Sep 12 2008
Hurricane Ike - Texas Update #9, Run Galveston, Run!
The Office of Emergency Management, Houston Mayor Bill White and Judge Emmett just concluded their 8am Hurricane Ike Update.
Over night Hurricane Ike took a more Northerly path and is now projected to make landfall in Galveston with 20-25ft sea surge and 20-25ft waves on top of that. Videos from Galveston are already showing the seawall being slammed by waves thrashing water 20-25ft in the air starting to flood coastal roads and we are still 17 or 18 hrs out from landfall there at the time of this blog posting. With the combination of a potential 20-25ft sea surge and 20-25ft waves on top of that we are looking at the potential of another 1900 Galveston Hurricane event. IMO (In my opinion) not even reporters should stay behind. Everyone should leave Galveston Island now! With up to 40-50 ft water encroachment (surge + waves) projected for Galveston, there is no safe place on the island for anyone.
All Scientific Meteorological Hurricane Path Models have converged on Galveston – HURRICANE IKE IS COMING HERE! This is a “life or death event” which has the potential to rival the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. We can most probably expect many times more property damage than what was sustained in Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina. This is most likely already the most extreme American National Disaster most of us will have witnessed in our lifetime. Fortunately, predecessor weather events have led the way for more serious national disaster planning and implementation.
Everyone in mandatory evacuation zones who have not left yet, need to do so now. The storm surge predictions have been raised by 10ft to as much as 25ft in accordance with the more direct hurricane path.
Anyone in high-rise buildings should know that for every 100ft of elevation the intensity of the storm will increase by 1 Category level. You should make preparations to move to lower levels if staying behind.
Mayor White is advising that the highways are clear for late evacuees. I-45 may become more congested than 59 to Lufkin or 290 to the Bryan - College Station areas. Mayor White also noted that we do not want people on the highways in high winds with flying debris, they will advise when the highways are no longer safe to travel. Please note that the Greater Houston area will be experiencing hurricane force winds well before projected landfall between 1 and 2am Saturday morning. Many gas stations were re-supplied over night.
If you are going to leave – LEAVE NOW!
Make sure and do last minute checks on elderly or loner neighbors and don’t leave pets behind!
This is an extremely serious life and death weather event, so serious that there is really no reason for news agencies to leave their employees exposed on Galveston Island. None of us want to see news agency reporter casualties reported by their own news agencies because they had them step out too close to the beast. This is not necessarily the view of the Faulk For Congress Organization, but it is mine and I stick behind it:
News Reporters, Emergency personnel…everyone should probably evacuate Galveston Island now… No-One needs to ride this one out there. The American public doesn’t need to witness first hand reporter’s unnecessary endangerment or deaths who were hung out too far by news agencies. I think many of us would prefer that all news agencies step back and take your employees out of harm’s way. In doing so you would also help convey the seriousness of this storm to your audiences.
Asking the rest of the nation for your prayers and best wishes,
Ken
You can help us send John Faulk to Congress today.
