Massive Ike Menaces Texas Coast

Those Who Remained Try To Ride Out The Storm; Hurricane Near Category 3 Status

(CBS/AP)  A colossal Hurricane Ike menaced the darkened Texas coast early Saturday, ensuring a sleepless night for thousands who huddled and waited to find out if a gamble to face the storm head-on could cost them their lives.

Before the eye even crossed land, the first bands were punishing. Wind-whipped waves surged over a 17-foot seawall in Galveston and filled streets with waist-high water. Homes were flooding, hundreds of thousands were without power and there was fear hurricane-force winds could shatter the sparkling skyscrapers that define the skyline of America's fourth-largest city.

Rescue crews worried daybreak would bring a nightmare scenario: Thousands who defied evacuation orders and became trapped in submerged communities.

"We don't know what we are going to find. We hope we will find the people who are left here alive and well," Galveston Mayor Lynda Ann Thomas said. "We are keeping our fingers crossed all the people who stayed on Galveston Island managed to survive this."

The storm began battering the coast Friday afternoon, and the eye was likely to cross early Saturday morning. As of 1 a.m. EDT, Ike was centered about 35 miles southeast of Galveston, moving at 12 mph. It was close to a Category 3 storm with winds of 110 mph. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore somewhere near Galveston and pass almost directly over Houston.

Though 1 million people fled coastal communities near where the storm was projected to make landfall, authorities in three counties alone said roughly 90,000 stayed behind. As the front of the storm moved into Galveston, fire crews rescued nearly 300 people who changed their minds and fled at the last minute, wading through floodwaters carrying clothes and other posessions.

"The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in tomorrow and put our people in the tough situation to save people who did not choose wisely. We'll probably do the largest search and rescue operation that's ever been conducted in the state of Texas," said Andrew Barlow, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry.

In Houston, some low-lying communities that were ordered evacuated flooded, but because the storm struck overnight, officials had no idea how bad the damage was. Storm surge was pushing into a neighborhood near Johnson Space Center where Houston Mayor Bill White had made rounds earlier with a bullhorn trying to compel people to leave. Thousands of homes could be damaged, a spokesman for the mayor said, but it was too dangerous to go out and canvass the neighborhood at the height of the storm.

In a move designed to avoid highway gridlock, most of Houston's 2 million residents heeded orders to hunker down at home. The metro area surrounding Houston includes five million people that would have taken at least 96 hours to evacuate, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan. Ike turned directly toward Houston only 48 hours ago.

On the far east side of Houston, Claudia Macias was awake with her newborn and was trying unsuccessfully not to think about the trees swaying outside her doors, or the wind vibrating through her windows. She had been through other storms, but this time was different because she was a new mother.

"I don't know who's going to sleep here tonight, maybe the baby," said Macias, 34.

At 600 miles across, the storm was nearly as big as Texas itself, and threatened to give the state its worst pounding in a generation. Because of the hurricane's size, the state's shallow coastal waters and its largely unprotected coastline, forecasters said the biggest threat would be flooding and storm surge, with Ike expected to hurl a wall of water two stories high - 20 to 25 feet - at the coast.

Fire fighters left three buildings to burn Galveston because water was too high for fire trucks to reach them. But there was some good news: a stranded freighter with 22 men aboard made it through the brunt of the storm safely, and a tugboat was on the way to save them.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said more than 5.5 million prepackaged meals were being sent to the region, along with more than 230 generators and 5.6 million liters of water. At least 3,500 FEMA officials were stationed in Texas and Louisiana.

If Ike is as bad as feared, the storm could travel up Galveston Bay and send a surge up the Houston Ship Channel and into the port of Houston. The port is the nation's second-busiest, and is an economically vital complex of docks, pipelines, depots and warehouses that receives automobiles, consumer products, industrial equipment and other cargo from around the world and ships out vast amounts of petrochemicals and agricultural products.

The storm also could force water up the seven bayous that thread through Houston, swamping neighborhoods so flood-prone that they get inundated during ordinary rainstorms.

Energy Department Press Secretary Healy Baumgardner said that offshore oil and natural gas production in the Gulf region has been significantly affected by Ike, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

The hurricane was headed straight for the nation's biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants. Wholesale gasoline prices jumped to around $4.85 a gallon for fear of shortages.

Ike would be the first major hurricane to hit a U.S. metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago. For Houston, it would be the first major hurricane since Alicia in August 1983 came ashore on Galveston Island, killing 21 people and causing $2 billion in damage. Houston has since then seen a population explosion, so many of the residents now in the storm's path have never experienced the full wrath of a hurricane.

Though Ike's center was heading for Texas, it spawned thunderstorms, shut down schools and knocked out power throughout southern Louisiana on Friday. An estimated 1,200 people were in state shelters in Monroe and Shreveport, and another 220 in medical needs shelters.

In southeastern Louisiana near Houma, Ike breached levees, and flooded more than 1,800 homes. More than 160 people had to be rescued from sites of severe flooding, and Gov. Bobby Jindal said he expected those numbers to grow. In some extreme instances, residents of low-lying communities where waters continued to rise continued to refuse National Guard assistance to flee their homes, authorities said.

No deaths had been officially reported, but crews expected to resume searching at daybreak near Corpus Christi for a man believed swept out to sea as Ike closed in.

[ioweign]

Why isn''t McCain in Texas for Hurricane Ike?
By: John Amato @ 9:00 AM - PDT

Want proof that last week''s nonsense on Hurricane Gustav was all political posturing?

Why is McCain not in Texas playing President this time around?

Reports indicate 2.9 million without power. Wholesale gas at $4.65 a gallon on refinery damage fears. Thousands flooded out.

Our best wishes and good thoughts to those affected by the storm...including those in Cuba. There should be no restrictions in offering help to a storm-ravaged area.

Barack Obama canceled his SNL appearance in response to the hurricane, and indicated he would not travel to the area in order to avoid interfering with relief efforts, just as he did with Gustav.

just sayin''

[slim1h2o]

Thanks for your concern, for all who asked and all who THOUGHT about me! :-)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by txgrouch2006 at 09:16 AM : Sep 13, 2008

Glad that all is well, mostly anyways. I hope all in Tx came thru, or will come thru as well as you, and your family did.

But I am surprised that you still have internet hook-up. Mine becomes disconnected at the mere mention of a storm, or anything else for that matter.

[txgrouch2006]

Oh, and reports are we got around an inch and a half of rain. Probably still not enough after the long dry spell we''ve been having.

Battery running low. Gotta go!

Thanks y''all, and see ya!

[txgrouch2006]

Now the numbers are rolling in:

Actual storm surge at Galveston was only 15 feet.

Winds on this side of town (west side) were around 50 mph max.

Yes, this storm is moving VERY slow. Only about 10 mph.

[txgrouch2006]

Hey Grouch! Are you still on?
Posted by slim1h2o at 08:10 AM : Sep 13, 2008

I took a snooze for a while. The wind is dying down, there was steady rain for a half hour, but that''s tapered off as well.

The sun is up. The ground is scattered with leaves, twigs, and small branches that blew off trees. The plant stand blew over and broke the flower pots - again. That thing falls over every time you walk past, I''m putting it in the garage. But I digress.

Still no electricity. We still have phone and water. The kids are awake and having cereal. I didn''t open the fridge all night, so the milk is still cool.

Ike has gone past Houston to the east. It is now over Conroe. It''s still a cat 1 hurricane, with sustained winds of 90 mph and gusts up to 130 mph.

Thanks for your concern, for all who asked and all who THOUGHT about me! :-)

[slim1h2o]

lewiston14 at 08:17 AM : Sep 13, 2008

Yup, very well could be that he''s asleep, or resting his eyes.

I''m sure all is well in his locale.

[lewiston14]

Slim im sure he was awake all night keeping an eye on things, Maybe he needed some rest but those winds he was talking about could have brought down some wires

[slim1h2o]

Posted by txgrouch2006 at 06:35 AM : Sep 13, 2008

Hey Grouch! Are you still on? Or have you lost power since your 6:35 post?

Hope evrything is going well for you guys!

[lewiston14]

txgrouch2006: Ike moving 20 miles east should be good for you as I recall you were 50 miles west. Do keep your head down as those winds can send glass and other things flying at you. Lew

[lewiston14]

txgrouch2006: thanks for the reports. I trust your eyes and reports more then any news channel. I was looking at the moving maps and this thing seems in no hurry to leave yet. I would have thought it would have been further inland by now then is is.

[txpatriot4us]

My prayers are for those still in harms way. Those who decided to ride it out and jeopardize the safety and lives of their families to prove something, are now facing reality...just too late huh?

[txgrouch2006]

LOL! That photo of Tommy Scarborough hanging onto a pole gets MY vote for FUNNIEST PHOTO from this storm.

I''m afraid there will be other photos that aren''t so funny. But thanks for keeping our spirits up anyhow!

[txgrouch2006]

Looking at the radar loop - Ike was headed straight for Freeport, until the eye wall got near the coast.

Then the eye abruptly wobbled about 20 miles east, as if the eye rolled along the coast. Then it jumped right into Galveston Bay, now it''s on top of Baytown.

I''ve seen hurricanes follow the coast to the WEST, but this one rolled along to the EAST.

You just never know what a hurricane will do. NONE of the computer models predicted that.

Now we''re getting some stronger wind gusts here. But the wind is almost calm between gusts.

[txgrouch2006]

BTW, EVERYTHING is a sign from God.

We''re just too dense to be able to read it.

[txgrouch2006]

I think this is a sign from GOD;he giveth and he can taketh away; he probably trying to send a message to all of us that it''''s time to make a change; make the world a better place.
Posted by knoop81 at 04:24 AM : Sep 13, 2008

He''s been doing that since Noah. Humans still haven''t learned.

The fact that we''ve survived this long, in spite of our best efforts to wipe ourselves out, is PROOF that we are receiving divine intervention - from SOMEWHERE. Surely no human power is doing ANYTHING to save us from ourselves. Even this hurricane.

Whatever is responsible for us surviving in spite of ourselves, it isn''t human. And it has powers superior to ours.

A superior non-human power that is saving us from certain doom - doom caused mostly by our own stupidity.

Sounds like God to me.

[txgrouch2006]

Ike has passed over Baytown, 25 miles east of Houston. This will somewhat reduce the storm surge in the bay and cut down on flooding.

Ike is a category 2 hurricane with 110 mph sustaind winds and gusts up to 130 mph. It will weaken rapidly now that it''s over land.

Here on the west side of Houston, the wind has not incresed much from what it was at 9 pm. We''re getting only light rain. Flashes of lightining are visible, but I can''t hear any thunder. The wind blowing across my chimney is making a soft drumming sound. But the kids are still asleep.

So far, so good for us. Prayers for those closer to the coast.

[ajaxtheleast]

Frankly, George, I''m torn between this thing

turning into a tropical depression saving a couple

of our oil facilities and becoming a

Catagory 5 saving our having to look at
the headline,

"Suicide Bommber kills 32 and injures 70 in Iraq".

[txgrouch2006]

The wind is gusty, and some rain has started. Electricity is out, but we still have phone and water.

I lost internet on this air card for an hour or so. Now we''re back online.

[knoop81]

I think this is a sign from GOD;he giveth and he can taketh away; he probably trying to send a message to all of us that it''s time to make a change; make the world a better place. I know politics aren''t going to be able to fix anything. They are just worried about how they look in there expensive suits and money. Nobody has control over anything in america anymore face it. What happens to this being a free country anyway. There is no freedom. So there.... I want send my prayers out to all that are being affected buy hurricane IKE. May GOD be with you!!! and one more thing it doesn''t matter where you live there is always sometime tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, blizzard so again get real you can''t tell me there isn''t something dangerous almost anywhere you go in the desert there are scorpions, swamplands alligators, everybody has poisonous snake and spiders. so where are you suppose to go that is danger free

[knoop81]

I think this is a sign from GOD;he giveth and he can taketh away; he probably trying to send a message to all of us that it''s time to make a change; make the world a better place. I know politics aren''t going to be able to fix anything. They are just worried about how they look in there expensive suits and money. Nobody has control over anything in america anymore face it. What happens to this being a free country anyway. There is no freedom. So there.... I want send my prayers out to all that are being affected buy hurricane IKE. May GOD be with you!!! and one more thing it doesn''t matter where you live there is always sometime tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, blizzard so again get real you can''t tell me there isn''t something dangerous almost anywhere you go in the desert there are scorpions, swamplands alligators, everybody has poisonous snake and spiders. so where are you suppose to go that is danger free