My dead grandpa's farts are stronger than this overhyped "storm". Good old media and government whipping everybody into a frenzy over nothing.
Okay this is a serious post. If I live in NW houston, near Cypress kinda, should I expect not to have power? Should i load up on some canned foods n stuff?
All I know is, as long as you are not truly screwing anyone over - no shame in calling in if you plan to evacuate or (on Friday) if the highways are going to be clogged for your commute like they were during the Rita panic exodus. Use vacation days if need be, but no sense in killing yourself over a day or two at the job. I'm going in today but will have ZERO qualms about staying home tomm if the evacuations get crazy tonight. Evan
We came up last night to stay with my dad who is 79 and lives alone. We are at Spring Cypress and 290. Good chance of power outages. Probably Sat. evening or whenever the worst of it gets that far inland. Right now it all depends on the path of the storm. We can expect at worst possibly 80-90 mph winds in the Cypress area if the bad part crosses near enough. Hopefully it won't be that windy but, Stock up to be prepared.
Hey bro, im on 290 and west road, i saw that we should be expecting 85mph winds and if this thing gets to Cat4 then we'll be getting 100+ winds. we're on the west part of town, so we'll get the bad side of town.
http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2008/09/post_47.html Ike coming dangerously close to Houston area Good evening. The track forecast for Ike tonight has edged significantly closer to the Houston-Galveston area, now bringing the storm ashore near Freeport. As I wrote a few years ago, for Houston's sake, this is just about the worst possible place a storm could make landfall. If the forecast remains centered upon Brazoria County and especially Freeport -- and of course that's a big if -- I would expect widespread evacuations in southeast Harris County and Galveston County to be called Thursday morning. I am not one to make editorial comments, but I am surprised that Galveston County has not yet called for a mandatory evacuation. There will, of course, be fluctuations in the forecast location during the next two days, prior to landfall late Friday or early Saturday. Areas from Corpus Christi to southwestern Louisiana remain potential landfall sites. But as of now Houston couldn't be much more at risk than it is. Perhaps the only saving grace is that, thus far, Ike's winds have not substantially increased this evening. At this time the storm's sustained winds remain 100 mph. But forecasters anticipate strengthening over night as Ike's central pressure -- another indication of intensity -- has been steadily falling during the last six hours. The official forecast calls for a 125-mph hurricane at landfall, a strong category 3 system. For those who remember Hurricane Alicia in 1983, it came ashore with 115 mph winds. Such a storm could create a significant surge. There are two key steering currents at work that will determine where Ike ultimately makes landfall. The first is a high pressure system centered over Florida and Georgia. If this strengthens it should steer Ike westward, into Texas near Matagorda Bay. The second feature is a trough of low pressure moving southward across the central plains. If this trough drops down deep enough it could create a weakness in the ridge of high pressure and allow Ike to make a northward turn sooner, bringing the storm to Galveston. Check back tomorrow for updates, as well as a chat at 2 p.m.
New 06z tracks are starting to come out. Most are the same. But there have been shifts in the GFDL and the HWRF. The GFDL has shifted southward to Matagorda Bay/Palacious: 06z GFDL And the HWRF has shifted northward towards Port Lavaca or on the west side of Matagorda Bay: 06z HWRF
Some paths I've seen on tv have the eye coming over Fort Bend county. I don't like that. My house is 6 years old. I guess we'll see how well it was put together.
I'm in Fort Bend also, in a 2 year old house. Like mine, your house was probably built with hurricane straps from the studs to the roof so that makes me feel safer. Also since I'm in a new neighborhood there are no big trees.
Morning all. Ike is a weird storm. It saw a rapid intensification phase yesterday in terms of pressure dropping into the 940's, but the wind speed, remarkably, didn't increase. It has leveled off this morning and I can't really see an eye on infared. Visible satellite in a few hours will help, but now none of the intensity forecasts call for a cat 4 at landfall and only one (the HWRF) is looking at a strong cat 3. The GFDL, which has consistently been the most aggressive, has a storm with 80kt winds hitting near Bay City. I don't think this changes anything. I still think we're looking at a major hurricane at landfall, but Ike will need to get organized today if we expect to get anything worse. The forecast track is still highly uncertain - at least for us - with models ranging from south of Port Lavaca to just east of High Island. With the shift in the GFDL and no movement from the UKMET or HWRF of significance, I can't see the NHC moving its track much, but it does appear our landfall will be between Matagorda Bay and Galveston. Because this is such a large hurricane, we're likely to get hurricane force winds virtually anywhere within that area unless it hits really right on Matagorda Bay. Even then, we'll get TS winds for a good solid day beginning late tomorrow. I'm probably going to go ahead and board up the house today just for safety. I can tell you one thing - next year (or this fall) - I'm installing those snap in things for boarding up the windows. By the way, for anyone asking if they should stay or go. I posted some info on that before and the Chron has good info on that. Basically, if you think you will flood, evacuate. If not, as the news guys like to say, hunker down. Boarding up windows is a good precaution against flying debris, but it isn't necessary. Anywhere inside the city center that is out of the flood or surge zone should be fine. North of I10 is even better. Anywhere north or west of the beltway is well out of serious harm's way.
Which would be a worse situation for Houston? Landfall west of Galveston, or east of Galveston. ...and If we get a landfall between Matagorda and Galveston, what kind of winds will central Houston be getting?
I still think it's too early to make that call safely, but I'm no expert. Just saw where these zips in Harris county have mandatory evacuation starting a noon today: 77058 77059 77062 77520 77546 77571 77586 77598
Well, the path looks like it's gonna put the dirty side of the storm directly over Houston... ...but it's still only a cat 2 in the gulf. If it hits land as a cat 2, it'll probably be a cat 1 when it hits Houston, which is nothing.
