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09L: Hurricane Ike

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Okay...
 
Lol I just saw three guys in their trunks with yellow blow up floating "things" around them walk by on FOX. I think one of the things had a duck head attached, like a rubber ducky.
 
Ike may be attempting to strengthen slightly as convection tries to wrap around the SW side. However, it is still having a hard time with all of the dry air, and I think this will prevent it from strengthening quickly. Some slow intensification is possible though and the storm will probably make landfall has a strong category two or weak category 3 (105-115mph).

Regardless of the final strength, the surge will be very significant. Many local news stations here in the Houston area are showing flooding in coastal communities already. Water is rising in Galveston Bay as well. Minor flooding is occurring in Seabrook and we are still 10-12 hours from landfall! Hope everyone stays safe out there! :)


Edit:
This has been ongoing for some time now, but an update just came in on the large cargo ship that got stranded off the Texas coast. The ship was trying to beat the storm into port, but it lost power and is now just drifting in the ocean. Two helicopters were sent out to try to rescue the crew members, but they had to turn around. As of now, all 22 crew members are still stranded on the ship. The ship is full of petroleum products.

Also, on a positive note, the evacuation in the Houston area seemed to go quite smoothly yesterday. Traffic was pretty heavy especially last night, but it was much better than Rita. There were even some gas stations that had gas in the Houston area this morning.
 
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That seawall is really taking a pounding. I am watching Reed's stream and it is non-stop huge waves. I just talked to him and he says they're seeing some pretty high gusts; he was about to get the weather station on top of the vehicle, so I'll update with some measurements later.
 
U all can correct me if im wrong but
I was just watching the 4panel feed of tv stations in Houston http://www.weatherserver.net/hurricanefeeds.html and one of them was carrying a live press briefing by the State Department and they said they have opened the emergency oil reserves for two oil companies (Marathon and one other) for the states of TX,LA,TN,MS,AL,GA,NC,SC as a result of damage by Gustav. They went on to say that they are in talk with other oil companies to allow them to tap into the US oil reserves if warranted due to Ike.
 
U all can correct me if im wrong but
I was just watching the 4panel feed of tv stations in Houston http://www.weatherserver.net/hurricanefeeds.html and one of them was carrying a live press briefing by the State Department and they said they have opened the emergency oil reserves for two oil companies (Marathon and one other) for the states of TX,LA,TN,MS,AL,GA,NC,SC as a result of damage by Gustav. They went on to say that they are in talk with other oil companies to allow them to tap into the US oil reserves if warranted due to Ike.

LOL! We have 35 days worth of oil in the SPR, so it's not a big deal to release a few hundred thousand barrels. HOWEVER! What use is releasing the oil from the SPR if the refineries Houston/Galveston/Texas City knocked out of service. You'll have tankers and tanker trucks sitting there with oil to drop off and nowhere to put it.
 
LOL! We have 35 days worth of oil in the SPR, so it's not a big deal to release a few hundred thousand barrels. HOWEVER! What use is releasing the oil from the SPR if the refineries Houston/Galveston/Texas City knocked out of service. You'll have tankers and tanker trucks sitting there with oil to drop off and nowhere to put it.

Agreed, its a non-issue. Its fairly common now for them to be loaning oil into and out of the SPR. It makes up some shortfalls and is easily replaced.

Oil price is actually down now because the refineries will be shut and they wont be using any oil....less demand.
 
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