Things have certainly been interesting here the past 36 hours.
I hope everyone in the Houston/Galveston area who reads this blog is doing okay after Ike. I know many of you are without power. Anyone who still doesn't have electricity is welcome to come and stay with us as long as you need to. Also, if you need some help picking up debris or making repairs, please call me.
We feel very blessed and lucky to have come out of this with minimal damage. The Fitz stood up to Ike well. Even our landscaping somehow survived. We never lost power for more than a few seconds, which puts us in the lucky 1% in the Greater Houston area. We went this morning to check on the clinic, which is further east than we are in Katy. We saw alot of relatively minor damage on the way--like downed trees, fences and lots of dangling stoplights. The clinic was thankfully spared from any major damage. there was some minor flooding in my office, but the three dogs that were boarding with us are doing great. We even had power back on by the time we got there.
Those in the Galveston and Clear Lake areas weren't as lucky as we were. We have heard secondhand that our family in that area are doing okay, and we hope that is true. They know that if they need anything, including a place to stay, or get out of the heat, or just take a shower...our doors are always open.
I am somewhat of a weather geek, so you can ignore this part if you want to. It was amazing that Ike became so much better organized and strengthened right before landfall. If he'd had another 24 hours over open water, he would have likely been a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane, which would have wiped out everything from Galveston to Pt. Arthur. The sheer size of Ike made his area of damage much greater than your average hurricane, but it also kept him from strengthening as much as he could have. Just look at the two pictures below. The one on the left is from Friday afternoon, about 12 hours prior to landfall. The eye is ragged and poorly organized, with relatively weak echoes in the eyewall. The one on the right is from 3-4 hours prior to landfall. You can see the eye has contracted down and is very symmetrical, with much stronger echoes in the eyewall, which is a sign of strengthening. If he had done this 24 hours before landfall, it would have been a whole different story. Not that it wasn't bad enough as it was.
I hope everyone in the Houston/Galveston area who reads this blog is doing okay after Ike. I know many of you are without power. Anyone who still doesn't have electricity is welcome to come and stay with us as long as you need to. Also, if you need some help picking up debris or making repairs, please call me.
We feel very blessed and lucky to have come out of this with minimal damage. The Fitz stood up to Ike well. Even our landscaping somehow survived. We never lost power for more than a few seconds, which puts us in the lucky 1% in the Greater Houston area. We went this morning to check on the clinic, which is further east than we are in Katy. We saw alot of relatively minor damage on the way--like downed trees, fences and lots of dangling stoplights. The clinic was thankfully spared from any major damage. there was some minor flooding in my office, but the three dogs that were boarding with us are doing great. We even had power back on by the time we got there.
Those in the Galveston and Clear Lake areas weren't as lucky as we were. We have heard secondhand that our family in that area are doing okay, and we hope that is true. They know that if they need anything, including a place to stay, or get out of the heat, or just take a shower...our doors are always open.
I am somewhat of a weather geek, so you can ignore this part if you want to. It was amazing that Ike became so much better organized and strengthened right before landfall. If he'd had another 24 hours over open water, he would have likely been a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane, which would have wiped out everything from Galveston to Pt. Arthur. The sheer size of Ike made his area of damage much greater than your average hurricane, but it also kept him from strengthening as much as he could have. Just look at the two pictures below. The one on the left is from Friday afternoon, about 12 hours prior to landfall. The eye is ragged and poorly organized, with relatively weak echoes in the eyewall. The one on the right is from 3-4 hours prior to landfall. You can see the eye has contracted down and is very symmetrical, with much stronger echoes in the eyewall, which is a sign of strengthening. If he had done this 24 hours before landfall, it would have been a whole different story. Not that it wasn't bad enough as it was.
We got estimated 70 mph winds with 80 mph gusts in Katy, and we were 40 miles from the eye. That tells you just how big this thing was. I have never seen winds like that. It just howls and makes the house creak and moan. And the rain is literally going sideways. The worst of it came between 4 am and 7 am. I really have no idea how our electricity stayed on. I shot a video once it was daylight, but by then the winds were only 40 mph with 55 mph gusts.
No comments:
Post a Comment