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Hurrican IKE and The Aftermath.

Geico266

Geico266

Well Known Member
Is it just me or has there been a lack of posting here on VAF the last few days? I'm hoping everyone is okay and just away from computers for a while. You guys along the gulf never heard of laptops & WIFI? ;)

As you guys & gals (that were affected by this monster storm get back to "normal") let us know what you have been doing and what has happened to you and your family.

We need STORM STORIES! :D

We are all "family". Take care!
 
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I thought it odd yesterday that the National Weather Service included the words "certain death" in the forecast. For an agency that -- at least up here -- can't predict a sunny day, it seemed a stretch.

That said, I'm trying to get a handle on all the people who fled and all the people who helped out. Is it possible to get a list going here about who needed to leave and WHO and WHERE the person is that opened up the hangar/homes?
 
Geico266 said:
I'm hoping everyone is okay and just away from computers for a while. You guys along the gulf never heard of laptops & WIFI? ;)
As you guys & gals (that were affected by this monster storm get back to "normal") let us know what you have been doing and what has happened to you and your family.
we are all "family". Take care!
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After Katrina it was 2 weeks before the roads were clear enough that we could travel more than 5 miles from home. We were without power, or running water for 5 weeks, phone service was out for 3 weeks as was cell phone service in most locations. Government and the order of law were totally absent for 2 weeks (not because of incompetence but because the infra structure was destroyed) and many less than nice people were roaming the area helping themselves to whatever they wanted. And that was 100 miles from where Katrina came ashore.

For those closer to the coast (who stayed) their main concern right now is survival. Residents who evacuated will not be allowed to return for quite some time. A few with generators and sat based internet may be on line but most will reserve their generator runtime for the essentials.

It is probably going to be awhile before we hear any credible news from the Galveston area. This storm is huge. At 9AM today HOU is reporting baro 29.54 no other data available. All weather reporting station SE between HOU and the coast are not reproting. Closest airport weather East of HOU/Galveston I could find was Beaumont Texas Wind sustained>30KTS gusts to 54KTS vis .75 mile

IKE_915AM_91308_Small.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/us/13ike.html?bl&ex=1221451200&en=46ea589c255511cb&ei=5087%0A

My heart goes out to them as I know they are afraid, alone, and suffering.
 
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Lack of Electricity....

The main reason we're not hearing reports from the impact area is lack of electricity I suspect - 3 million without power now! I am reporting now from College Station, only due to the fact that Texas A&M left their servers and internet up, and Louise has an office here - now that the storm has gone far enough north, we came in to see what is going on in the world. (Our condo doesn't have Cable or 'net, as it is just a crash pad Louise uses a few nights a week).

Cell phones are working down in the Clear Lake area - I have talked to a few friends and coworkers who stayed, and to my Fire Department contacts to get quick damage assessments. I haven't heard any direct reports from anyone south of the Galveston/Harris county line yet though - does not sound good from the media. (BTW, the "Certain Death" comment came from City or County of Galveston folks, not the weather service. I am pretty sure that we will have a number of people that stayed in Surfside or the west end of Galveston are going to just disappear off the face of the earth. The best quote I read was the Fire Chief in Surfside that told people who weren't evacuating to write their names and social security numbers on their forearms in permanent ink....then handed them a Sharpie!:eek:)

Anyway, I am hoping we'll get more information as the day goes on - roads are very badly flooded and blocked with debris from the reports I have gotten, so even news crews are having trouble moving around. Hurricanes have to be experienced to be believed!

Paul
 
Sisters in Houston Area

My sister living on Champions Golf Course (north west Houston) experienced no major damage although they have not reviewed the tree on their roof (no leaks they can detect yet). They did not report flooding.

A sister near Hobby had flooding in the street but not in the house. She reported lots of tree debree throughout the neighborhood and folk already beginning to clean up.

My sister in Baytown, TX, stayed with the sister at the golf course. However, her husband works for the city and remained there due to his duties. He was able to let us know their house did not flood.

It would appear that none of our family has power or land line telephone. They are currently relying on cell phones.

My mother and a brother live in Pass Christian, MS, (just east of where Katrina landed). Half of the houses on both of their streets were reduced to foundations (most didn't even have any debree). We were among the amazing few who suffered relatively little damage. Two of my brothers and I arrived in Pass Christian 3 days after the storm and the National Guard had already done an amazing job of clearing many of the streets. Mom has since moved. I hope and pray the people of Galveston and Houston didn't suffer anything as horrendous.

Michael
 
Dallas has been spared most of the wind and rain, but as I write this, it is raining heavily outside. Lots of rain to the NE.

The only PIREPS I have from Houston are from Clear Lake near EFD (little damage to structures, lots of list limbs and trees), the 290/Tollway area (some roof damage, some downed trees) and Katy (tree damage only). Power is supposed to be out in most areas of Hosuton.

45 south of downtown is supposedly impassable in areas due to flooding and debris, as are many other highways near water (e.g., Texas 146). Photos of the Galveston causway suggest it will be a while before it is passible - lots of debris, including boats.

TODR
 
Paul is right, if you haven't seen the power of a hurricane you just don't understand. Life on the gulf coast of MS has changed forever. It's been three years since Katrina hit, (that's how time is measured here) and most of the nation would think the gulf coast has had time to recover. But it will never be the same.

Entire neighborhoods were simply wiped away. A lot of folks can't afford to rebuild so their slabs just sit there. Some have sold out to developers and high rise condos are being put up. Some would say they are pretty but compared to the ancient oak trees and 100 year old houses they have replaced, they're just another condo you cound find in a dozen citys.

As Paul said, people just disappeared never to be seen again. Some washed ashore weeks after the storm. It was horrible.

My heart goes out to those on the TX coast that now have this journey in front of them. Life has now changed. Normal isn't normal anymore.
 
Dodged the Bullit so far..........

Last night at my little ranch was horrendous. Had it all boarded up, but winds and rain was heavy. Lost at least ten big oaks, don't even bother to count pines. No power but the generator, stripped out the power lines all the way to the state highway. Going to be a tough week. Praise god, the water started receding from my lake before it got to the house. Don't know about my airplane at CXO yet or my businesses down in Houston.

Just another day in the life.
 
I rode it out in east Pearland. My home survived well, but most of my fence is down. All of my trees survived, but quite a few little branches and probably half the leaves are stripped out. Many old, beautiful oaks and pines are either down completely or broken in half all around the area.

It was definitely an experience. I boarded up yesterday just as the wind came up when I found myself with some spare time between prep at work and the storm arriving. I really, really take my hat off to Home Depot. They staffed their Pearland store the day of the storm selling people like me (and about 75 other locals) the last of their sheeting. Without covered windows I had decided to head to a friend's place. After covering the windows, I feld good staying home.

The best way to describe what it was like the movie Poltergeist. Strange, loud noises, odd wind and pressure sensations, lightning flashing. Once I opened the front door, knowing it was blowing like heck so I held tightly, and the door was pulled out of my hand. It swung closed, but before latching it swung open just as hard, then with the same speed swung back shut. Another time I heard some odd pressure/sound pulsations at about 1 second frequency that lasted a minute or two. The entire time was a dull roar that increased every couple of munites. It was a very surreal thing.

Now at work in the Texas Medical Center. It's one of the few places that power stayed on and we have lots of wonderful AC! We lost 12-14 windows, lots of trees, some roof mounted equipment, one burned up pump motor, lots of signs, quite a bit of water damage. One impressive thing was the wind swung the front end of a (filled) 6,000 gallon/55,000 lb water trailer about 2 feet! And it was on skid type landing gear - not wheels.

I feel pretty lucky. After this, I'm really not sure I'd hang around for a Cat 3.
 
Ironflight said:
... The best quote I read was the Fire Chief in Surfside that told people who weren't evacuating to write their names and social security numbers on their forearms in permanent ink....then handed them a Sharpie!:eek:...
Paul
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Paul,

I read that too and wondered why people would stay.

What drives me crazy is these people are warned to get out but elect to stay and then when the sh.. hits the fan, they call 911 and say, "OK, come get me now, I've had enough."

Sorry, but SAR people shouldn't go into harm’s way for people who stay in the face of such a storm.


Those who had to stay because of duty, my hat is off to all of you!

Best of luck to those who live down in that area, I hope all is well when you return.
 
N941WR said:
Paul,

I read that too and wondered why people would stay.

What drives me crazy is these people are warned to get out but elect to stay and then when the sh.. hits the fan, they call 911 and say, "OK, come get me now, I've had enough."

Sorry, but SAR people shouldn't go into harm’s way for people who stay in the face of such a storm.


Those who had to stay because of duty, my hat is off to all of you!

Best of luck to those who live down in that area, I hope all is well when you return.
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Why do people stay? Several reasons. Part of the reason, surely, is the 100+ people who died in the FUBAR evacuation from Rita in '05. The storm itself killed less than 10 in an area *other* than the Houston metro area.

The other reason is that West Galveston is *not* the same as the Houston metro area. One's 10 ft MSL and 0 miles inland. The other's 40-65' MSL and 30-75 miles inland.

Personally, when I evacuated from Rita, I was steered away from a backroads path I had chosen to get my family out. I was given no choice but to take the 12-24 hour ride across town on an evacuation route chosen by *the authorities*. I could have headed west and around town on the county roads and been safely north of the area in 2-3 hours.

When faced with that rediculous option, I resorted to plan B and flew the family out one by one in my RV.

Granted, riding it out on West Galveston's kind of stupid/suicidal. But the authorities haven't earned much of my trust, personally. Though they did better this time.
 
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IKE is rolling northeast across Missouri this morning. At the moment it is raining 1.05" per hour at Spirit Airport and this has been going on since about 2 am. Our home is 28 nm north and we picked up 3.75" so far. Looking at the radar, I would guess it will be out of here by 2 pm but meanwhile the front side of the storm is sucking moisture up from the Texas gulf coast and IKE seems to be thriving on it. The wind is gusting to 35 knots....not nearly as destructive as what happened near Houston....but the lights are flickering.
 
Conroe has some trees down and no power... I've left the area for College Station where my mom lives. No idea what CXO looks like. Couldn't take another night w/o power...
 
Louise and I brought the airplanes back from Fort Worth to College Station this afternoon, and the flying weather was beautiful. I was tempted to try and press on to get TFR permission, but am going to wait another day or so - there is no problem leaving the planes on the ramp at KCLL, and I have no reason yet to push the TFR authorities. I was very glad that people learned the lessons from the Rita fiasco, as Bryanb mentioned. The lessons aren't to "not go", they are that if you are inland above 50' MSL, hunker down and leave the roads clear for those that NEED a way to get out! As a person that has done hurricane rescue for years, I am just amazed that people stayed on the barrier islands - that's just playing Russian Roulette.

Paul
 
Paul, don't know if you still have a place in Nassau Bay or not .... but the video I saw from that area looked grim. The houses there are going to be soggy.

TODR
 
the_other_dougreeves said:
Paul, don't know if you still have a place in Nassau Bay or not .... but the video I saw from that area looked grim. The houses there are going to be soggy.

TODR
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The townhouse I own up near NASA 1 is apparently intact, with some roof leaks/ceiling damage - and that is at the highest point in the city (about 18' msl). My former place on the water (where I built the Valkyrie) - well, the report I got was that the garage (at one time, the airplane factory) was "full to the ceiling"....glad that didn't happen during my build!

Paul
 
Thanks to the 52F guys

So far, Paul and I have been very fortunate and have much to be thankful for. First, many thanks to the 52F folks who provided shelter for both of our planes and a car to get us back and forth to College Station (my crash pad condo). We are also thankful for the extreme ease of the evacuation thanks to our RVs and having just set up the condo near TAMU. No waiting or poking along on the roads and no struggle for a temporary home.

Paul has just flown down to Houston to check for interior damage to our home and hanger (the exteriors are reportedly fine) and, probably, the Nassau Bay townhouse. If things are good, I expect him to see what his fire department might need done. I have continued to pretty much work a normal schedule.

Thanks, again, for everyones help and good thoughts.
 
TFR changes and Weathermeister

We are also grateful to Dan Checkoway and his Weathermeister system. It was a great resource as our main (often only) access to the web was our Blackberries and his e-mail alerts on the rapidly evolving TFR changes ensured that we knew that situation. The ease of getting briefings yesterday on the Blackberries really helped remove potential hassles during our recovery of the planes (even if it did rather fill my mailbox). When things are changing rapidly, it sure is nice to have such a convenient resource. We first learned of the TFR through one of his e-mail alerts.

This morning, we were very pleased to wake up this morning, check my e-mail, and learn that the TFR is now isolated to the Galveston Island area (up to 2000') and our airpark is open. If things go well, Paul will probably fly over the area and take pictures on the way back up to College Station this evening.

BTW, if you are considering flying into the area, note that most airports have no electricity, thus no lights, and the METARS are completely bogus.
 
My house in downtown Houston area lost a lot of roof shingles, so I have some pretty bad water damage in the house....but I'm insured, just I hope I can get a roofing contractor before 2010!! RV4 was at Hooks...and is fine. Had a chance to go out there saturday afternoon....some hanger doors were blow off, about 12" of standing water around the T-hangers, but no serious flooding or damage that I could see....all in all...not bad.
 
Photos from LVJ (Pearland, TX)

Here is a photo of Pearland Regional Airport (between Galveston and Houston):

40904%20hangar.jpg


When we evacuated Houston (by air) we parked our car inside the plane's hangar, as you can see the hangar doesn't really exist anymore. A large number of the hangars at the field were heavily damaged, and many airplanes like the one in the picture were totalled. We hope to return to the area in the next few days and we'll take some photos on the way in.

-DC
 
My little story

I don't often post but what the hey..

I decided last Wednesday that I didn't like the way Ike looked so I paid for my daughters plane ticket down from home in Michigan on Thursday. She and her little brother left from the airport for home. They made it to Michigan just ahead of the remnants of Ike. He'll be staying on there for a couple weeks til I can find time to hop up and fetch him home.

The wife spent last week in Pittsburgh on business. Her and her coworkers were scheduled to return Friday after the scheduled shut down time of IAH so they stayed thru the weekend and came home this morning (monday). All of the hotel and food expenses were on her companies dime.

With my family safely out of harms way, I volunteered with my company to escort our fleet to Abilene (ABI) for safekeeping. I am a Maintenance Quality Control inspector for a regional carrier under Continentals flag. What was cool about it tho was the aircrews and the maintenance guys who went with the fleet were allowed to bring their families and pets. The company even paid for the hotels!

We got back to IAH around noon today. So far the only casualties any of us have suffered is a lost car when a tree fell on it; and my bosses rented house took a pine tree thru the roof in a spare bedroom. All in all, it could have been a lot worse.

My thoughts and prayers for those less fortunate.
 
You people in Texas aren't the only ones suffering from Ike

Sunday morning I received my finishing kit. While we were unloading the winds were picking up and the trees around started losing branches. Later on in the day the winds were getting into 60 and 70 mph gusts. Needless to say the trees started snapping and ultimately we lost power in the area. About 200,000 people are without power in the Louisville metropolitan area. I had my roof replaced back in March so I suffered no damage to my structures but my yard looks like a battleground. We haven't had any power since 3:00 pm Sunday. I'm posting this at work. A lot of our utility crews were sent to Texas to help out before the winds hit Sunday so its real slow progress getting the power back on here. It might be 10 to 14 days until its all restored.

Don't get me wrong I know the folks in Texas have it heck of alot worse then we do. It was just weird seeing those high winds without thunder, lightning and rain.

I imagine the folks living around the Vahalla golf course will have power though seeing how the Ryder Cup is being played there this week in Louisville:(
 
Thanks for the photo link Milt (post above this) - that is a heck of a survey - and points out why we aren't hearing much out of the Bolivar penninsula folks - there is nothing left!

Louise and I surveyed galveston from the air last night, and it matches what you see here.

Paul
 
Here are a few pics taken at Hooks Airport on the north side of town this morning; most of the newer built hangars are okay, but some of the older big box hangars had some damage and many of the older T hangars had their doors blown in or out. Glad I moved my -8 outta there and over to Boerne Stage (thanks Tom!) for a few days.






Up until a month or two ago, this hangar had an RV-7A project in it. Good thing Jim K. moved to a new (undamaged) hangar and was able to fly it away! Jim and I both got lucky, our hangars came out fine. There are a few others not as lucky; I saw a Cirrus, C-310, Seneca and a Bonanza with hangar doors lying on top of 'em. Ouch.
 
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Hopefully they'll move inland now

c177tx said:
I just read on the Lone Star Flight Museum's web sight that they recieved substantial damage.

www.lsfm.org
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Anyone who's ever been there ought to understand what a disaster this is. Lonestar is one of the finest warbird musuems in the country. It's a crime to have all those priceless planes, most of whom USED to be in FLYING CONDITION, located on a barrier island in hurricane country.

I just hope that when they rebuild they'll move it inland.
 
News from Weiser

My buddy Daryl sent me some pics from Weiser. Three hangars destroyed. But six planes on tie-downs all came through OK. The helicopter school apparently got their choppers out because one the of destroyed hangars was theirs and there were no broken choppers visible. But there was a midget mustang under the wreckage. Daryl's hangar was fine. Maybe he'll post the pics.

At about 3 in the morning, I watched the worst of it come through Cypress. Being from Tulsa, I've seen lots of tornados, but this was like being inside one. I have lots of trees and fences and a covered back porch. Somehow they blocked the wind so much that it was almost calm on my porch but I could look up and see the tops of the trees swinging every which way almost to the point of breaking. One broke in my neighbors yard and fell on his garage. Down the street an ancient live oak about 6' across was literally pulled up by the root and fell on that guys garage. The noise reminded me of a tornado -- kind of a roar that some people say sounds like a train. It was un-real.

It's hard to imagine anyone whose ever seen something like this and lives on a island like Galveston not evacuating, but apparently a bunch of people didn't. But now they're the ones the government is in such a hurry to get help to, so maybe they weren't so dumb after all.

The guy who mentioned it wasn't just a Galveston thing isn't kidding. We threw in the towel Monday and headed east on I-10 for my daughter's house in Atlanta. Good thing we had full tanks to start because it was Lafayette, LA before we found a gas station without a line outside. Even past Orange, TX, you could see evidence that I-10 had been under water. We started calling to find a room at 9:00p and the closest one was 2 hours away in Slidell, LA -- on the east side of New Orleans. The motels were all full from all the linemen coming in from out of state to fix the powerlines. So that's good thing. The next day we stopped at a C-store in Bay St. Louis, which was ground zero for Katrina. It was still a mess. I asked the girl at the counter why they hadn't cleaned up yet. She said they had -- that's why all the buildings were gone. The current mess I was seeing was from Ike and Gustaf.

I sure feel lucky that all we lost was power, water, and sewer.
 
About 2 months ago my neighbor Jim 2 hangers down at Hooks suggested that I have some angle iron welded to the inside of the top rail of my hanger. I heeded his very good advice. Ike blew both doors off the top track onto the new angle iron. I can't thank you enough Jim.

Luis Luciani
RV8, 100 Hours
 
Donations or Insurance?

jonbakerok said:
Anyone who's ever been there ought to understand what a disaster this is. Lonestar is one of the finest warbird musuems in the country. It's a crime to have all those priceless planes, most of whom USED to be in FLYING CONDITION, located on a barrier island in hurricane country.

I just hope that when they rebuild they'll move it inland.
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I'm sure they have insurance for that right or are they going to count on donations? That is very substantial damage.
Too bad.

It looks like all the big iron was moved out thankfully.
 
ScottSchmidt said:
I'm sure they have insurance for that right or are they going to count on donations? That is very substantial damage.
Too bad.

It looks like all the big iron was moved out thankfully.
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Yes, the LSFM is one of the best in the country.

Well, I was wrong. They got hit pretty hard. They have an info web site up.

http://www.lsfm.org/ikephotogallery.html

The island's still closed down, so it may be a while before anyone could get in by car. Guess we could fly in!

Might be good for us Houston folks to head down for a fly-in/clean up weekend or two. Anyone interested, let me know (post here). I know Larry G. and could propose the plan to him when things settle down a bit.
 
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Me too! (As if Louise volunteering wasn't enough already...)

I flew over Bolivar again this morning - with the TFR gone now, you can flew lower. out over the water - and there is just NOTHING left on the eastern end. The damage in Galveston proper (in the major part of town) isn't as apparent, because it was mostly flooding, and that is gone - you can't see the devastation from the air. I flew up the Texas City Dike, and it has been swept clean of all signs of anything that had ever been built there.

An air lift to Galveston, or at least LSFM is a good idea - let us kow!

Paul
 
I'm in!

Low Pass said:
Might be good for us Houston folks to head down for a fly-in/clean up weekend or two. Anyone interested, let me know (post here). I know Larry G. and could propose the plan to him when things settle down a bit.
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Name the date. I'll need a ride, tho, unless the roads are open.
 
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