Ike's littered past still haunts

Some new photos of the devastation of Hurricane Ike. Top is a Coast Guard Photo --notice the helicopter flying over the flooded area on Galveston

This next photo (above) is a sand left over from Ike, hiding a road on the Bolivar peninsula.
The line of trucks heading through the flood waters is from Entergy (the electric company) site. Thas a heroic rescue of millions of dollars in trucks and equipment as the flood waters started to inundate the lower areas of Louisiana' coast. The trucks were working on repairs from Hurricane Gustav, when Hurricane Ike's winds and waves were about to catch them.

Another FEMA photo of the seawall and the debris washed up on what little is left of the beach in Galveston.
Another photo from Entergy's site showing the time of power line damage the company had to deal with from damages by two strong hurricanes in two weeks . (We won't even mention Tropical Storm Faye. ) The damages were all across Entergy's Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas service areas. Check this site which shows the places were power is still not available (though the numbers are dwindling).

Below is screen shot of the Entergy Outage screen from Beaumont, Texas. Each shape is clickable and gives a report on the outage as well as how many customers are affected. This is best and most useful online map mashup I have ever scene. Customer service has taken a giant leap.


--steve buser

Hurricane Ike blowing ashore near Galveston in Texas

The chart above shows the windspeed at the National Buoy Data Center's buoy on the Jetty at Galveston Bay. Galveston is the island that seaward of Houston.. The winds were just shy of 40 knots just after 4 p.m.

The picture below is a satellite view of Hurricane Ike about the same time. The storm is different from other storms in that the eye is not clearly visible and is not tightly compact.
Scientist will have a long time to study that and find out why. One immediate impact if it holds up like that when Ike's eye hits land -- at 12 mph, some people will be in the eye 4 or 5 hours.

Below the satellite photo is a graph showing how fast the barometric pressure is falling as Ike approaches


--steve buser

Mighty Ike expected to mess with Texas

This is the latest view of Hurricane Ike from NASA's Global Climate and Hydrology Center.

I have marked New Orleans (where I am) and Houston (the apparent landfill target -- and where I am glad I am not.)

Our thoughts and prayers are with those in Houston and the surrounding area. Notice the eye which has opened up in the center of Ike -- that had not be visible yesterday -- he seems to be getting better organized. Fortunately, weather forecasters say there are lot of things keeping Ike from organizing up to a Category 4 or 5 storm (wind shear, dry air wrapping in to the swirl periodically, etc). Ike is expected to be a Category 2 or 3 storm when it pushes as much of the Gulf as it can control up over the beaches of Galveston later tonight.

-steve buser