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YIKES, IKE!
  
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By DAVID TAYLOR
For 25 years, the Gulf Coast has dodged the bullet with deadly hurricanes. No more. This time Houston and Galveston took a direct hit.
Last Friday, residents hunkered down for what would be a night of sheer terror as Hurricane Ike would batter the coast and miles inland with Category 2 force winds and a record storm surge that brought jaw-dropping devastation.
After wobbling its way through the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Ike took aim on the Galveston coastline, but meteorologists weren’t overly worried until Friday morning.
“Ike looked like a powerful storm on the satellite image, but Hurricane Hunters could only find winds blowing about 100 mph as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico,” said Tim Heller, chief meteorologist for ABC-13.
“Even though the storm was moving over some deep, warm water, wind shear and dry air on the west side of the storm kept it from becoming a stronger storm.”
Ike, which had state leaders guessing where to send assets pre-storm arrival, took a deadly turn north toward the most populated area of the Gulf Coast and officials immediately began to issue evacuation orders.
“A strong core was developing and the top wind speeds increased to 110 mph…almost a Category 3 hurricane in which winds are 111 mph or stronger,” said Heller.
Ike was impressive with one of the largest wind fields in history.
Heller said tropical storm force winds extended outward from the center of the storm for a whopping 275 miles in all directions. Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 120 miles. “This large wind field created a huge storm surge. It was apparent as early as Thursday that we had a problem headed our way,” said Heller.
On Friday morning, broadcasters were showing videos of the rising storm surge flooding Galveston Island while the storm was still 12 hours from landfall.
Those who might have hoped it would turn, like Rita three years earlier, realized they wouldn’t be so lucky.
“At 2:10 a.m. Saturday, the eye of Ike passed over Galveston. The weather was calm in Galveston for a couple of hours and then the backside of the eye hit,” said Heller.
As the eye proceeded north over the west end of Galveston, up the bay through Clear Lake, north through Pasadena, across the channel and slamming Galena Park and Jacinto City, the howling winds blew trees hard enough to snap them in two like toothpicks. Its broad swath impacted virtually every community from the Houston Ship Channel east for 50-60 miles, including North Shore, Highlands and Baytown. By the time the leading edge of the eye was over Sheldon and turning toward Crosby, the backside began to pummel Galveston.
“As far as wind goes, the eyewall is the worst part of the storm. Winds 75-100 mph, blowing for hours, caused significant damage across inland communities,” said Heller.
Around 4 a.m., it seemed as if Mother Nature had vented her fury and calm came over the area. It was short-lived as the backside of the eyewall delivered strong winds that blew trees the opposite direction.
The legendary storm didn’t begin to lose its punch until it took a turn toward the north through the East Texas region and out of the state.
It was a worst case scenario for the east Harris County area.
“We’ve been known as ‘hurricane alley’ for a long time,” said Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia. “This time this one kicked down the front door and hit us across the face. We got hit first and we got hit hard,” she said.
Later Saturday morning, frightened residents slowly emerged from their shelter-in-place with disbelief of what Ike had done.
Butch Vielamowicz of Crosby couldn’t believe his eyes when he and his wife returned home after the storm had passed.
The roof of his barn was blown off and was atop his brand new hay bailer; and one wall of his barn had been blown into a tree, the limbs piercing through the metal.
Vielamowicz and his wife had lived there for 26 years. He’s retired and sells the hay for extra income.
“We’ll just wait for the insurance company to come and tell us what they’ll pay for, and what they don’t, we’ll just have to eat,” he said.
Vielamowicz can’t do any kind of work until he gets the roof off of his farm equipment.
“The whole barn is going to have to be rebuilt,” he said.
He was lucky. His wife parked the car in the barn and none of the debris or the roof landed on the car.
In Baytown on Garth Road at the feeder, light poles lay crumpled in the street. All over the area, wires or transformers had been blown from their perches above.
At the marina on Tiki Bay, more than 100 boats sat crumpled on top of one another, still tied to the floating pier and the finger sidewalks that went between them.
Between his rounds and working at San Jacinto Methodist Hospital, Dr. Louis Hughes, who has lived in Baytown since 1959, ran down to the marina to check on his 36-foot sailboat the Mes a Mie.
“We moved the boat from the Houston Yacht Club so that we’d have the floating docks here, but it doesn’t look to have much damage.”
His sailboat was one of the few that was still in about a foot of water and he was able to get it out at high tide.
Martin Tidswell found his vessel, The Turtle, but he still couldn’t believe the sight. “The vast majority didn’t have any kind of major damage,” he said. “It looks like they just floated over here.” Tidswell’s boat had some side damage, but was still seaworthy.
In Harris County, more than 2 million customers were left without power and another 2 million statewide were in the dark.
Almost immediately, fire crews and law enforcement poured into the communities to cordon off streets with downed power lines and began the slow, arduous process of removing debris from the roads.
“I’m going to make sure to work hard to get all of the resources available to us from the federal, state and local governments so that all of our families can rebuild and east Harris County remain strong,” said Garcia.
Points of Distribution (POD) locations sprang up the next day offering bags of ice, water and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) to desperate residents.
Within a day, CenterPoint Energy reported more than 7,000 workers were arriving from around the nation to offer assistance to the coastal community.
Garcia couldn’t help but remember the indomitable spirit of her end of the county.
“My prayers and thoughts are with those who have suffered loss,” she said.
“There’s been no loss of life or severe injuries to anyone in Precinct 2. Now we start the rebuilding process.”
BY THE NUMBERS
HURRICANE IKE
Strong Category 2 storm at 110 mph
Eye of the storm entered east of Galveston Island
Minimum pressure of 951.6 / 28.10 inches
Rain from 5-12 inches
Death toll as of Wednesday stands at 18 in the Gulf Coast
Left 2.2 million without power in Harris County
Last Friday, residents hunkered down for what would be a night of sheer terror as Hurricane Ike would batter the coast and miles inland with Category 2 force winds and a record storm surge that brought jaw-dropping devastation.
After wobbling its way through the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Ike took aim on the Galveston coastline, but meteorologists weren’t overly worried until Friday morning.
“Ike looked like a powerful storm on the satellite image, but Hurricane Hunters could only find winds blowing about 100 mph as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico,” said Tim Heller, chief meteorologist for ABC-13.
“Even though the storm was moving over some deep, warm water, wind shear and dry air on the west side of the storm kept it from becoming a stronger storm.”
Ike, which had state leaders guessing where to send assets pre-storm arrival, took a deadly turn north toward the most populated area of the Gulf Coast and officials immediately began to issue evacuation orders.
“A strong core was developing and the top wind speeds increased to 110 mph…almost a Category 3 hurricane in which winds are 111 mph or stronger,” said Heller.
Ike was impressive with one of the largest wind fields in history.
Heller said tropical storm force winds extended outward from the center of the storm for a whopping 275 miles in all directions. Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 120 miles. “This large wind field created a huge storm surge. It was apparent as early as Thursday that we had a problem headed our way,” said Heller.
On Friday morning, broadcasters were showing videos of the rising storm surge flooding Galveston Island while the storm was still 12 hours from landfall.
Those who might have hoped it would turn, like Rita three years earlier, realized they wouldn’t be so lucky.
“At 2:10 a.m. Saturday, the eye of Ike passed over Galveston. The weather was calm in Galveston for a couple of hours and then the backside of the eye hit,” said Heller.
As the eye proceeded north over the west end of Galveston, up the bay through Clear Lake, north through Pasadena, across the channel and slamming Galena Park and Jacinto City, the howling winds blew trees hard enough to snap them in two like toothpicks. Its broad swath impacted virtually every community from the Houston Ship Channel east for 50-60 miles, including North Shore, Highlands and Baytown. By the time the leading edge of the eye was over Sheldon and turning toward Crosby, the backside began to pummel Galveston.
“As far as wind goes, the eyewall is the worst part of the storm. Winds 75-100 mph, blowing for hours, caused significant damage across inland communities,” said Heller.
Around 4 a.m., it seemed as if Mother Nature had vented her fury and calm came over the area. It was short-lived as the backside of the eyewall delivered strong winds that blew trees the opposite direction.
The legendary storm didn’t begin to lose its punch until it took a turn toward the north through the East Texas region and out of the state.
It was a worst case scenario for the east Harris County area.
“We’ve been known as ‘hurricane alley’ for a long time,” said Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia. “This time this one kicked down the front door and hit us across the face. We got hit first and we got hit hard,” she said.
Later Saturday morning, frightened residents slowly emerged from their shelter-in-place with disbelief of what Ike had done.
Butch Vielamowicz of Crosby couldn’t believe his eyes when he and his wife returned home after the storm had passed.
The roof of his barn was blown off and was atop his brand new hay bailer; and one wall of his barn had been blown into a tree, the limbs piercing through the metal.
Vielamowicz and his wife had lived there for 26 years. He’s retired and sells the hay for extra income.
“We’ll just wait for the insurance company to come and tell us what they’ll pay for, and what they don’t, we’ll just have to eat,” he said.
Vielamowicz can’t do any kind of work until he gets the roof off of his farm equipment.
“The whole barn is going to have to be rebuilt,” he said.
He was lucky. His wife parked the car in the barn and none of the debris or the roof landed on the car.
In Baytown on Garth Road at the feeder, light poles lay crumpled in the street. All over the area, wires or transformers had been blown from their perches above.
At the marina on Tiki Bay, more than 100 boats sat crumpled on top of one another, still tied to the floating pier and the finger sidewalks that went between them.
Between his rounds and working at San Jacinto Methodist Hospital, Dr. Louis Hughes, who has lived in Baytown since 1959, ran down to the marina to check on his 36-foot sailboat the Mes a Mie.
“We moved the boat from the Houston Yacht Club so that we’d have the floating docks here, but it doesn’t look to have much damage.”
His sailboat was one of the few that was still in about a foot of water and he was able to get it out at high tide.
Martin Tidswell found his vessel, The Turtle, but he still couldn’t believe the sight. “The vast majority didn’t have any kind of major damage,” he said. “It looks like they just floated over here.” Tidswell’s boat had some side damage, but was still seaworthy.
In Harris County, more than 2 million customers were left without power and another 2 million statewide were in the dark.
Almost immediately, fire crews and law enforcement poured into the communities to cordon off streets with downed power lines and began the slow, arduous process of removing debris from the roads.
“I’m going to make sure to work hard to get all of the resources available to us from the federal, state and local governments so that all of our families can rebuild and east Harris County remain strong,” said Garcia.
Points of Distribution (POD) locations sprang up the next day offering bags of ice, water and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) to desperate residents.
Within a day, CenterPoint Energy reported more than 7,000 workers were arriving from around the nation to offer assistance to the coastal community.
Garcia couldn’t help but remember the indomitable spirit of her end of the county.
“My prayers and thoughts are with those who have suffered loss,” she said.
“There’s been no loss of life or severe injuries to anyone in Precinct 2. Now we start the rebuilding process.”
BY THE NUMBERS
HURRICANE IKE
Strong Category 2 storm at 110 mph
Eye of the storm entered east of Galveston Island
Minimum pressure of 951.6 / 28.10 inches
Rain from 5-12 inches
Death toll as of Wednesday stands at 18 in the Gulf Coast
Left 2.2 million without power in Harris County
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