As I passed the television, the caption read Ike bigger than Texas; so, first, an urgent plea from the Sun Herald
We ask our citizens to join us in this heartfelt mission to save those who may otherwise die where they are making their stand against Ike. If you know someone in Galveston or the South Texas Coast, please call them or e-mail them and tell them your stories of Katrina. Pass along this editorial and the links to our Katrina photos and stories.
For whatever reason it now appears that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of the residents of Galveston Island, and untold others along the Texas Coast have chosen to stay and face the wrath of Hurricane Ike. As your neighbors in South Mississippi, who have watched the deadly surge of Katrina destroy virtually every mile of our coast, we care for your survival, and beg you to leave now. You should know further that in a nighttime storm your chances will be further reduced.
The hours dwindle, but it is not too late for you to flee and save your lives. There is something deceptive about the idea that Ike is only a Category 2 hurricane. The developing science of Integrated Kinetic Energy (ironically IKE) which expresses the destructive power of a hurricane’s surge, shows that Ike represents a force exceeding even Katrina’s surge, which was the largest ever seen against an American Coast
It is not too late but with every passing hour your possibility of evacuating to safety is diminished. We implore you – do not become a casualty of Ike. Its deadly surge is coming, and no seawall, no plywood nor your false notion of safety will save you from its destructive force…
Unfortunately, some are saying it is too late to evacuate.
Even with Hurricane Ike more than 100 miles away, authorities began rescue efforts Friday, picking up more than 120 people stranded by rising seas along the southeast Texas coast…
Some 37,000 people may need to be rescued after Hurricane Ike strikes, a U.S. military official said Friday…
Texas already has asked for help, and the active-duty military has 42 search-and-rescue helicopters on standby, the official said
Among those ready to help are the Flying Jennies stationed on the Mississippi Coast at Keesler Air Force Base.
Usually moving cargo and troops, the Flying Jennies from Keesler Air Force Base will be flying humanitarian missions after Hurricane Ike.
The Air Force Reserve’s 815th Flying Jennies is the sister squadron to the Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Squadron, the Hurricane Hunters that have flown through Ike, Gustav and Hanna for the last three weeks.
The Flying Jennies will be based at Keesler and start search-and-rescue support as soon as Monday. The Citizen Airmen will also fly humanitarian, aeromedical evacuation and other missions after Ike.
I haven’t had time to check the link the their site; but there are storm chasers set up in Galveston to film Ike’s landfall.
“Most of the north end of Galveston near the bay is now going underwater…The island is filling up like a bathtub.”
UPDATE: Ike edges toward category 3. (emphasis added)
…Ike is 900 miles wide, measuring the cloud cover at its widest point. On Friday, its tropical storm-force winds extended up to 275 miles — the length of the Texas coastline — from its center, for a total reach of about 550 miles.
Track the storm »
Galveston had ordered evacuation of the island, but LeBlanc said about 40 percent of the city’s 57,523 residents chose to stay. “It’s unfortunate that the warnings that we sent out were not heeded,” he said.
Watch: Residents have second thoughts, decide to evacuate »
LeBlanc said that by 9 p.m. all city personnel would be hunkered down and would not be able to respond to calls until after the storm passed.
Only a few more than 150 people were in a shelter of last resort, he said. Watch Gen. Russel Honore detail the challenges of a large evacuation…
Galveston spokeswoman Mary Jo Naschke estimated Friday morning that just more than half of the city’s 58,000 people had been evacuated.
Others chose to stay, at least initially.
“I’ve decided not to evacuate,” said iReporter Matteu Erchull on Galveston Island. “We have a lot of faith in the seawall, and we have boards on the windows. Most people on the island live on second or third stories, so they don’t have to worry about the water so much.”
However, Erchull started having second thoughts as the sea surged in.
“There’s a lot of concern, actually, because we were getting all gung-ho about staying here, and just now I’ve taken all my electronics and [I’m] putting them on top of the refrigerator,” he said…
“There’s water on my door. It’s like you’re all ready for it until you start to see it yourself.
Swimming in storm surge is an experience one never forgets. Hopefully the ppl in Galveston are spared the worst.
sop
Last report I read before running my errand said there were 40,000 people still there! God bless them and keep them – folks think all cat 2’s are alike and that just isn’t the case any more…think we need a new rating system.
What makes me curious is just where any money to rebuild anything, after Ike’s destruction is done, is going to come from. I guess Dubbya could ask a few of his buddies for some change, but that wouldn’t amount to much. Maybe $10 billion or so, if he asked real nice. We the people will probably chip in a few $10’s of millions, So, all we’ll need then is about $80 to 100 more billion. I wonder if Iraq would give us a little of their excess oil money. I know it was supposed to pay us to fund the war, but that plan went to hell as soon as we started dropping bombs over there. Maybe they could give us a little since they’re not doing anything with it anyway. But I guess the most of it will come from selling some 10 year treasuries to Japan and China. Or maybe we could just trade them for Lehman Brothers Bank, or shares of Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. Oh I forgot, gas tax revenue will be a major boon here once it pops up over $5.00 a gallon. The little bit that’s left here in High Point, NC is selling for $4.19 and up, right now. Good lick to all of us. Personally, I don’t give a damn about anybody who would deliberately place themselves in the brunt of this storm. What part of “face certain death” did you not understand?
There is alot of human psychology at work in deciding to stay. I know one lady who died in Katrina because the shelter would not take her pet.
There is no accounting for what people will care about. As the reports of damage to Galveston now begin to filter in we await the certain news of deaths from drowning being included.
Given the finality of it all I more on the empathetic end of the spectrum. After Katrina emergency responders here learned the whys of the decision to stay and have been very proactive in addressing them. We now have shelters that take people and those that take pet animals now for instance.
sop