IKE---Yike!

[Qweaver]

We just got phone calls from one brave neighbor that waded in to look ay our houses.  Ours is still standing and appears OK from a distance.  There is still about 2' of standing water so who knows how deep it got to.  Where our house sets is about 8' above normal tide and then the bottom of the house is 8' above that.  My workshop and small renthouse (about 4 miles to the east) are also still standing.  We'll know more tomorrow when Sonya can get back down from Houston.  I guess the cabin will go on hold while we make a trip back south.  I'm getting to old for this!  :
Quinton

[Texas Ranger]

Mother in law and two bro in laws live in Nasa Bay, on the creek.  We have no idea whats happened there, they are here.

[WDH]

TR,

Sure hope your shop and that woodworking equipment survive the high water.  Sounds like there was a good bit of timber damage .  Very happy to hear that y'all are safe. 

[Roxie]

Would like to hear y'all are ok today.  Keep us posted. 

[Bibbyman]

We missed most of the rain from the other system CLL talked about – only getting a few light showers and sprinkle here and there now and them. The "train" went north of us by only 20 miles or so.

But Ike hit us about sundown last night and continues to dump rain.  I have no idea how much we've got already but we didn't need it.  And it looks like we got at least a couple of hours more of heavy rain.

I did see where Geraldo reported that Hooters was gone there in Galveston.  I wondered if it busted up or floated off?  :

Update....

I just looked outside at it started to get light.  Our local stream is flooding it's banks. It's as bad now as it got in the floods of 93-95.  And it looks to be still rising.





The stream's channel is probably about 30 yards wide at the top.  Here it has to be at least 50 yards out in the field.  You can see a small spot between the trees where the creek channel is.

[scsmith42]

I did see where Geraldo reported that Hooters was gone there in Galveston.  I wondered if it busted up or floated off?  :

Bibby, I'm glad to see that you're keeping abreast of the situation.  Considering their location, the deck was probably stacked against them.   :

[mike_van]

In the mid 80's, we stayed right on the seawall in Galveston, place called Captains Cove. There was a huge resturant called The Flagship right up the street.  It must be a mess now.  On the road from Galveston to Houston, we drove past a refinery, must have been 2 miles long.  Storms, they sure can make most man-made things seem pretty fragile.

[Texas Ranger]

Galveston basically does not exist, as a city, and the Flagship is gone, as is any thing on the boardwalks out from the sea wall, the seawall held, and a lot of the damage is flood from the back side, where there is no seawall.

We are 200 miles inland, and it was a Cat 1 when it went to the west of us, eye wall was about 20 miles west of where I am.  We have minor damage in our subdivision, but major the closer to the eye wall.  I will have some pictures when everything gets back to normal, when ever that may be.

Loss of life at this time seems minimal, although they are still going through the rubble on Galveston.  Houston hosts 20 percent of the US fuel production, so, there ya go.  No word on how bad the problem is in the refineries, they have a good emergency plan so the loss should be minimal.

God grant that no one has to live through these things, they are intense, this is my second in 3 years, you guys in Florida have it worse, how, I would not try to figure out.  It is a mess, one time or multiples.

[WDH]

So Point Blank must have got it point blank.  I bet Lake Livingston was riled. 

[Texas Ranger]

Local news is slow to trickle in, don't have anything on San Jacinto County, but the furthest west I went the worse it got, liquor store in Onalaska is open, I was told, so may have to make a beer run.

[Bibbyman]

Our creek (see above) rose a little and then started to drop.  It's running bank full now.  Water standing in the fields.

It's cleared off and windy although we did get another pretty good shower about an hour ago.

Back in the 93-95 floods,  it would sometimes be flash floods from local rain and then sometimes it would be backwater from the Missouri River.  But then it went on for months - not a few hours.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  We got 6 inches of rain and 50 mph winds here in the Ozarks.  Power out in places and trees down everywhere.  Ike came through in about 12 hours and most of it was last night.  Every thing at the mill is fine but for two stacks of lumber that will have to be restickered and a few limbs picked up.  I left Myrtle Beach S.C. after "Hugo" and the DanG things are comming up here now.  This is two in a month so when is the next one?

[pineywoods]

I got hit pretty hard by the outer bands on the east side of Ike. Very heavy rain and 60 mph winds, but they usually lasted about 30 minutes, then reasonable calm, followed by another band. Everything survived ok, Gustave had already cleaned house last week :

[Mooseherder]

The News reels are coming in and some areas are looking devasted.   :(
Pretty sad indeed.  Wishing everyone affected the best recovery possible.

[Grawulf]

Ohio just got the brunt of what's left of Ike's winds - lost the top out of a humoungous..... humongous......BIG cherry. Went out to look at it - it bee full of honey! Half of the hive is still up in the air and the other half on the ground. Bees aren't too pleased about it. Watched a beech by the house kick up the ground around it - one of those trees I knew that I need to take down.....I'd best get some rope in town tomorrow and stop procrastinating  :  It'll take me a while to get down the driveway tomorrow morning. Son's house to the south of us had a tree fall on it. Will find out how bad tomorrow. Keep your heads covered in Pa and NY! 

[pigman]

We had a little wind from the remains of Ike here today. Winds measured in Louisville at over 75 MPH, a lot of barns down in my area. I lost an old hog building stacked  full of lumber. The south side of my house roof looks like a half plucked chicken. I am one of the lucky ones in the area to still have power.  We are not supposed to get winds like that this far from the coast.   On the positive side, I will have plenty of blown down trees for fire wood. :

[DanG]

75mph in Campbellsburg?   That's DanG near unbelievable!  I really hate that some of you who are not accustomed to, or prepared for those kinds of winds, had to bear up to it.  I've been watching these things for a lot of years, and I've never seen one take TS force winds that far inland.  However, if it had not picked up speed day before yesterday, and not gone from 8mph to 13mph while it was in the Gulf of Mexico, it would have totally devastated Eastern Texas.  As it is, they are suffering from heavy damage, but if it had continued to linger in the Gulf, it would have built up to a CAT5 in just a few hours.  Those buildings that lost windows would have been totally destroyed.  There would have been hundreds, or thousands, of people killed, and the oil refineries would have been TOAST!

I just hope that this storm will be the wakeup call for Texas that Katrina was for Louisiana and Mississippi.  They have their act together now, as much as is possible with their elevation problems, and are still working hard to make themselves safer.

Ol' NIMBY has been pretty effective at keeping power plants, refineries, and landfills away from those Hoity-Toity neighborhoods where people don't want to be offended by the realities of life, but Hurricanes and other such natural disasters don't got no respect for NIMBY at all!  I heard that Galveston doesn't really exist anymore.  Well, that's pretty sad, but wouldn't this be a good time to find a nice piece of land away from the beach and build a new town named Galveston?  People like the beach, for whatever mindless reason, so the State or Federal Government could buy up all the land there and make it a Park, so all the people could go out there and get sand in their....er...swimsuit.  Then they could sell some different land to the people who just got washed away. :

[pigman]

According to the weatherman on the boob tube, we got caught between the low pressure of Ike and a high pressure east of us .  We only had about 5 hours of the high winds. I notice Faron has not been on since this morning. His area was als also hit hard by the winds, I hope he and others in that area are ok.

[ScottAR]

It came through here with 35 mph winds and lots of rain.  No major flooding.
Lots of limbs down and some fallen trees.  I hear tell a building at the cotton
gin across town lost it's roof completely. 

Nearly dodged a bullet as about 60-70 miles north got 65+ mph gusts and lots
more damage.   I hope TomE and Semologger are ok. 

The crop report via store rumor mill.
The early planted rice took a major beating, looks like a wedding aftermath.
The late rice isn't so bad.  Green stuff can still bend I guess.
Corn looks ratty but will probably be alright.
Early cotton got wet, Late isn't open yet. 

[Faron]

Still here, Pigman!  Hey! We ain't supposed to have hurrycanes in Indiana!  We had a church picnic scheduled for a shelterhouse in the state forest.  We went ahead with it, figuring everything looked like it was going north of here.  We ate, and then called it a day, as trees in the forest behind the shelter started coming down.  I had to use the saw a time or two to get home.  Power was out, Faron's kid and her kids were in Lexington KY and couldn't come home.  We checked cattle fences and made emergency repairs.  Have to get out now and fix them right.  On the brighter side, a friend had been looking for me, and happened upon us on a back road.  He had a leaner tree broken at the bottom in danger of falling on his house.  He was pretty concerned.  We notched it and dropped it in a safe area.  He's a Democrat, and now he has to vote for John McCain. 8) 

[OneWithWood]

Faron, glad to hear you weathered the storm OK.  I wonder how Flip made out.  His place sits on a hill with very little to dissipate the winds.
Winds got upwards of 35mph with major gusts being much higher (heard reports of 81mph).  I have not seen trees dance that much since the hurricanes I went through in Elizabeth City, NC.  Heard a couple of big ka-thuds but I have not ventured out into the woods to investigate.  It was dark when I left the house this morning.
The last big lightning storm we had killed the largest sassafrass tree in Monroe Co. that was always a good attraction for visitors to our woods.  I wonder if these winds brought it down.
I don't think I will be at a loss for firewood.

Cedarman, you OK? 

Folks in northern Illinois, northern Indiana and Michigan got pounded pretty hard too.  How about some news from up that way?

My heart goes out to all the folks along the gulf coast.  It sure has been a tough couple of years for you.

[Cedarman]

We had gale force winds for about 5 hours.  Never have seen such long lasting high winds.  Knocked all the walnuts and 1/2 the persimmons off the trees.  That's the minor damage.  Most everyone without juice.  We will be without for a good bit as a big limb took down our line from house to road.  Using generator to supply juice to freezer, refridge and computer.  Mill is on 3 phase and was off for about 10 hours.  We are back to running today with 1/2 people.  Others can't be contacted.  Lots of trees blocked the roads.  Had one huge one busted out at 25 feet and angled across road.  Could drive under.  Went this morning with loader and pushed it down and cut it up enough for big trucks to get through.  When cutting up downed trees one old fellow stopped to help and could only use one arm but stayed until we got the road cleared.  Another place some young people stopped to move just enough debris so they could get in their car and leave me with a big mess to move.  Luckily an older neighbor stopped and helped get the rest of the stuff off the road.  Next time I will just block the road until I get them cut up and moved.  Some people bend over backwards to help and others just freeload.   Son went in to help the fire dept all afternoon and evening until they got all their roads cleared.  Yard looks like it is a carpet of leaves.

[Faron]

Faron'skid just called. She is on I64 in Dubois Co Indiana.  She is seeing corn flat on the ground from the storm.  I don't envy those guys their harvesting job this fall. Ours is still standing good, though I have seen and heard of some down to varying degrees around here.  Got all the fences more or less up and going this morning.  One of our bulls and the neighbor's bull had switched pastures. :  Ya don't suppose a whirlwind switched them, do you? ;)

[Greg]

We got clobbered in SW Ohio by the remnants of the storm

Never seen anything like what we got yesterday, in my lifetime. 50mph *sustained* winds from about 2 to 5pm yesterday. Gust to 70+. But NO RAIN  ???

90% of Cincinnati and surrounding areas were without power, down to about 75% today. *All* schools, many businesses closed. What gas stations are open have long lines, accepting cash only.

We are going on 10 hours at home without power. Bye bye groceries...

On the bright side, Definitely will improve firewood scrounging in the area, thought ;)

The white pines and silver maples took the brunt of the damage. Oldest buckeye trees in Ohio (near columbus?) was basically blown up yesterday.

Greg

[beenthere]

..............  One of our bulls and the neighbor's bull had switched pastures. :  Ya don't suppose a whirlwind switched them, do you? ;)

Da grass is ALWAYS greener on da udder side....  ;D ;D ;D 8) 8)