Hurricane Ike

[surefire]

Best wishes/prayers for those in the crossheirs of Hurricane Ike.

NBC channel 3 reported over 20,000 people stayed on Galveston Island in Texas, hoping to ride this huge storm out.

If this figure is correct, and Weather Channel's forecast of 75% or more of the island being underwater, casualties may unfortunately be high.

Hopefully those who are riding it out are doing so in a well built building, at least 3 floors above ground level.

[Mink]

Yes, what a hugh storm. I have been praying too surefire.

[JustMyOpinion]

I just read this little tidbit and it gave me chills!

"Ike is 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."

I was in hurricane Alicia, it was a category 3 (Ike is just under a 2) and it was very frightening. Roofs were blown off, signs blown down, cars with windshields missing while bobbing up and down in the flooded streets, images that I will never forget.

During the storm in the middle of the night we'd decided to go outside to the car so we that could try to find some weather updates on the radio. Outside of our house the water was a good 3 feet deep and while we were wading through it to get to the car my friend said: hey, we'd better hurry up snakes will be out here. CRAP! We did find a radio station that was operating and we heard that a tornado had touched down 2-3 blocks from where we were sitting, needless to say we ran back into the house. As the night progressed we saw colorful explosions usually a bright blue green color, we figured out it was the electrical transformers blowing up and one was right by our house. The colors were bright since looking out of the window all you could see was complete darkness it was very scary, and occasionally to our surprise we would see a vehicle go past (we lived on a main street) and the headlights would shine through the pelting rain and you could see that the rain was coming down in many different directions. Once daylight came the devastation was immediately obvious. The aftermath is what a war zone must look like, debris everywhere!

Yes, I feel for the people in Texas I know what they are going through. And, when you live there for any length of time you tend to ignore hurricane warnings since during hurricane season they are issued all the time and 99.9% of the time they lose force once they hit land. We were young and not prepared like many other people. For us spending extra money for supplies was not possible, and especially since the warning was not convincing, and we did live inland so the threat didn't seem so real. Sort of like living here we all know a big earthquake will hit, yet we drive over bridges daily and live as if nothing will ever happen. Nothing like the force of nature!

My sympathy goes out to the people in Texas...

[The Big Dog]

Sept 13, 2008 11:47:52 GMT -5 JustMyOpinion said:

I just read this little tidbit and it gave me chills!

"Ike is the first major hurricane to hit a U.S. metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago."

Who ever wrote that should give you your money back. I believe that there a little blow a couple of weeks ago, Gustav by name, which came ashore as a category 3. New Orleans took the forward right side of the storm head on, which is the most powerful area in any northern hemisphere cyclonic storm.

I weep for what used to be the honorable profession of journalism.

And of course I continue to extend my thoughts to the people in the areas affected by Ike.

[JustMyOpinion]

Yes, Big Dog you're right. I was referring to Texas/Houston only and should've eliminated that sentence.