i am not looking forward to this. right now it's heading my way and they think it will come in as a category 4 or even 5. i'm a little embarrassed to say that i'm feeling a little fear with ike. i went through andrew back in 1992 and it was bad. this looks like it could be worse.

Are you going to stay? or evacuate?
Either way, good luck to you and be careful.

the way it looks right now the storm would travel up Florida so i don't know where to go. i'm going to put up my shutters bring in the sat dish and stuff i have out in the yard and hope for the best. i have my generator ready because for sure the power will go out. every time one of these storms goes by here i sometimes lose power for a month. thanks for your words

What is scary is that the latest maps don't show it making landfall in Florida, other than the keys, BUT heading right on a direct course towards New Orleans and the gulf coast again.

I just got my power back today and I am one of the lucky ones. Still lots of folks without power around here. You don't see it on the news but it is still a mess here.

Some will not have power for weeks!

I haven't seen many if any scenes of damage from hurricane Gustoff at all on the national news channels. Unlike during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that went on for years. I find that very strange considering the amount of people without power in Louisiana.

WE evacuated in southeast Texas last Saturday and came back home Tuesday afternoon. THAnk GOD we were not hit here again . We just went through Hurricane Humberto last Sept. and tropical storm rains from Edward less than a month ago. Not to mention hurricane Rita in 2005 that really tore up our area . I took down my two sat dishes and had to put them back up Tuesday evening so we could watch tv and ota again. Took about 30 minutes and I was up and running. We took our 3 sat receivers with us to Arkansas so we wouldn't lose them if the hurricane came here instead. I learned from Rita that the sat dishes didn't fare well. Mine was crushed into a C from the winds. Luckily I had a spare in what was left of my outside Morgan building shed and I was able to put up another one the same day the electricty came back on in 2005.

I am glad you are up and running again DIGI. How did you come out damage wise?

Luckily I just had minor damage to the edge of my roof from a small limb.

Lots of outages still... this page was showing only 30% of the subs today. Now it is up to 50% but that's just one power company.

'+ titleVar + ' (http://demco.maps.sienatech.com/)

Entergy Storm Center (http://entergy-louisiana.com/outages/la.aspx)

You have to hit the real locals for the news:

http://www.2theadvocate.com/

http://www.wafb.com/

although i'm still in the cone it did shift this morning . yesterday i was smack in the center of prediction. although this could change again but if it doesn't it would look like another storm is heading towards the new orleans are which would really suck.
28911

Good luck i was also in Andrew im in miami fl , and i think we will know more on sunday. Harvey

Everyone was concerned a few days ago for Miami and the rest of FL.
Most weather predictors are now paying more attention to the upper atmosphere steering currents in the high and low pressure builds to the north and also to the south. If you picture these currents as clockwise rotations around a High and counter clockwise rotation around a low you can more accurately which way the hurricane will go. And, predict whether it will weaken due to shear. As such, these predictions are at best 5 day models as the data begins to fail beyond that. When Ike was said to be bearing down on Key Biscayne just east of Miami, I took a look at the High pressure building 3-4 days out just to the north of SE USA. This high would be moving in a SE direction over the Atlantic about the time Ike would be moving near over PR and the Dominican Republic. I told my one client in KB that he probably doesn't have anything to worry about. he said he felt the same as we were both looking at the upper atmosphere steering currents and the direction those were moving for the previous 3 day history.
It bears out almost every time and no different for Ike. Ike appears to be headed across the Fl Straits near the north coast of Cuba and into the G of M. Headed right for you know where-- New Orleans ( beyond the 5 day accuracy model)!
Miami will no doubt suffer at least strong Tropical winds and lots of rain still on this path but be spared the full force of a Cat4 or 5 storm surge and wind as we had with Andrew.

The accuracy of the data in the upper atmosphere is not as accurate and available to the south Caribbean as we have over the 48 states but with what is available it seems Miami will get spared. Key West and lower Keys should get stronger hit from the east.

Here's praying for it to follow that path as described.

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28927

Yeah that puts it coming right up the gut for me now....great......

Yeah that puts it coming right up the gut for me now....great......

damn! that sucks!

Looks like 2005 all over again for this area.

Looks like 2005 all over again for this area.
Damn, I hope its not that bad, but it does look familiar. That does mean I am due another Katrina though....... I wasnt even thinking about Ike until today.

damn! that sucks!
I know. I am not looking forward to it at all.


Edit: that sounded selfish, I doubt anyone is or was looking forward to this. Lol.

The weather channel was talking about how if the storm goes up through the center of Cuba it will come out into the gulf as a weaker storm (of course), but they failed to acknowledge that that was the worst-case scenario for CUBA! I sort of chuckled, but it really wasn't funny. Either way somebody gets faced with lots of destruction.

Don -- I appreciate the explanation you gave about the storm patterns; need to read it more carefully, as I am intrigued by the science of the predictions, even though I don't really understand it.

The weather channel was talking about how if the storm goes up through the center of Cuba it will come out into the gulf as a weaker storm (of course), but they failed to acknowledge that that was the worst-case scenario for CUBA! I sort of chuckled, but it really wasn't funny. Either way somebody gets faced with lots of destruction.

Don -- I appreciate the explanation you gave about the storm patterns; need to read it more carefully, as I am intrigued by the science of the predictions, even though I don't really understand it.
I kind of thought about that too. I feel sorry for the innocent people there, but then again....

That said, I dont wish this destruction and inconvenience on anyone. Not really..

Cuba is taking it on the chin with this one... wow! The entire island one end to the other!

28956

Good luck guys. Make sure you leave if your told to. Nothing is worth getting killed over. . I'll be pulling for you guys. Be safe.

yeah a number of people I know were considering leaving florida for this storm.. no one wants to put their kids through it if they dont have to.

I hear Tina Turner packed her bags and headed out of town because of Ike...:o Seriously, I hope Ike runs out of steam before it makes landfall.

Be safe... all of you.
This week I will not complain about the rain we are getting here.... It's nothing but a minor inconvenience and I will be thinking of all of you in the path of the "real stuff"

you got what was aimed at us till hanna decided to head north.. sadly most people were concerned with ike and not hanna all this week..

http://www.stormpulse.com/fullscreen/hurricane-ike-2008

Just not New Orleans again, please. My sisters have been thru enough.

Just not New Orleans again, please. My sisters have been thru enough.

if something has to happen i hope it weakens to a wave. i really hope so for everyone's sake there.

Houston, you have a problem.

it's down to 80 mph. good news and it looks like it will miss Louisiana! they don't need more problems. again i hope all it brings is rain to whoever gets this.

29073

That's what we're hoping for in Austin, RAIN! Last summer we had more water then we knew what to do with and since around September last year we've been dry, NOAA says we're in an exceptional drought. So I'm hoping the winds stay down, the oil rigs and refineries stay in one piece and all we get is a nice soaking rain.

stay safe RAD :up

stay safe RAD :up


Thanks, should be no problem with wind since we're far enought inland and not in any flood plains. Hope we don't get a lot of heavy rain though since my dish could use a repeak and I can see it having a lot of rain fade this weekend on the HD channels:(

Thanks, should be no problem with wind since we're far enought inland and not in any flood plains. Hope we don't get a lot of heavy rain though since my dish could use a repeak and I can see it having a lot of rain fade this weekend on the HD channels:(
Well hopefully thats all you have to worry about:p

29095

Thanks for the update... and thanks for changing your avatar! The other one made me go into epileptic seizures after a few minutes! :D

See ya
Tony

Thanks for the update... and thanks for changing your avatar! The other one made me go into epileptic seizures after a few minutes! :D

See ya
Tony

yeah an animated avatar is alright but the one i had was really busy:D your welcome :)

it's down to 80 mph. good news and it looks like it will miss Louisiana! they don't need more problems. again i hope all it brings is rain to whoever gets this.

29073

Stormpulse is predicting it will be back to 115mph before US landfall. Lots of warm water for it to churn in... :(

29108

Corpus Christie.

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29167

Today I received a letter from our Insurance Company informing us our Wind & Hail deductible was being doubled.:(

incredible!

Today I received a letter from our Insurance Company informing us our Wind & Hail deductible was being doubled.:(


Yep. In Louisiana ours was doubled in 2007. It was the only way insurance companies will write policies in Louisiana.

Insurance used to be about a company taking a risk to make money from ratepayers, betting that a big event wouldn't happen. For 30 years we had no big storm, and the insurance comapnies raked in the profits. Have a couple storms, they PANIC becuase their little fiefdom is threatened. Instead of making 20 billion dollars, they only make 10 billiion, and they still panic, cry to the state, and raise rates. They have succeeded in convincing the public that they are no longer in the risk business, so they have to be PAID no matter what.

No wonder socialism looks so good to so many people. :(

My sister's family in Metairie increased their home deductible from $1,000 to $5,000 - and I think they're still paying a higher premium. They did this just before someone plowed thru their yard, bass boat (no ins) and into their front bedroom (brick wall). Smashed open inside sheet rock, broke 2x4s after running thru the brick, and cracked the foundation. On a street with a 20 mph speed limit. Did not get a speeding ticket or sobriety check, just "reckless." No charges on the expired registration, no tags and no proof she was allowed to "borrow" someone else's car. Due to "emergency conditions." :mad:

This stuff is starting to get really old for all of the US coast. Sure would be nice if they could figure out a way to limit the destruction these things pack!

29184

My family has a house right on the water in Port O'Connor. My dad is headed down today to lower the storm shutters and bring the boats back to Houston.

29192

damn! it's gaining strength. no!!

29217

Looks like Beaumont/Pt.Arthur is in the cone for another hit from this latest hurricane. THey are saying on tv it might be just like Rita that was the worst hurricane to hit here in the last 30 or 40 years. It took me quite a while to get my trailer back up and the roof shingled and the fence built back , the shed replaced etc. I really hope this s.o.b. goes somewhere else or loses strength.

It looks like it is going to hit Dallas. I hope it does not effect SatelliteGuys as our servers are located in Dallas.

It looks like it is going to hit Dallas. I hope it does not effect SatelliteGuys as our servers are located in Dallas.

Where I used to work we had an office/data center in Plantation FL. It had a big UPS system and generators and when all the hurricanes in 2005 hit the problem we ran into was getting a reliable supply of disel for the generator, the local supplier that said they would keep us supplied in emergency pulled out of that agreement. We finally tracked down a supplier a few hundred miles away that could truck some in but it cost us bigtime. Another thing that hit us was sediment had collected in the bottom of the fuel tank. Durning normal testing and refills it was no problem but when we ran the tank down and then filled it up all that inrushing fuel stirred up all that garbage that then clogged the fuel filter shutting down the generator.

Bottom line is that you think you have all your bases covered and the aligator still jumps up and bites you in the a**.

My Brother-in-Law and his family are in a suburb 20 miles north of Houston. I think they are planning to ride it out. I would think it's too late to evacuate now, anyway.

Scott, it looks like Ike will turn before it gets to Dallas. Our Co-Loc site is in Dallas, too, so we're keeping an eye on Ike.

My sister works at the Houston Space Center (yes, she is a rocket scientist), and lives on the bay in League City. If a 20' storm surge pushes into Galveston Bay, they'll have some major flooding. The Space Center sent everyone home at noon yesterday, and said to come back Monday. I think they're going down to San Antonio for a couple of days.

My daughter's family lives between Dallas and Ft. Worth. They don't expect much worse than Spring type thunderstorms, but tornadoes do pop up around the fringes of hurricanes.

My daughter's family lives between Dallas and Ft. Worth. They don't expect much worse than Spring type thunderstorms, but tornadoes do pop up around the fringes of hurricanes.
Yeah, thats what was the main thing with gustav for us. Tornado warnings every 10 minutes. Didnt see any touch down though.

Hopefully they will all be safe!

http://www.satelliteguys.us/other-tv-programming-discussions/148189-houston-big-4-mux-hurricane-ike.html#post1514930

29250


members in that area stay safe please. if you needed the rain welcome it and hopefully nothing else comes with it. take care of yourselves :)

Jim Cantore on The Weather Channel is reporting from Galveston, and he was visibly upset that 60% of the residents of Galveston Island decided to ride-out the Hurricane. It was interesting to watch. He made the point that is may not be a good idea for us to rely so heavily on describing storms in terms of the Category system.

His point was people he talked to said, "Well I rode-out Carla, and it was a Cat 4 storm, this is only a Cat 2 storm," he responded by saying, yeah, that made landfall 75 miles away from Galveston; but this one is coming RIGHT at it, with Galveston just to the east of where the eye wall will come in. (And this storm is actually BIGGER than Katrina).

He is talking right now about how there have been 120 water rescues in Galveston today. He responded by saying "this is crazy, what the heck are they doing going into the water - there is a Hurricane today, and the water has been boiling since yesterday."

At the utility I'm with, the line superintendent came around making sure all our chainsaws are in good working order, trucks are fueled up and stocked for anything and everything... from what I see parts our system is under a tropical storm warning... we'll see what happens tonight.

He is talking right now about how there have been 120 water rescues in Galveston today. He responded by saying "this is crazy, what the heck are they doing going into the water - there is a Hurricane today, and the water has been boiling since yesterday."

Personally, I think anyone who ignores a mandatory evacuation should be billed for their rescue. :mad:

I agree 100%, in fact I mentioned that to the wife yesterday.

Personally, I think anyone who ignores a mandatory evacuation should be billed for their rescue. :mad:

In Colorado anytime you had to be rescued by search and rescue units, you were charged, UNLESS you had a COlorado Hiker's permit. I agree it should be the same way with stupid people going into the ocean in a friggin hurricane.

Raining pretty hard here in the northern part of the DFW area. Fortunately we are on the west side of the now tropical storm, which is the safer side.

We got nothing but drizzle here in Austin.

I feel for the folks in East TX and Western LA. They are the same ones that got pounded by Rita 3 years ago. The press is focusing on Houston and Galveston. This one did just as much (if not more) damage as Rita as that Eastern side is just plain nastay.

Even if they require a fee for a rescue, I can see some people still refusing to be rescued, some just to avoid the fee.

Darwin.

Things are going to be rough for my Brother-in-Law's family for a while. He said they could be without power for up to four weeks! They escaped the worst of the storm as Ike missed their house to the East by 30-40 miles, but they still had trees down in their yard. At least their house is in one piece and they have water, gas, & telephone.

I saw this image over at the Weather Underground of a Synthetic Aperture RADAR satellite image of Ike as it was off the Texas coast:
http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/2008/ike_sar_small.jpg
Figure 1. Hurricane Ike approaching Galveston Island, as seen by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The white dot in the eye is the freighter Antalina, which got caught in the storm when its engines failed. A tugboat towed the Antilina safely to port on Saturday, and all 22 crewmen are well and the ship is undamaged. They'll have quite a story to tell (bet they barfed plenty)! Image Copyright ESA [2008], captured and processed by CSTARS University of Miami under license from Eurimage. CSTARS runs jointly with the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency a Hurricane Watch program where they take routine SAR images of tropical storms during hurricane season.

(copied from the Wunderground.com site. Here's a link to the original page:http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1085&tstamp=200809)

Barfed plenty? Naw. Do what I did once as a midshipman. Went up to the bridge during a bad storm and opened a can of sardines in mustard sauce and ate them on crackers.

Like I said, once. Just once......

Things are going to be rough for my Brother-in-Law's family for a while.

Where do they live? I have between 40 - 50 relatives in Brazoria Country, spread between Freeport, Oyster Creek, Lake Jackson, Clute and Richwood.

Ike has even reared it's nasty head here in NE Ohio over the weekend. I was at the Browns/Steelers game last night and it was reported that we received Category 1 levels with 70mph winds and swirling rain.

300,000 people have been without power in NE Ohio since 7pm last night, including me. Some streets remain closed due to trees fallen and power lines down.

300,000 people have been without power in NE Ohio since 7pm last night, including me. Some streets remain closed due to trees fallen and power lines down.

Here in Central Ohio we are up to 500,000 people without power. I just came home today from Michigan and I can not believe all the damage that was done.

It is hard to believe that a hurricane that hit Texas could do so much damage in Ohio.

anyone here from the parts hit the hardest from Ike? how are you doing? we hope you're ok.

All of our prayers should go out to all that have been heavily impacted by Ike. I really feel bad for the ones hit the worse as many companies are pulling their support crews that were sent to help because of all the damage that happened elsewhere by the storm.

Personally this is the first storm that I can remember that did so much damage from the south to the North. There are many that hit a large coastal area but not as impacting as for north as Ike hit.

Here in Central Ohio we are up to 500,000 people without power. I just came home today from Michigan and I can not believe all the damage that was done.

It is hard to believe that a hurricane that hit Texas could do so much damage in Ohio.

Its kind of interesting in that the Hurricane (which dumped 5" of rain on us in Illinois) ran into the existing low front; and the combination of the two is what caused the wind problems in Ohio. Indeed, the Tropical Depression was already in Michigan when the front caused the wind issues.

One helluva strange weekend of weather. And 18 hours after the rain stopped, my sump pump still keeps kicking on and off periodically. As I told my wife... "we are not in Colorado anymore!" :)

All of our prayers should go out to all that have been heavily impacted by Ike. I really feel bad for the ones hit the worse as many companies are pulling their support crews that were sent to help because of all the damage that happened elsewhere by the storm.

Personally this is the first storm that I can remember that did so much damage from the south to the North. There are many that hit a large coastal area but not as impacting as for north as Ike hit.

Lets not forget the impact it had on the Bahamas, the Turks/Caicos, Haiti, and Cuba -- when it was a Cat 4 storm. It was a bad a@# mother of a storm. And some of the reports I have seen coming out of Cuba suggest that it might take a year to restore power in places like Cameguay. :(

Lets not forget the impact it had on the Bahamas, the Turks/Caicos, Haiti, and Cuba -- when it was a Cat 4 storm. It was a bad a@# mother of a storm. And some of the reports I have seen coming out of Cuba suggest that it might take a year to restore power in places like Cameguay. :(

They are all in my prayers also.

In support of our members in need, I have added some Red Cross banners to our Gold Sponsor ads layout on the top right of the screen.

We had 40 MPH winds here in Connecticut today from IKE.

Its kind of interesting in that the Hurricane (which dumped 5" of rain on us in Illinois) ran into the existing low front; and the combination of the two is what caused the wind problems in Ohio. Indeed, the Tropical Depression was already in Michigan when the front caused the wind issues.

One helluva strange weekend of weather. And 18 hours after the rain stopped, my sump pump still keeps kicking on and off periodically. As I told my wife... "we are not in Colorado anymore!" :)

It was a very strange weekend. I was in Michigan (Detroit area) for their 5" of rain to just come back to all the damage from the wind. I can say we were very lucky as we are just missing a couple of shingles on the roof. We have a few neighbors that have trees in their 2nd floor right now.

anyone here from the parts hit the hardest from Ike? how are you doing? we hope you're ok.

I live in the northwest part of Harris county (just outside the Houston city limits) and we rode out the storm. Luckly the eye was about 20 - 25 east of us so we didn't have to take the hard hit of the northeastern side.
I went out a few times on the front porch, the wind was blocked because of the corner of the house, and watched the trees bend as what might have been 70-90 mph winds. This lasted for hours. My wife would not sleep upstairs in our master bedroom because when the wind gusts hit the house, you could feel it move.
Our house is fine and no fence damage. We live in a new neighborhood so there are no tall trees.
We were very lucky because we only lost power for about 12 hours. My mom, who lives south of downtown near the Reliant Stadium, just got her power turn on this morning.
Most gas stations (that I have seen) that have gas the police are there to keep the line orderly. Average wait 5 - 20 cars per pump.

that's very good news. glad you and your family are alright. :)

Well... DAMN!!! It's an amazing thing when I can say that I was hit by a tropical storm with winds gusting above hurricane strength while sitting at a football game, but DAMN!

So there I was at a Bengals Football game watching the Bengals SUCK so bad that the winds were just blowing over me and onto the field! The day was perfectly clear with no rain. A few clouds were WHIZZING by, but where I was sitting the breeze felt good on my developing sun burn.

Well I was sitting on the south end zone so the real wind was flying about 30 feet over my head and swirling onto the field. But I thought nothing of it. When one of the big score board billboards lost some lights and forced a main concourse to be closed I still thought nothing of it. But as I walked with the crowd up the road into downtown to my car I couldn't believe the winds! There were gusts where I had to act like a sky-diver and literally caught a 10 or 11 year-old kid who was being blown back by the dry warm winds! Trees were down, but still I thought it was a more localized thing.

So I get in my car, and knowing that the interstate was closed due to an overturned truck I took the overland route. OH MY GOD! It was utter devastation! Trees down everywhere. Debris strewn all over the place. Telephone and light posts snapped like twigs with wires down here and there.

When I got home to the northern suburbs it was worse! In my neighborhood over 4 dozen large trees had broken or been uprooted completely. these were 100 year-old oaks, maples, cherry, ash trees. The soft woods mostly fared better. But it seems like if a tree could fall over power lines, it did!

90% of Hamilton County was without power on Sunday. 80% Monday and Tuesday. And only just about an hour ago this area got power back (two and a half days after I first lost power) So a little wind storm and only about 1/3 of the way through the clean up! My poor next-door neighbor had a huge tree that fell over to the other neighbor's yard and took the power drop from the poles to the house and to the house beyond that! Those poor people are dead last on the priority list and it may be as long as three weeks before they see power! I've offered them an extension cord and a 20 amp circuit for one of their refrigerators. They've declined it so far. But I was going crazy without power for two and a half days. I can't imagine 3 weeks!

Last year's drought set the stage. Ike finished the job. And Duke Energy did its best to take three times as long to respond as needed!

I feel for the people of Texas. I only saw the last dying breath of Ike! This is the second time I experience this type of storm, and the first as an adult. But who'd have thunk it that a tropical storm would hit Cincinnati!

See ya
Tony

ps- the picture attached is from a friend's neighborhood where he will be without power until at least Thursday:
http://www.hugh57.com/ike/main/tdike-0048.jpg

Here's a link that has some good pictures of Ike.

The short - but eventful - life of Ike - The Big Picture - Boston.com (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html)

Here's a link that has some good pictures of Ike.

The short - but eventful - life of Ike - The Big Picture - Boston.com (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html)

wow! awful! lots of damage.

Great pics! Thanks.