Hurricane Ike

[ash9144]

I am in Texas City at a chem plant (southeast of Houston). We are preparing and shutting down in anticipation of Ike. What are others around the Gulf coast going through in preparation for Ike?

 

[Latexman]

What for? At this time it's projected to come ashore just north of Corpus Christie. That's over 150 miles away. Wouldn't it be wiser to observe it's trajectory some more before shutting down? Start-ups are expensive and there may be time so safety is not compromised. It depends on your plant though.

Good luck,
Latexman

 

[ash9144]

Projections now are bringing it more towards Matagorda bay with the Houston coastal area on the NE quadrant. Also my unit takes over 24 hours to s/d. So plans are to release everyone tomorrow evening. So in order to s/d and release people with time to prepare we have to begin now.

 

[HgTX]

Some of our folks went out to look at specimens on our coatings test rack on the Corpus coast before it all blows away.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[ivymike]

I'm not doing anything here in houston... except planning NOT to go to the beach over the weekend (had previously hoped to). My office is currently planning to be open on Friday.

 

[oldfieldguy]

I got compressor stations every sixty miles on a gas pipeline from the tip of Texas to Tennessee. No matter WHERE Ike hits, I'm gonna have to go visit. They cut us loose early thins morning at work to go take care of our personal evacuation prep.

I took a direct hit from Hurricane Rita in 2005, and so far, Ike has done the same thing, its point of impact has slowly been moved eastward. Our parish has not issued mandatory evacuation orders (yet) and I might spend the night tomorrow at our local plant. It survived Rita quite handily.

I would think that some parts of Houston with the power out would be "interesting"...

good luck to everybody

old field guy

 

[ivymike]

got my genset and my plywood... good luck to you!

 

[Latexman]

It seems as soon as I submitted my post above, Ike turned and headed towards Freeport or Galveston. So two days and a lot of preparation later, I'm submitting this post from our hotel suite in Austin!

Good luck,
Latexman

 

[ivymike]

I'm submitting this one from my house in the houston 'burbs. it's getting windier.

 

[MikeHalloran]

My trailer in a low-lying part of Jefferson Parish shook pretty good during the first rain bands on Thursday evening. I've been in a motel in Hattiesburg since later that night. Maybe tomorrow, when the water starts to subside, I'll go look for the trailer.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[oldfieldguy]

I'm sitting here in southwest Louisiana, 30 miles north of hte Gulf and twenty miles east of the Texas state line, and we're doing fifty MPH, gusting to sixty or so with driving rain. This is likely the worst we'll get and it should start tapering off in a couple of hours.

We lost power for about ten minutes right after midnight, but it's back on.

If everything goes right, I get to go out to the plant after this blows through and turn it back on.

old field guy

 

[ash9144]

Back at work today after the first of several clean up repair days.

We suffered damages but survived. I live and work in Galveston county (not the island) so its a mess.

I hope all the others with interests in this area survived and are getting back up now.

 

[oldfieldguy]

I feel much better. My plant is on line subject to the utility company's ability to source power. If we need more than they can provide, then we're in trouble.

My three compressor stations with electrical prime movers are all on line, totaling 25,000 horsepower. I have one more station to fix up. Its 480 volt MCC went halfway under storm surge waters and we're waiting for the rest of the water to go down.

old field guy

 

[nickelkid]

My home office had a 6 ft surge in San Leon. Saturday I am going to start gutting the place.

All 3 structures I have on the property are 40+ years old and are completely in tact, not 1 broken window. Unfortunately the interiors are coated with Galveston Bay mud.

Additionally I have the remains of a kitchen, staircase, and dock in my yard, also 2 priceless peacan trees fell.
I am going to miss their shade.

 

[ash9144]

Good for you OFG.

Sorry you got it so bad RC. Hopefully your insurance or FEMA can provide some relief. I've heard San Leon was basically wiped out. Hopefully you didn't ride it out.

I was in League City during the storm. A little shingle loss, down fence, and broken window. So I fared pretty well.

 

[PEDARRIN2]

Sort of a corollary to Ike.

Typically when a hurricane hits the gulf area, all we (Ohio) get is some rain.

With Ike, we got up to 80 mph winds on Sunday afternoon.

Electricity is still out in a lot of places.

Nothing in comparison to what the situation is like in Texas, but we definitely felt the effects of this storm.

 

[MechEng13]

PEDARRIN2,

What part of Ohio, we in Indiana, Lafayette, only got about 1.6" of rain, had some 40 mph+ winds. Sister-in-law down in Middletown was without powere for a few days. Lots of IN got more rain than us, still waiting on the rivers to go down North of Lafayette.




Alan M. Etzkorn
Manufacturing Engineer
Wabash National Corp.

http://www.wabashnational.com

 

[PEDARRIN2]

MechEng13

Southwestern Ohio (Cincy-Dayton)

Not much rain, but a lot of wind and damage. There are still people without power. I heard a report that about 85 of Ohio's 88 counties had damage.

Again, nothing compared to Texas, but we typically don't get a lot of damage from just wind - unless it is a tornado.

 

[ivymike]

as a recent mover from the midwest, I found it fascinating that a hurricane was (sustained high wind + severe lightning + mini tsunami + multiple tornados) all in one. Very exciting ride... I also lived in the bay area of CA, and my Houston house shook more during Ike than my earlier homes did in any bay-area earthquake between 1980 and 1987. I was already gone for Loma Prieta - it would likely have been worse - but Ike went on shaking the house for hours (though with advance warning).