90,000 body bags?

An estimated 90,000 people in the Houston and surrounding counties with mandatory evacuation orders have chosen not to leave.

They only declared mandatory evacs where officials felt that the surge would be so bad that life was unsustainable. They had everyone else stand pat so the mandatory evacs could get out.

Sometimes Texas stubbornness makes me a little sick to my stomach...

edit: Just heard that 20,000 of those people are on Galveston Island alone.. 7:20 PM

135 miles to go...

the inner eyewall is currently 135 miles from Galveston, 200 miles from my house. the newest track puts the eye directly over my house in about 12 hours. Daybreak tomm could be very interesting....

The beginning of 'Strong Language'

in the most recent updated (1pm cst) the NHC began using some strong language regarding 'loss of life' , 'catastrophic' , and other scary words. This means it's game on for the TV types. Since the NHC is usually quite reserved about using language like that and the track hasn't really changed it's getting more worrisome by the hour...

Local on the 8s

I think my favorite part of watching the weather channel for 24 hours a day is looking at the week long forecast.

They predict:

Thunderstorms and possible high wind.

Thank you captain obvious.

My Hurricane Experience and Background

Thought I'd provide a brief history of my hurricane experience etc. so if you think you are just reading ramblings from some yahoo I could maybe change that to 'informed' ramblings from some yahoo.

I went to school in New Orleans from 2001-2005 receiving a degree in engineering and toughed out many TS and light hurricanes that passed through such as Ivan, Isabelle, Lily, etc.

I was in the city of New Orleans 48 hours before Katrina hit and returned to visit less than 30 days after the storm.

I currently work for an environmental consulting company in Houston and specialize in Storm Water management and control as well as permitting.

I guess I'm a professional storm nut...

This blog is being written from my home in Spring, Tx right at mile marker 68 on I-45 north of houston. That means that Galveston island is just about 70 miles directly to the south of me.

I'm not evacuating and will be riding the storm out here and updating people as long as I can keep power going to my laptop.

8 AM press conference

The Press Conference with Bill White just started. Some notes:

If you live in an evac zone get the hell out.

if you live in a mobile home get the hell out.

in High rises every 100 feet above the ground you are, the intensity of the storm raises by a category.

If you are not in evac zone hunker down and they'll 'see us on the other side..'

Topped of the Morning

They just showed pictures of waves over topping the 17 ft. seawall that protects Galveston. The storm is still 20 hours out... That seawall is pretty much all the protection that the island has. This is not good...

20 Billion in Damage is a lot

Weather Underground is predicting $20-$30 Billion dollars in damage from Ike.

For perspective, that would make Ike the second most expensive Hurricane EVER after Katrina (35 Billion bucks) and Andrew ($20 Billion).

Yikes.

10 PM Sept 11 Ike Track