Hurricane I K E

[ehollier]

I know we have members that are in the direct path of this terrible storm. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

ANOTHER mandatory evacuation order (where I live in Abbeville, Louisiana) to leave due to Hurricane Ike and its storm storm surge b/c Louisiana has lost its barrier islands which used to protect us from these storms and now has contributed to enormous coastal errosion. I went to the grocery store around lunch-time to restock some of my groceries for the first time since Gustav b/c I was waiting out Ike. Well, I THOUGHT it was going to miss us BUT as I was paying for my groceries just as my phone rang which was mother in law is giving me the details of this mandatory evacuation. Needless to say, this was not what I was hoping for this weekend since I've just finished post-hurricane clean-up around here AND I just unpacked last night from this last hurricane!!!!!!! EERRRRR!!!!!

Louisiana isn't going to be in the direct path of the storm -- only on the right side of the storm where you must be concerned about the storm surge (which could be up to 12 feet) and hopefully I'll come back and my home will still be intact just as the last time. Since passing over Cuba, the storm size has increased to encompass almost the entire Gulf of Mexico.



Three years ago, Hurricane Rita devestated our western coast and left many in my parish/county without homes and/or power. The storm surge just pushes in copious amounts of water from the Gulf of Mexico and as it goes back out to the Gulf, it pulls with it anything in its path. There was a little town named Cameron, Louisiana that was almost completely wiped out after Rita hit in 05 and is extremely vulnerable to another storm. This is between Lake Charles and the Texas state line.

[MojoElvis]

I'm in the same boat or should I say, traffic jam soon. I have to evacuate got all my stuff jammed up in my jeep.

[Diane]

I'm sorry you have to evacuate a second time Liz. What a hassle that must be. I hope you come back to your house again without damage.

Take care,

Diane

[Burning_Love]

My sister is in Cuba the the moment, right where IKE hit it. She said it was like waiting for the world to end, she was really upset and said the poor Cuban's, they don't have a lot as it is and for this to happen to their country is horrific. Where we stayed least year is 'devistating' she said. There is no water, no electricity. And there is no food due to the fact the main causway has been damaged. They are living off crackers, pepsi and beer. What a holiday, hey ? I'm happy everyone is safe and hope Ike stays away from other countries.

[franny]

I hope it won't be so bad, Liz. I know it must be awful to evacuate, again. I hope it won't be for long and that you and your family take care! Hopefully, no damage comes to your home!

Take care, franny.

[elvisfan92]

right now i'm waitting to see if my zip code will go to the mandatory evacuation list because the line heading out are all jammed

[cibetty]

I'm sorry to read this Liz... I really hope everything will be all right. Write when you can. Betti

[john carpenter]

I feel for all those people who are in "Ikes path! We got lucky this time..so far that is. We went through Wilma, Charley, Irene, and Andrew just did miss where i live in Central Florida, but tore through Homestead, Florida! I don't know how many times we can "dodge the bullet? My prayers are with every member affected by "Ike"! God Bless you all!

[presley31]

sending prayers Liz. you will be in my thoughts.

[Tommy]

I hope everything turns out OK for you Elizabeth and for all other members that this storm will touch.

My prayers are with you all.

[utmom2008]

Ike seems to be headed straight for Gail. She works in Houston and lives just outside of Houston. I talked to her earlier this afternoon as she was on her way home in bumper to bumper traffic. She is expecting winds of up to 110 miles an hour at her house. I am 4 hours north of Gail, and we are expecting heavy rain and some wind as well. Both of my kids are in Austin, Texas and they are looking for bad weather as well. Bad enough that they have cancelled the football game Saturday between the University of Texas Longhorns and the Arkansas Razorbacks. So...please think about all of us!!!!

[presley31]

Sending prayers for everyone in harms way.

Just saw this news report in the news

Hurricane Ike Aims at Houston; Evacuations Called (Update4)

By Brian K. Sullivan

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ike tripled in size in the central Gulf of Mexico on a weekend collision course with the 5.6 million residents of the Houston area. Traffic jammed highways as Texas coastal communities evacuated.

The system's strongest winds extend as far as 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the eye, up from 35 miles yesterday, the Miami- based National Hurricane Center said today. Ike's wind field is now larger than that of Katrina, the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005, said Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology at private forecaster Weather Underground Inc.

``The total amount of energy is more powerful than Katrina, so we could be seeing a storm surge that could rival Katrina,'' Masters said. The storm is so large ``the location doesn't matter much; it is going to inundate a huge part of the Texas coast.''

Three houses away from Galveston Bay in LaPorte, Jamie and April Ybarra packed their two children, two dogs and cat into a Chevy sports utility vehicle and prepared to leave.

``I think the call for evacuation came a little late,'' Jamie Ybarra, a 32-year-old safety coordinator, said. ``You hear the roads are crowded; you hear people are losing their cool.''

This is the third time the family has evacuated in three years, April Ybarra said. And ``we may not be coming back here for awhile.''

Galveston, parts of southern Houston and areas south of the city and near the Texas coast were under a mandatory evacuation order that started at noon today. Hurricane Ike is following a track similar to the 1900 Galveston hurricane that killed 8,000 people, the deadliest storm in U.S. history.

Felt Before Landfall

Ike was a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph, up from 80 mph yesterday, the center said in an advisory at 4 p.m. Houston time. Its central pressure is more like that associated with a Category 3 or 4 storm, Masters said.

``It is a massive storm; it is impacting in terms of its scope 40 percent of the Gulf,'' said Michael Chertoff, U.S. secretary of Homeland Security, in a conference call from Washington. ``The most important message I can send is, do not take this storm lightly. This is not a storm to gamble with. It is large and powerful and carries a lot of water with it.''

The storm is 400 miles east-southeast of Galveston and moving west-northwest at 10 mph, with landfall south of Galveston forecast for early Sept. 13. Because of its size, Ike will be felt along the Texas coast long before its eye makes landfall.

Strengthening Likely

The center's forecasters said Ike may strengthen to at least a major hurricane with Category 3 intensity, meaning sustained winds of at least 111 mph, before landfall. Other forecasters predict Ike may become a Category 4 storm, the second-strongest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, packing winds from 131 to 155 mph.

The storm is forecast to sweep through the center of the Gulf, missing the offshore Louisiana oil and natural gas fields. The Gulf is home to about a quarter of U.S. oil production.

Even so, about 96 percent of all oil production in the Gulf has been shut in along with 73.1 percent of natural gas facilities, according to the Minerals Management Service, a bureau of the Interior Department. Some facilities have been closed since Hurricane Gustav struck Louisiana last week.

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Baytown facility, 17 miles east of Houston, is the country's biggest, with a capacity of 586,000 barrels a day. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which is the largest U.S. oil-import terminal and handles 13 percent of imports, said it closed marine operations because of Ike.

Chemical Plants Closed

Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker, and competitors such as DuPont Co., LyondellBassell Industries and Texas Petrochemicals Inc. are closing plants in the Houston area. The Texas Gulf Coast produces two-thirds of the nation's ethylene, used in products from plastic bags to auto parts.

President George W. Bush declared an emergency for Texas, his home state, and Governor Rick Perry readied 1,350 buses to evacuate residents in preparation for Ike's landfall. As many as 7,500 Texas National Guard members are on standby.

Houston's population is 2.2 million, making it the fourth- biggest U.S. city, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and its metropolitan area, with a population of 5.6 million, is the sixth-largest in the U.S.

Officials in Harris, Brazoria, Chambers, Matagorda and Galveston counties ordered about 564,063 people to leave homes that are now in Ike's path. Television news reports showed miles- long traffic jams in the area.

Governor Urges Prudence

``My message to Texans in the projected impact area is this: finish your preparations because Ike is dangerous and he's on his way,'' Perry said in a statement. ``If your local officials tell you to evacuate, follow their instructions.''

Jim Rouiller, a meteorologist with Planalytics Inc. in Wayne, Pennsylvania, said he's particularly worried about storm surge damage around Galveston Bay, on the coast southeast of Houston, which may be in the top right quadrant of the storm field where rains and winds are most powerful.

Galveston's seawall is 17 feet high and the forecast storm surge is 20 feet high.

``If that's breached, a whole refinery complex goes under water,'' Rouiller said.

Some parts of the Texas-Louisiana coast may get as much as 15 inches of rain, the hurricane center said.

Ike could inflict between $5 billion and $15 billion of insured damage depending on how much it intensifies, said Steve Smith, atmospheric physicist for the Carvill reinsurance broker.

NASA Center Closed

NASA's Johnson Space Center heeded the evacuation order, preparing to shut its 1,600-acre facility in Houston that houses Mission Control and the training ground for astronauts.

source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...H9e20&refer=us

[Diane]

I'm thankful that my cousin from Houston is still in Canada at the moment. They stay in Canada from April to October, but she must be terribly worried about her daughter living there.

My prayers are for all who are in the path of all those hurricanes. The last few years have been so hard on a lot of areas.

Diane

[TotallyInsane]

I know we have members that are in the direct path of this terrible storm. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

ANOTHER mandatory evacuation order (where I live in Abbeville, Louisiana) to leave due to Hurricane Ike and its storm storm surge b/c Louisiana has lost its barrier islands which used to protect us from these storms and now has contributed to enormous coastal errosion. I went to the grocery store around lunch-time to restock some of my groceries for the first time since Gustav b/c I was waiting out Ike. Well, I THOUGHT it was going to miss us BUT as I was paying for my groceries just as my phone rang which was mother in law is giving me the details of this mandatory evacuation. Needless to say, this was not what I was hoping for this weekend since I've just finished post-hurricane clean-up around here AND I just unpacked last night from this last hurricane!!!!!!! EERRRRR!!!!!

Louisiana isn't going to be in the direct path of the storm -- only on the right side of the storm where you must be concerned about the storm surge (which could be up to 12 feet) and hopefully I'll come back and my home will still be intact just as the last time. Since passing over Cuba, the storm size has increased to encompass almost the entire Gulf of Mexico.



Three years ago, Hurricane Rita devestated our western coast and left many in my parish/county without homes and/or power. The storm surge just pushes in copious amounts of water from the Gulf of Mexico and as it goes back out to the Gulf, it pulls with it anything in its path. There was a little town named Cameron, Louisiana that was almost completely wiped out after Rita hit in 05 and is extremely vulnerable to another storm. This is between Lake Charles and the Texas state line.

Here's a Texas translation:

The storm surge just pushes in a sh$tload amount of water from the Gulf of Mexico and as it goes back out to the Gulf, it pulls with it any fricking thing in its path.

When it's all said and done "we ain't got sh$t left"!!!

[TotallyInsane]

We be singing here in Texas:

[YT]5CL0UWaJMk4[/YT]

[elvisfan92]

oh no i live in houston and is in my direction

[TotallyInsane]

[YT]soCyl9iYUQQ[/YT]

[utmom2008]

oh no i live in houston and is in my direction

Oh no!! Where have you been??

[elvisfan92]

i've been seeing the news but my "stubborn" dad does not want to evacuate he is very hardheaded and i can't just leave on my own i'm only 16

[midnight]

To those of you who live in the path of this storm, I wish you the best of luck! I pray it will not get too bad . Gail I just love your sense of humor! You can always find away to uplift everyones spirits!