passage through the Florida Straits:
Here's an interesting site to keep track of the readings from the buoys and weather stations in the Florida Keys.

--steve buser