Hurricane Ike---Human Impact

[Matty M]

thank god we averted a major tragedy

Too soo to say that unfortunately, it will not be understood how bad things got in Galveston until tonight, its only 10am there now.

[Diane_W]

thank god we averted a major tragedy

What makes you laugh is when the reporters at http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/livenow?id=6384042

try and build up the damage situation and then they talk to the locals and they turn round and say

that they get worse flooding during a bad thunderstorm.

[geoffw]

it seems houston is having big trouble. water pumps not working and the water from the surge stiill rising

[ChartViewer]

It came in as Cat 2 and although Galveston had serious storm surge as I said last night Houston had planned for this since Katrina and to be fair they are not right on the coast and although taking a hit had serious wind and some flooding..But...and a MAJOR but this is not another KATRINA........Far from it and also not sure anyone has pointed this out but Houston and New Orleans cannot even be compared as Cities one being home to Space Stations High rises serious investment the other being old time USA low lying...no investment......and I will not say it but there is a massive culture difference between the two and shame on the US government for not investing in NO because of certain issues.............I hope people notice this...and I will not spell out what i mean!

Edited September 13, 2008 by ChartViewer

[kaz]

hi chartviewer, i couldnt agree with you more, was noticed at the time by the world. Also lucky for NO that this time round its election year.

Getting back to now watching fox they all seem very disapointed that the damage wasnt worse making me laugh a bit trying to hype up a few inches of water in a car, same footage over and over again to also alot of what we are being fed it footage from yesterday before storm hit. They are saying people had to move up to there second floor because of rising water mmmm maybe they should have a chat with those in the uk who had to sit on rooftops. They realy can make nothing very exciting. :lol:

kaz

[January Snowstorm]

I thought I saw footage of buildings with glass blown in all over Houston.

It looks pretty severe to me

[ChartViewer]

hi chartviewer, i couldnt agree with you more, was noticed at the time by the world. Also lucky for NO that this time round its election year.

Getting back to now watching fox they all seem very disapointed that the damage wasnt worse making me laugh a bit trying to hype up a few inches of water in a car, same footage over and over again to also alot of what we are being fed it footage from yesterday before storm hit. They are saying people had to move up to there second floor because of rising water mmmm maybe they should have a chat with those in the uk who had to sit on rooftops. They realy can make nothing very exciting. :lol:

kaz

Thanks and great post

[geoffw]

well we averted all the major damage being hyped. now lets look forward to some snow this winter and storms this autumn!

[Gray-Wolf]

I thought I saw footage of buildings with glass blown in all over Houston.

It looks pretty severe to me

I'd agree that downtown Houston looked a mess with the windows blown out of the tall buildings and papers/bits of computers/blinds etc littering for blocks around.

The seafront at Galveston looks pretty well messed up as well and that is before we get down into the communities behind.

I agree that the storm surge was a couple of feet short of topping the defences there but further out to the west they were relying on dunes to protect them......the Atlantic storm that excavated Scara Brae may be a pointer to the type of erosion and subsequent inundation down that end of the island.

Only Forces and emergency services are allowed to fly at present so we won't get an overall picture of how messed up things are for a while yet.

As with Gus I'm hoping the cost is only in $ and not in lives.

We were all treated to the sight of a bedraggled golden retriever chained to a table outside of one messed up house.......what kind of creep would resort to that???

[ChartViewer]

We were all treated to the sight of a bedraggled golden retriever chained to a table outside of one messed up house.......what kind of creep would resort to that???

Edited September 13, 2008 by ChartViewer

[mountain shadow]

My summary of this Hurricane Season, is that unless it is strong Cat3+ in the 1st world, stop over ramping, they can cope.

[Roger J Smith]

The actual human impacts are difficult to measure yet, as rescue and recovery have only reached the more marginally affected regions. It does appear that the surge topped out lower than predicted, although 13.5 feet is certainly high enough to cause a lot of trouble for people in one-storey homes in particular. Although we are hearing about five confirmed deaths at present, this is bound to rise as crews get into the worst affected areas and go door to door. Some homes have been washed off foundations and demolished, but in any known case so far the people had evacuated.

Some of the worst impacts were felt east of Galveston into the Beaumont-Port Arthur region including Orange where hundreds were stranded on roofs by 15 feet of water.

You'll appreciate that if people have drowned inside houses, this will not become known for days -- the death toll for Katrina kept rising for almost two weeks before it was finally known in full.

The evacuations, as incomplete as they may have been, clearly saved a lot of lives, if we assume that those who left were those who felt most at risk in their own particular circumstances.

The wind speeds were such that the region is left with considerable tree and minor structural damage up to some roof removals away from the coast, and scattered major damage along the coast.

As to the storm surge predictions being too high, that is probably a function of two things, the first being a 10-20 mile eastward jog of the track just before landfall, allowing Galveston Bay to stop filling for a while (slowing the surge in other words) and the second might be more complicated, interactions between the time of landfall and high tides, possibly a later or earlier landfall would have generated a higher surge. As it was, the eye was near the north end of Galveston Bay at astronomical low tide at the point where inflow would have maximized, so this may account for part of the shortfall.

The buoy that broke free near High Island drifted parallel to the coast and then south, and showed that waves were slowly turning away from landfall during the storm surge period.

There are certainly major problems for the region, widespread power outages persist, water is at a trickle in the public water systems, some neighbourhoods remain flooded, and some are impassable due to debris on the roads. It will take a week for some to be opened up to returning refugees and a month for normal services to be restored, meanwhile some say six months to a year for total recovery in coastal communities.

Fortunately, the lower storm surge seems to have left the large oil refineries and chemical plants largely undamaged although production will be curtailed for about a week due to access and power problems.

[MAF]

Thanks Roger, a good precis on the situation, lets hope the death toll doesn't rise any more and the recovery for the flooded victims is quick

[WindWatcher]

I'd agree that downtown Houston looked a mess with the windows blown out of the tall buildings and papers/bits of computers/blinds etc littering for blocks around.

The seafront at Galveston looks pretty well messed up as well and that is before we get down into the communities behind.

I agree that the storm surge was a couple of feet short of topping the defences there but further out to the west they were relying on dunes to protect them......the Atlantic storm that excavated Scara Brae may be a pointer to the type of erosion and subsequent inundation down that end of the island.

Only Forces and emergency services are allowed to fly at present so we won't get an overall picture of how messed up things are for a while yet.

As with Gus I'm hoping the cost is only in $ and not in lives.

We were all treated to the sight of a bedraggled golden retriever chained to a table outside of one messed up house.......what kind of creep would resort to that???

For once, I agree totally with you!!!

I have followed this storm for the past 2 weeks and unlike most of the media, this storm isn't over!

Watching the local news feeds as I have for the past 5 days, shows more than a contrast with "the eye wall has formed" or "It didn't develop, waste of time" etc.

These people are suffering, media 2 days later are still not allowed to fly over certain parts of the damage area to protect public interests!

As far as us in the UK are concerned we are conditioned by the media that the hurricane has passed, end of news...!

There are 2 million people without power in hot and humid conditions and many areas still underwater!

13 dead so far, with many areas still not investigated.

A dead story here, but I hope not so for those over there.

Steve

Remember the after affects don't stoip when BBC decide some muppet needs evicting from govermnment.

[androcles]

Well said, Steve...!

[Iceberg]

But to put it in perspective more people died in the train crash over there.

Ike was no where near as destructive as many people thought prior landfall(inc myself).

Yes there are other problems but for one of the richest areas of the US, in the richest countries of the world I am sure theyhave the resources to sort it out pretty quickly.

[Roger J Smith]

The actual death toll will not be known for several days, as rescue teams have been busy dealing with the most obvious cases of hardship so far. In fact there are several areas not even investigated yet, and the known death toll has risen gradually all day from about five to eighteen so far. I hope for the best but really nobody has more than a vague idea what may be found in the recovery aspects of this operation later in the week. As to a fast recovery, the whole coastal area was swamped by 15 feet of water, and they are sending rescued or walk-in residents out to where they should have gone in the first place, San Antonio ... and the population that did evacuate are being told it may be weeks before they can return. There are no services, no open food stores, and most of the homes not destroyed are flood-damaged. This is only the coastal strip, the more inland areas are dealing with massive power outages and trees down all over the place, so in general it is going to take two weeks for that to be restored to a sort of normalcy, and three to six months for Galveston and some other coastal communities. I think by the time they are done with the recovery and all drowning deaths have come to light, the media will have moved on but as with Katrina the toll will keep mounting for a week or more, and probably will get close to a hundred at least. If not these same people would have to count themselves as very lucky. I was reading one story of a couple who floated on debris for six hours and only survived because they thought to wear life jackets as the storm surge started.

I would say wait until at least Thursday before even assuming any approximate death toll from this storm, the bodies are not going to be lying outside or floating around in this case because of the flood level, the deaths would have happened inside fully flooded residences.

[Iceberg]

Fair enough point roger re death toll, but the message I was trying to get across was that far worse has happen and will continue to happen. The people of Haiti will not be waiting a couple of weeks to be connected they will be waiting months.

Very very few would have been insured etc and they are certainly not getting the help from there Government that the Texans are getting.

Parts of the UK were under wather by 6-10 ft etc last summer I doubt the US media battered much more than an eye lid. Tornado's have had a very bad death toll in the US this year etc.

All things being said Texas was not effected that badly by Ike (nowhere near as badly as it could have been), yes there are personal stories of hardship etc, but the worse has past and the clean up will now begin.

[opplevelse]

FYI Most of the windows in Houston were not "blown out".

Most buildings are topped with largeish pebble sized "gravel" on their rooves. Apparently the wind picked this up and blew it into the windows, causing them to smash ...

I've also seen some pretty awful pictures from Galveston, sure perhaps not as bad as Katrina, but still nothing to be brushed off, Ike was still a big storm.

But yes, the media do like to make mountains out of molehills ... but if you read through these threads, you will see that quite a few posters here also got "swept up in the hype" Sensationalism is rife

[Matty M]

People will soon begin to realise that the death toll from IKE in Galveston is going to be so much larger than many on here realise.

The news of the detestation there is only trickling through.

[eddie]

These scenes remind me of footage from the Indonesian tsunami.

US Coastguard footage

Complete devestation. I really hope that everyone was evacuated.

[The PIT]

These scenes remind me of footage from the Indonesian tsunami.

US Coastguard footage

Complete devestation. I really hope that everyone was evacuated.

Looks one hell of a mess. Perhaps they shouldn't rebuild there again.

[Gorky]

Here is some Satellite Imagery of the coast:

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/IKE0000.HTM

The Bolivar Peninsular clearly took the brunt of the storm. The video above looks like it is of the Crystal Beach area. Gilchrest which is right at the Eastern end of the Peninsula took an even worse hit and is virtually gone. I see about a dozen houses left out of a community of 750 people. There is very little debris left also, so god knows what has been taken out to sea. You have to hope most people evacuated the area given the low lying nature and lack of sea protection there, but anyone who stayed would have had a tough time surviving that :lol:

These area the enlarged images of that particular town from the above link.

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/ike/geo-C25883946.jpg

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/ike/geo-C25883958.jpg

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/ike/geo-C25883971.jpg

Edited September 15, 2008 by Gorky

[PersianPaladin]

Galveston, Texas. This is what the Cat 2 storm did: -

[Cookie]

it did what mate? nothing thier