| W e a t
h e r W a r r i o r . N e
t HURRICANE IKE 2008 GALVESTON, TEXAS |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
(this is a draft...so any corrections
or suggestions are welcome I was finishing up chasing Hurricane Gustav when Ike formed. However, at the time my (and other hurricane hunters) focus was on Tropical Storm Hanna (later to become Hurricane Hanna). Ike was still in the far eastern Atlantic and I had returned to Florida base operations (actually on South Beach being a beach bum). After realizing Hanna would not be a storm worthy of chasing I flew back home to Maryland. At the time, long range (aka not really sure range) put Ike at a potential South Florida landfall hurricane. I figured it would be quite easy to fly back to Florida for an intercept in just a day or two. However, as Hurricane Ike developed and the long range became a shorter range forecast, Florida was taken out of the risk area and the Gulf Coast had the potential for seeing yet another strong hurricane. I coordinated with Chris Collura, who I would again join on the hunt, but this time we would not be starting in Miami, as the distance to drive was too great (and gas too expensive), so we both opted to fly into the region and secure a rental vehicle. We both coordinated our flights to arrive at Austin, Texas. I was originally planned to arrive earlier than Chris, however a cancelled flight put me on a second flight (only two hours later....thankfully I had flight insurance and used US Airways). I ended up only arriving about one and one-half hours after Chris, who went ahead and picked up the rental vehicle and we quickly departed for the coast. You can see our driving route in the graphics below. We drove most of the night, stopping finally for a short nights sleep in a hotel that wasn't over charging customers....but we did have to settle for a smoking room, that didn't really smell too bad. The next morning we first drove to Freeport, originally thinking Galveston would not be accessible after hearing the many reports of road restrictions and mandatory evacuation orders. Upon arriving at the first road to the barrier island, a police officer bared the way, and we continued on to the next access option. Again, we came upon road blocks, but this time we understood why, because we had a clear view of the causeway. It was not simply a matter of the police restrictions, but the fact that the storm surge came in so early that the road was nearly underwater already, and only high ground clearance vehicles could make it. After spending time there, and talking with police, on lookers and another chaser, we heard that access to Galveston may not have been as difficult as previously thought. However, we knew with this causeway being nearly underwater, we did not have much time to attempt a Galveston access. So we quickly departed the Freeport area and headed for Galveston. Along the way we managed to find one remaining gas station that was open and had Gasoline....so of course we filled up. The we attempted to access Galveston, but were at first blocked due to flooded on ramp. But in a fortunate, but unplanned set of turns and circumstances we found ourselves on Interstate 45 headed toward the bridge and onto Galveston Island. Once on the Island our first goal of course was to head straight for the Ocean....well Gulf in this case. As we arrived, we could see the large waves crashing onto the sea wall even at a distance. We were very excited once we were on top of the wall. The waves were crashing quite a bit, and we new this was the shot to get. We spent quite a bit of time there getting video and photos and just simply playing in the increasing wind and waves. I do regret not have some rope and harness like in Hurricane Frances, so that I could have ventured right to the edge of the sea wall without risk of falling into the deep and thrashing waters. But even still I got some great surge cam video...a lot closer than any other footage I've seen. After awhile we noted that we needed to get back to work, scoping out the island for secure places to be when the worst of the hurricane came ashore. We first traveled to the south end of the island, not finding much except a great place....the San Luis Hotel, but was already over run with large media and Satellite trucks. We continued, this time north, going all the way to the north end of the island and sampling winds as they came right off the Galveston Bay inlet. Later we returned to the main part of the island and at some point saw a thick amount of smoke and started getting phone calls from fellow chasers and friends that there was some large fire on the island. We quickly made our way to the fire, which was not at a oil storage facility as we had been told was being reported by the national media, but was a storage facility for boats at a marina. While there we ran into a few other chasers, some of which we had seen in Hurricane Gustav. We chatted for a little bit, and then after getting the footage, departed and then we headed for the I-45 bridge. When we entered Galveston earlier in the day, I took note at the height of the bridge. This would be a good spot to test a theory about increased winds with altitude, especially in the first thousand feet. When we reached the summit of the bridge, approx. 400 feet above the water, the winds were in fact much more fierce than that of the winds at the terrain below. While it was unfortunate that the instrumentation we used did not sample the winds fast enough to get a better reading, we did note that our own observations were that the winds were likely 30% or more higher than at grade. Our only measurement obtained was 77.4 mph, were as at grade we had a peak reading just below 60mph. I'm sure if we stayed long we could have seen a reading on the bridge of around 80 to 90mph. I could also have seen a gust or tow reaching 100mph. Sustained winds I would estimate were around 65-70mph. After getting video and measurements, we departed the bridge returning to Galveston. We had earlier picked three or four safer places to be for the eye wall landfall. (Note: there is no SAFE place to be in a hurricane, always listen to evacuation orders. Hurricane Hunters/chasers accept the extreme risk to life when chasing, and have trained extensively to minimize those risk...but can never eliminate the danger) Chris and I continued to venture around the island getting various damage images as the winds were not causing extensive damage to structures...including some that had collapsed walls and roofing. We thought that almost everyone evacuated, but at times we found quite a few people left behind. My observations were that in areas that appeared to be more economically depressed also seemed to be where residents either failed to evacuate in time, or decided to stay, or possibly even didn't have the means to evacuate. At one point we even found one (possible) resident that appeared extremely depressed and outside in the elements way beyond a time when it was safe to do so. She did exhibit and obvious desire not to be bothered with, so we were not able to help. We never knew what here fate was at the end of the storm. It was also getting quite dark at this time, so we made our final rounds at the perimeter of our accessible area and then headed for our safe zone near the Texas University hospital toward the north end of the island. This time we decided to stay at a garage that according to one of my resources was on a small crest of elevation on the island. This might afford us some better chances of not being affected by the large surge that was expected. It was also not occupied by any residents and very few other chaser or media teams. Actually I think it was only one other news group that was there. We ventured in a very close area as dark fell, and visibility decreased rapidly making it very unsafe to be out. The storm surge was also coming in quickly, as we had early found the many of the roads were becoming blocked by the water filtering in from the bay side. We also needed some down time, to get out of the vehicle and stretch. This is one of the biggest downsides of chasing, is spending hour and hours in wet salty waters, and crammed inside a vehicle with cameras, laptops, weather stations and more. So it was great to get out and walk around a garage that in this case had some blockage of the wind and water or small portions of the parking deck were we could get dry and talk at a normal volume (to some degree...since there was the ever present howl of the wind around the corner). Actually I found a spot that the wind was a bit strong but no moisture....or very little moisture was coming through, so I took some of my rather wet clothing and tried to dry them a little. It worked a little, but the humidity in the prevented complete dryness. Around 12:45 am (local Central Daylight Savings Time) the Eye wall of Hurricane Ike passed and we entered into the central eye, where winds calmed a bit. At first it was a sharp drop from the 110+mph sustained winds to about 20mph....then about 5mph....and then after about 15 minutes as we entered into the dead center of the eye winds were dead calm. In the distance we could hear the eye wall still reeking havoc, but in our vicinity, nothing be dead calm motionless trees and frogs chirping (maybe even a gator or two from the bay side). I was even surprised to see a few birds who likely got trapped trying to find refuge and not realizing the storm was not over, and there would be a second half of hours and hours of strong winds, rain, and debris. Unfortunately for us the landfall was at night, so we were not able to see much. With most of the island without power....only illuminated by lights powered by back-up generators, and our spotlight, did we get to see much. Looking at the radar quickly we thought there maybe time to drive out, but after driving down to the bottom of the garage, we saw the waters were too high to venture out. Chris did attempt to go to one spot on foot to get video of another garage where vehicles were already under water well before the surge rose to the high levels they were during the eye. About an hour or so later, the second half of the eye quickly came onshore and battered Galveston....not with winds in completely the opposite directions. In the garage we had to switch sides, and with not much more to document in the pitch black darkness we decided to sleep for a bit. As the sun started to break, and I had opened my eyes for the 15th time (I could barely sleep in that cramped vehicle), I nudged Chris and we decided to drive down to the bottom of the garage again to see if we could depart. And in fact we could, the surge already was receding, and we departed the area. First checking spots around the garage we had surveyed from the upper levels, than slowly venturing further until we were able to reach the road on top of the sea wall. We were amazed by the amount of destruction and found that only after a few blocks our route was blocked by a huge 6 to 8 foot high wall of debris. Debris was everywhere, especially along the seawall. At first we were the first out...no one else around, but then as the sun light got stronger and conditions become less dangerous, others started to venture out. We ducted back and forth down back alleys, and roads, working our way back to the seawall for footage. The damage was extensive, but not nearly what we had expected. We made back down ward the southern part of the island were again we found a rather large fire. We made our way, zig zagging through neighborhood streets, finally coming up on an old fire scene, but just a block away a new fire had started. We stayed for a while watching seven single floor town homes burn, with fire fighters from Galveston not able to do much because hydrant pressure was too weak. Later the engine company returned and was able to use a system were they used the flood water pumped into the truck and then watered down the fire. But by this point the fire was nearly done with the damage, more so a matter of preventing adjacent homes from catching fire from the ambers. By this time the rain began to stop, and we departed that fire and returned to the sea wall to find an air rescue about to take place for two or three individuals that took a huge risk riding out the storm in a poorly built building that was on the gulf side of the sea wall. It had nearly failed, and they were not able to walk from the building to the seawall because most of the dock was damaged or destroyed and removed. It was quite a sight to witness, although I am still puzzled as to why someone actually thought that was a OK place to be. At the end of that scene we were approached by a resident who was asking questions about when stores and such would be open. We explained it would likely be three days to week, possibly longer. He explained he rode the storm out in an apartment building, actually bracing the door to prevent it from blowing in. He had no provisions, not even water, which we gave our to him. He said he did not realize that stores and such would be closed after the storm. I was shocked and disappointed. Here someone not only risked themselves, but apparently his entire family (wife and kids) to stay on the island. After a while of surveying the island, we quickly noticed the steady stream of police, national guard, construction equipment and more coming in to immediately begin the recover efforts. While watching the fire, a large majority of the sea wall road had been cleared. We were able to drive all the way back up to that huge pile of debris I mentioned earlier that was 8 feet high. We also began to feel that it was time to depart. Chris had already booked his return flight, but I would do so on the way back, so he had to depart by a certain time. We slowly made our way to the Interstate (I-45) hoping it was not flooded or blocked by debris. However I made the assumption it was passable by some degree because of the large influx of emergency response vehicles onto the island, especially those from far off jurisdictions. On the way out...we came upon one of the most unusual sites I've yet seen for post hurricane debris. On the opposite side of the interstate, before the bridge over the bay was two or three very large boats. Cruisers, sail boats, fishing, and more that must have broken loose during the storm and with the high surge waters floated onto the highway, and then caught on the various jersey walls and other highway obstacles. It looked like a rush hour traffic jam of boats.....very odd. We stayed there documenting that scene, again running into some chasers, and then we again went on our way. We made our way north toward Houston on the Interstate, amazed by the amount of police, fire, rescue, military, and other various government agencies filtering into the area. When nearing Houston we had to take a detour with the rest of traffic due to a blockage of part of the interstate, but we were able to make our way west toward Austin. Travel was quite easy, and it was a good thing we had plenty of gas because there were not many stations open until well after many tanks would have run dry. We did well especially with reserves that we did not have to worry about gas at all. It did help that our vehicle got pretty good gas mileage too. Before arriving in Austin, on the way we came upon a bad accident...an apparent hit and run. It had just happened and so I pulled over and jumped right out to help. The driver of a Ford F150 was pinned inside his truck while luckily his passenger (also his brother) was not injured. The driver was suffering from a concussion and other possible injuries. I made sure that fire/rescue had been called and the correct location given. I turn my attention to the driver and first made sure he was breathing OK (he was) and then try to do what I could to kept him conscious and still in case he had a neck or back injury. Emergency vehicles arrived and had to cut the vehicle extensively to extricate him from the truck. Before leaving he appeared much better than when I had originally found him, talking OK, and complaining about pain in his leg (A good sign that he wasn't complaining about any chest or stomach pain considering how squished in the truck he was. After making sure he was OK, we left the scene and continued to Austin. Regardless our timing, I think it was an impossible task to try and find an overnight hotel, as all the evacuees and other late summer vacationers and travelers had all rooms booked up. We ended up sleeping in the car that night. The next morning I had to get to the bus station (after deciding it was cheaper to take the bus to Dallas then fly out from there), and Chris had to return the rental and catch his flight out of Austin. It was interesting that at the bus stop I could over hear many conversations about people trying to get back to Houston. Luckily I was headed in the opposite direction and had no problem. We even had one man from China...who apparently didn't speak much English and didn't understand anything about the hurricane. He was looking for a ride to Houston, but we couldn't accommodate or help him in any way. I departed Austin on the bus, then catching my flight in Dallas, with a layover in Charlotte, NC and then on home to Maryland. After arriving home I caught up on some much needed sleep and then started going through my video and photos. This page is copyright as well as all images. If images are from sources other than the Author, they are noted as such. No permission is given for the use of the text or images herein. Please contact the Webmaster for information on usage licensing. |
Home - WeatherWarrior.Net Hurricane Main Page Storm Chaser Pages Hurricane Chases Isabel '03 Charley '04 Frances '04 Jeanne '04 Gustav '08 Ike '08 General Hurricane Links National Hurricane Center HurricaneVideo.Com Weathervine Tropical Page HurricaneTrack.Com Hurricane Ike Links NHC archives Wikipedia.org Hurricane Ike Pages
WeatherWarrior's VideoChris Collura Video Short WeatherWarrior's Photo Page WeatherWarrior's Chase Story Hurricane Ike Pages from other chasers Chris Collura
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||