PHOTOS: Effects Of Ike (Most Recent and Earlier Today)

[Hissyspit]

JULIO CORTEZ: CHRONICLE
Palm trees along Highway 332 in Lake Jackson sway in the gusty winds from Hurricane Ike as the Dod Chemical Plant is seen hours before landfall on Friday in Surfside Beach.





A video monitor, at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, shows an enhanced radar image of Hurricane Ike as it comes ashore on Galveston, Texas, at about 3:10 a.m. ET Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008. According to forecasters, Ike arrived as a strong Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 110 mph. (AP Photo/Andy Newman)





An uncontrolled fire burns in the distance as the eye of hurricane Ike goes over Galveston, Texas, Saturday morning, Sept. 13, 2008. Local fire fighters are unable to work the flames until the storm passes. As of 3 a.m. EDT, Ike was centered about 10 miles southeast of Galveston, moving at 10 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. (AP Photo/LM Otero)





BRETT COOMER: CHRONICLE
City of Galveston employees Michael Carachel, left, and Frank Perez bed down on the floor as they take shelter from Hurricane Ike in the San Luis Hotel in Galveston on Friday night.





MAYRA BELTRAN: CHRONICLE
Sisters Ingrid and Lisa Longoria along with their mother Lorena Longoria watch a battery-operated TV in the dark after the lights went out around 8 p.m. in Pearland as Hurricane Ike approaches the Galveston coast.





SMILEY N. POOL: CHRONICLE
Waves crash over the seawall as two men walk near a memorial to victims of the deadly 1900 storm on Galveston Island.





JULIO CORTEZ: CHRONICLE
Max Hall, a resident of Surfside Beach, gets help from Surfside Beach Police Department officer Tom Little as Hall and his wife Diane Hall, made last-minute evacuation from Surfside Beach.





JULIO CORTEZ: CHRONICLE
Dondi Fields, 50, holds on to her dog Sandy Beach Friday after they, along with her husband, David, were rescued from their home at Surfside Beach. Earlier in the day, David Fields denied offers of assistance from officials trying to get them to evacuate.





ERIC GAY: AP
Surfside Beach Police Chief Randy Smith talks with Elizabeth Taylor on her way out of town. Taylor 's husband planned to remain behind.





JOHNNY HANSON: CHRONICLE
Frank Urbina and his wife Celia, who were bed ridden in their home on 57th St. when the street filled with waist-deep water, are evacuated by boat as Hurricane Ike approached Galveston.





MAYRA BELTRAN: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Alfredo Garza, 60, Magnolia resident, looks up at swinging trees as he feels a breeze while moving objects in his yard to a safe place as he prepares to hunker down in his house in Houston, TX.





MELISSA PHILLIP: CHRONICLE
Galveston Police Sgt. Renaye Ochoa holds a dog named, Pete, as she assists Chris Hendricks and Belle Kenney, 93, along with officer Jeremy Smart from a rescue boat in the West End in Galveston.





JOHNNY HANSON: CHRONICLE
On the corner of Rosenberg and Market Ave, water had risen a foot-and-a-half on the Strand as Hurricane Ike approached Galveston Island.





JOHNNY HANSON: CHRONICLE
A fire looms over the marina on the east end of Galveston as Hurricane Ike made its way to Galveston Island.





MELISSA PHILLIP: CHRONICLE
Angie Fleener kisses her dog Hally who was put into the back of a Galveston City dump truck for a ride to a shelter after they were rescued from high water in the west end in Galveston.





SMILEY N. POOL: CHRONICLE
A house is engulfed in flames as floodwaters and crashing waves inundate beach homes on Galveston Island Friday





GUY REYNOLDS: AP
Bill Murphy, second from right, waits with three rescuers for a boat to pull them to safety after Murphy's wife, Barbara, and two others were rescued from floodwaters by a Coast Guard helicopter in High Island.





SHARON STEINMANN: CHRONICLE
Businesses along Fairmont Parkway in Pasadena boarded their windows ahead of Hurricane Ike.





BRETT COOMER: CHRONICLE
Chase Griffin of Galveston walks through floodwaters after checking on a boat storage facility that caught fire Friday in Galveston.





JULIO CORTEZ: CHRONICLE
Surfside Beach officers look over the shoulder of a meteorologist from The Weather Channel while he takes wind readings on Highway 332 as gusty winds began to show force during Hurricane Ike's arrival.





KIM CHRISTENSEN: AP
Two dogs were left in a backyard in San Leon Friday as the storm surge from Hurricane Ike rose.





BRETT COOMER: CHRONICLE
Sean Rumgay, 15, stands in floodwaters lapping up to his front door near the historic downtown area of Galveston.





JOHNNY HANSON: CHRONICLE
Frank Urbina and his wife Celia, who were bed ridden in their home on 57th St. when the street filled with waist-deep water, are evacuated by boat as Hurricane Ike approached Galveston.





JOHNNY HANSON: CHRONICLE
Frank Urbina and his wife Celia, who were bed ridden in their home on 57th St. when the street filled with waist-deep water, are evacuated by boat as Hurricane Ike approached Galveston.

[Hissyspit]

1. Current Radar:

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Hard to sleep tonight, isn't it?

Having been thru a few of these, I found my brief dreams were full of disturbing images, remnants of Katrina , of Ivan, of others.
People who do not live in the area don't understand how connected we all feel to each other along the Gulf. Although I am pleased to have missed bad weather this time around, I would be much happier if no one had to have their first storm experience.

[aquart]

4. I don't live there, but I can't sleep either.

I remember the weekend spent waiting for Katrina. I'm lower Manhattan. Different sort of disaster. I thought Katrina was worse.

[eshfemme]

3. Is there any sign that Ike will disperse or wane soon?

[Hissyspit]

5. Eye has closed. Moving into northeast TX and Arkansas tomorrow. Over a foot of rain tomorrow

in east Texas.

[Hissyspit]

6. Weather Channel: Reports of people on roofs in Orange County/Beaufort/Port Arthur nt

[Hissyspit]

7. From DUer sfexpat2000:

"reporter I'm listening to is describing calls to 911 that can't be responded to, including one where the caller said the house was falling apart around them."

[JeanGrey]

13. This is what happens when you don't leave.

[Hissyspit]

8. Weather Channel: Reports of Houston Flooding, Tornado north of city. TX Gov. Spokesperson: Largest

search and rescue in Texas history probably.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080913/ap_on_re_us/ike

- snip -

Though it would be daybreak before the storm's toll was clear, already, the damage was extensive. Thousands of homes and government buildings had flooded, roads were washed out and several fires burned unabated as crews could not reach them. But the biggest fear was that tens of thousands of people had defied orders to flee and would need to be rescued from submerged homes and neighborhoods.

"The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in ... 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.

The eye of the storm powered ashore at 3:10 a.m. EDT at Galveston with 110 mph winds, just shy of a Category 3 storm. Because Ike was so huge — nearly as big as Texas itself — hurricane winds pounded the coast for hours before landfall and would continue through much of the morning, forecasters said.

MORE

[Hissyspit]

9. Weather Channel: Galveston Storm Surge reached 11 feet.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

15. far cry from the 20+ they were predicting

From the pics, it doesn't look as bad as they had feared.

[K Gardner]

10. Now I'll wonder all day about the damned dogs.. who would leave them to drown??

[here_is_to_hope]

14. Yeah, it bugs the poop out of me but

I try hard to remember that animals are badasses, they will find a way to survive and then eat the bastards who left them behind!

[eowyn_of_rohan]

17. Fire Dept. cut the lock off the fence and allowed them to escape.

Hopefully they all three (inc. a chihuahua) survived.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3987303

[Hissyspit]

11. Houston Chronicle: Downtown Houston Taking Brunt Now

http://blogs.chron.com/hurricanes/2008/09/downtown_houston_taking_the_br.html

September 13, 2008

Downtown Houston taking the brunt now

It's 4 a.m. and Ike's hurricane force winds are battering downtown, together with driving rain. Restaurant awnings and other debris are being blown down the streets.

Trees are down, windows have been blown out of the Chase Tower.

A team of reporters, editors, photographers and other personnel is riding the storm out at the Chronicle's downtown building. Saturday's paper was printed earlier in the evening, but will only be delivered when it's safe for the trucks to go out on the street.

[Hissyspit]

12. Stranded Galveston Residents Call in Vain for Help

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5998693.html

Stranded Galveston residents call in vain for help
Power outage totals across region approaching 1.5 million

By DALE LEZON and LINDSAY WISE Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 13, 2008, 5:03AM

As Hurricane Ike surged onto Galveston Island this morning, many of the estimated 23,000 residents who ignored a mandatory evacuation order phoned for rescues to no avail because emergency workers were called off the streets, officials said.

Help wasn't expected until after dangerous storm conditions subsided.

The center officially landed at 2:10 a.m. and whipped the barrier island with sustained winds as strong as 110 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm surge was expected to be as high as 14 feet to 17 feet at Galveston and possibly greater in Chambers County to the northeast.
Ike also waylaid the regional power grid. CenterPoint Energy spokesman Floyd LeBlanc said the number of customers in the dark was approaching 2 million, which is approximately the total. Downtown and the Medical Center, which have underground lines, were the only large areas to retain reliable power, and it could take several weeks to get everyone back on the grid, he said.

The center was over eastern Houston and Harris County at 4 a.m., heading northwest. It still packed the same winds it came ashore with and was doing damage to building exteriors and windows in downtown Houston.

It also continued to whip Galveston as it pulled away, leaving what officials feared would be a grim day ahead even after storm subsides.
"We don't know what we're going to find tomorrow," said the city's mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas. "We hope we'll find that the people who didn't leave here are alive and well."
City Manager Steve LeBlanc went so far as to ask the media not to photograph "certain things" in the aftermath, referring to the possibility of dead bodies.
In Austin, state emergency officials said water was encroaching from both ends of the island as well as over the seawall. The University of Texas Medical Branch was taking on water, officials said.

- snip -

Earlier Friday, Galveston's Steve LeBlanc expressed dismay that so much of the city's population remained behind to ride out the storm.
''It's unfortunate that the warning we sent out the mayor's mandatory evacuation was not heeded,'' he said.
By comparison, nearly 100 percent of Galveston left the island during Hurricane Rita, just three years ago.

[rainbow4321]

16. Live stream talked about a lady who just got to one of the shelters

Said that she and her family were in neck high water as they tried to make their way to the shelter.

I dread to think of the pics/video we will be seeing now that it's daylight.

[peekaloo]

18. Best wishes for those in Ike's path.

I lived in Houston for 17 years and was a frequent visitor to Galveston. A lot of sadness seeing these pics.

A local station in Florida kept a Houston feed on air throughout the night and most of their coverage was devoted to Brennan's burning down. Don't know if that was a result of weather or misfortune.

[geomon666]

19. Some shots from KHOU.com

Clayton W. Mills III captured these photos in Freeport, Texas.



An 11 News viewer sent these pictures of Ike from Seabrook and Baytown.



This picture is from League City and Kemah. The streets are flooded on Hwy 2094 / 518.