You definitely don't need to leave, but boarding up the south and east sides of your house is never a bad idea for a large hurricane. If your house is relatively new, you probably don't need to worry about it, but it can save your windows for sure. In a storm like this, if you are 50 miles+ inland, the chances of feeling SUSTAINED winds of more than 100 mph is not terribly high. The further inland you get - particularly for a storm like this that will probably have a small eye - the less likely you are to have hurricane force winds. The latest NHC advisory has this thing at TS strength less than 24 hours after landfall. That means it should weaken rapidly, unlike Rita which was a much more powerful storm for a longer period of time. Someone quoted an old, but accurate axiom: Run from water, hide from wind. I'll likely board up my windows and just ride out the storm in north Houston with my mom to avoid having to sit through all the nasty wind we'll get in central Houston. But, I'm not worried about my house collapsing or anything like that. This isn't like a tornado. Decent houses will do just fine unless they get hit by a tornado - needle in a haystack - or have a tree fall on them, and it would have to be a MASSIVE tree that falls to take out the whole house.
Having gone through Rita 50+ miles inland, I can say that it is a good idea to board up windows. It's really hard to know what sort or debris will get lofted into the air and make it's way towards your house. My house was smashed by a huge, galvanized steel barn that was torn apart. A 30 foot section of the house was a wall unprotected windows and they made it just fine... but the garage and laundry room was trashed by huge steel chunks that made it through 3/4 inch plywood and 2x6 walls. It sounded like our house was being shelled by howitzers.
Did anyone watch Frank Billingsley tonight? Holy cow, dude has had way too much coffee and Red Bulls. I thought Bill Baeza was going to slap him and yell "calm down!!! get ahold of yourself!!!" *wack*
A bunch of us started getting late afternoon calls checking on availability for Ike response. It would really have to be serious for FEMA to charter flights for firefighters to come assist... so I hope to not see any of you in the next few days. Be smart and stay safe... and please don't take any chances if kids are involved.
Alicia did a bunch of damage, but Houston was on its feet again pretty quickly afterwards. If it weren't for all the gravel on the skyscrapers downtown, damage would have been minimized. The biggest impact for 99% of people IN Houston if this track holds true is no power.
Alicia was pretty impactful...tons and tons of damage....the most expensive storm in Texas' history. We didn't have power for roughly 2 weeks. Not devastating...but still a major pain in the ass. But the evacuations he's talking about would be for Galveston...and they missed mandatory evacuations there.
I'm near Clay and Fry, yo. Last year, we boarded up the house (2-story) and had many peeps stay here, but no cigar with Rita. We had fun being together and telling stories. The kids had a blast playing outside in the REALLY STRONG WINDS. We tied the backyard thingies (slides, trampoline, tree, etc.) together and they stayed put. We have no large trees, since we're about a 6-year-old neighborhood. Get some of them TIE thingies you have in your car. Good luck, man.
It doesn't. The map you see from Weather Underground shows it making landfall as a cat 3 and going down to a TS less than 24 hours after landfall.
Damn it! I live on the third floor at my apt. complex with stupid tree limbs 10 ft from my window. I don't know if I wanna evacuate or tough it out. People in apts, how did you fare during Rita? I lived in a house when that hurricane hit.
That's really not true. There were thousands of homes with major flood damage and damage from flying debris and tornadoes. Most of the skyscrapers downtown had multiple broken windows and there was glass on the streets downtown for more than a week that forced road closures. I'm not in the "this is doomsday" crowd at all. I don't believe all our houses will collapse and those who leave will return home to face post apocalyptic Houston. However, this is nothing to sneeze at. It's a bad mofo of a storm and whoever has to sit through it will not have any fun doing it.
i think you'll be safe as long as this doesn't happen <img src=http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/events/Rita/Picture_016.JPG>
I posted yesterday that latitude 25-N was the key point that the models were showing a west to wnw movement. Well Ike is there now but right now we still have a NW movement.
Be smart and be safe people. Hurricanes are one of the many things I don't have to worry about in KY, unless they are heading toward people I tend to care about.
Well, true I guess. In Spring we lost some trees and power and not much else, I guess I'm lucky to be on the NW side. I DO remember the main reason all the glass was broken downtown was because in those days they topped off the skyscrapers with gravel and they basically became window bullets during the hurricane. I don't think they allow that anymore.
