Odd photo from Ike devastation

[Minimus]

One would normally see this from a tornado but how did this house end up being the only thing left standing after Hurricane Ike?







I came across it while looking at the following power company website for my sis in TX.

http://entergy.com/Global/Gustav/images/ike_3_pictures.aspx

[islandmkl]

1. is it real or is it photoshop?

[Oilwellian]

8. I don't think it was

I saw another pic of the same house only it was from a different angle. It was also posted on I think Getty Images...could be wrong about the website but it was definitely a news source.

[jakem]

2. wow. that would be the contractor to use!

[99th_Monkey]

22. LOL - you made me laugh. Thanks. ~nt~

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. floated there?

photoshopped?

state farm ad?

[hedgehog]

43. That's my reaction - the house is still standing but it may

have started out on stilts several miles away.....

[yourout]

4. looks photoshopped.

[XemaSab]

13. It's not photoshopped

I've seen about 20 pictures from different angles.

[orwell]

5. Built by a Democratic...

...union crew?

[ColbertWatcher]

26. There ya go! n/t

[Oilwellian]

6. I saw that last night

Different angle, but same house. Very odd that it survived while everything around it was totally wiped out.

[KoKo]

44. The photo in the original Coast Guard Helo pass over had a white pick up truck in the front yard,

though. Maybe it's the angle of this photo that leaves it out? :shrug: I was struck by that house when I watched the Coast Guard film on the Houston Station this morning.

Now...I do wonder if it was somehow photoshopped in there.

[lapfog_1]

7. Not a structural engineer...

but my guess is

1) higher stilts

2) concrete pad for the stilts

3) Rock under the concrete (probably the concrete is bolted to the rock).

And it wasn't wind that wiped out everything else there, it was water (storm surge). Ike had damaging winds but not total devastation (Cat 4 or 5) winds. What it did have was a large (but thankfully a little less than feared) storm surge.

[Warpy]

30. Those were my guesses

Although it looks reasonably intact, closer inspection reveals it did lose one deck on the right of the house. It also seems to have roof damage.

There must have been a stairway from the lower level to the missing deck, also, otherwise there is no way into that house.

However, it's remarkably well built to have survived when so many other places were smashed to splinters. I would imagine that the supports are reinforced concrete instead of the usual wood stilts.

[petronius]

39. And I wouldn't be surprised if that homeowner took a lot of shit from his neighbors

over 'spending all that extra money' and overbuilding...

[Mabus]

9. Freaky things happen in extreme weather

If you ever get a chance read Frank Laine's "Unusual Weather". It was a book I came across as a kid that really piqued my interest in weather and nature. It also helped that I grew up in OKC and was familiar with tornadoes.

fwiw, the house may have become detached and floated there. But that is incredible.

[liberal N proud]

10. New hurricane resistant construction?

No one can ever know the true power of nature.

[TornadoTN]

11. There are pictures from ABC13 helicopter that back this type of event up

They have finally been able to fly down Galveston Isle, and there are incidences like this all up and down the island. One house is standing amongst an ocean of debris or just bare space with a small suggestion of a slab where a house once stood.

[XemaSab]

12. Here's another photo of the same house:

Not only is the house standing, but it looks untouched. :shrug:

[Minimus]

15. Like others I thought it looked photoshopped but apparently it is "real"

it truly is one of the strangest things!

[KoKo]

45. But...the photo from the Chopper I saw earlier shows white pick up truck parked next to house..

and that's from the Coast Guard Chopper. :shrug: It looked strange then...and even stranger now.

[BOSSHOG]

14. Similar situation after Katrina in Slidell, Lousiana

on streets near the eastern edge of Lake Pontchartrain, many houses wiped out but a few on high stilts received little to no damage.

[Vickers]

16. I feel as sorry for the owners as for the ones who lost their houses.

There can be no joy in their "good luck."

[magellan]

17. Yes, there are a few amazing photos of that house

It should be studied to see why it survived while no others around it (for some distance) did. Despite a bit of damage it looks new; perhaps the stilts and their joins with the house were reinforced in a special way.

[io-solip]

18. There were a bunch of similar scenes after Andrew. It does seem weird but not all that rare.

...

[slackmaster]

19. Do we know for sure the house was in that spot before the storm?

:shrug:

[alfredo]

46. The driveway, walk and steps line up.

[meow mix]

20. thats gonna be one lonely neighborhood.

at least they have thier own road...

[Cleita]

21. If not photoshopped, it sure is a candidate for "The X-Files".

Let's see ET's protected it with a force field? A medicine man put a juju on it to make the wind go around it? The eye of the hurricane touched down on that spot and then lifted when it moved on?

[XemaSab]

23. All the other houses were raptured and that one was

"LEFT BEHIND?" :scared:

[ColbertWatcher]

25. LOL! Perfect! n/t

[screembloodymurder]

24. High ground and good construction.

That's how.

[intheflow]

35. Not on high ground.

It's right on the waterway. Check out XemaSab's post #12, upthread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4006343#4006401

[screembloodymurder]

47. Yes it is. I know the house.

It sits above the others.

[intheflow]

48. The ground is 8-15 feet above the other houses in the area?

:shrug:

[flvegan]

27. Honestly, it looks like the house and partial slab were moved.

From this pic, you can clearly see the street, and it lays pretty flush with the height of the yards. From this pic and Xema's pic below, that doesn't look like a street to the front of that house.

THAT would be a freak event.

[Blue Diadem]

28. Cnn has the same house, different view, labeled as an AP photo.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/09/15/hurricane.ike/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto


Think it was picture #4 in Gilchrist Tx.

Weird isn't it, that one house can be left while everything else is gone. I wonder if it was newer, built different or if it was just a matter of luck.

[islandmkl]

29. FEMA and the insurance carriers will now claim this house as 'proof'...

that damage was 'isolated and minimal'...


in the meantime, move along...and don't be looking for too many pictures...

[bemildred]

31. High ground. nt

[targetpractice]

32. Gilchrist, TX

I'm tying find the house on Google Maps satellite view. I'd like to see a "before" image of the surroundings, but I can't find it... It may be new, or I may be looking in the wrong place.

Link to Gilchrist, TX on Google Maps

[Phred42]

33. or it may be PS

[targetpractice]

36. Search Getty Images

for catalog images.... Editorial #82814183 - Editorial #82814189

You'll find multiple angles of the same scene.

[BrotherBuzz]

34. Engineered steel frame

All them white posts are steel, not wood. Two bits says it's the newest house in the area and was designed specifically to withstand hurricanes. All the replacement homes in that area will be designed to the same standards as that one, especially if they want to purchase insurance for their house.

[Duncan]

38. I doubt it.

I think its the slab protecting the base of the treated wood columns (posts)that saved it.

I've never seen a stilt beach house with steel columns. That would be extremely expensive and would not last long in such a corrosive environment, even if they were galvanized. Stainless steel would be good, but would be ridiculously expensive.

Like I said above, slab sub-contractors are going to use this photo for advertising.

Pretty amazing at any rate.

[behave]

42. I think you're right. Rafters, floor joists, and vertical columns are probably all steel.

[Duncan]

37. The columns are protected by a concrete slab

unlike most beach houses, where they are not, allowing eddies to remove sand around the base of the columns.

This photo will probably be used by concrete sub-contractors to sell slabs.

[blonndee]

40. Everything else wiped out as far as the eye can see. I wonder how many of those houses weren't empty

and how many people have died.

[bertman]

41. Very weird, and LUCKY. If the house is sitting in its original location it appears that the slab

was undermined but didn't break up, meaning that it was very well-reinforced.

If it moved from its original location it must have floated/skimmed across the flood waters to its present location. It may have had the immense good fortune to be last house standing so it avoided ramming into other storm debris--parts of homes, vehicles, docks, decks, etc--during its journey.

The steel column theory works for me, but the corrosion issue would be a major one.

I hope someone will follow up on this after folks are allowed to go back on the island.