UH OH, HERE WE GO AGAIN

[cincygreg]

YouTube - George Thorogood - Ride on Josephine (with lyrics)

[Beachcomber]

Based on today's track, I DON'T like Ike:

[gae]

Keep safe, Beach.

Looks nasty. Want me to send you an umbrella?

[cincygreg]

Not too much to like about Ike!
Looks like he could end up doing some major damage wherever he lands.

[Beachcomber]

Obviously Ike has shifted far from us here in my area over the weekend, for which I am grateful.

[cincygreg]

Does look like it's shifted a bit. Gonna be a mess wherever he lands, but for now it looks like Texas and Louisiana are going to take the big hit from Ike!


IKE'S A COMING

[cincygreg]

As Ike takes another turn, it's starting to look more and more like southeast Texas and Mexico are gonna take the hit.

[cincygreg]

[cincygreg]

updated 2 minutes ago


Sea floods Texas island; get out or 'certain death'
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Gulf of Mexico flooding Galveston neighborhoods
Life-threatening floods expected in parts of coastal Texas, agency says
Last time weather service used such forceful language was in regard to Katrina

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Floodwaters surged into Galveston Island neighborhoods Friday morning with the center of Hurricane Ike still more than 200 miles from landfall.


Gulf of Mexico waters wash into a neighborhood on Galveston Island, Texas, on Monday morning.
1 of 2more photos ?

Waves washed for blocks inland, the beginning of a storm surge that forecasters warned could reach up to 22 feet and bring "certain death" to anyone who remained in Galveston Bay homes.

Rarely do forecasters use such forceful language.

The last time they did was three years ago as Hurricane Katrina closed in on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Forecasters expect Ike, a Category 2 storm, to strengthen before its center makes landfall late Friday or early Saturday. The storm is so big that it fills most of the Gulf of Mexico.

Although the weather service reports when a hurricane's center will hit land, it also says that the worst of the storm can hit before or after that.

Roughly 3.5 million people live in the storm's impact zone, according to federal estimates.

The weather service painted a vivid picture in its warning of the destruction it expects: a towering wall of water, possibly up to 22 feet high, crashing over the Galveston Bay shoreline as the brunt of Ike comes ashore. That wall of water could send floodwaters surging into Houston, more than 20 miles inland.

"All neighborhoods ... and possibly entire coastal communities ... will be inundated during the peak storm tide," the weather service warned. "Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family one- or two-story homes will face certain death."

But farther inland, 4 million Houston-area residents were told to hunker down and stay home, even as government offices and schools prepared to close Friday in anticipation of the hurricane.

"We are only evacuating areas subject to a storm surge," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the county's chief executive officer. "Yes, we know you will lose electricity. But you're not in danger of losing your life, so stay put."

Forecasters find Hurricane Ike so intimidating because of the location they expect it to land -- near Galveston Island, just south of Houston. The city of Galveston is on the island.

If that happens -- hurricane tracks are hard to predict and subject to change -- the storm's counter-clockwise rotation would push water into Galveston Bay for hour upon hour, battering sea walls and structures.

The final storm surge, the one that could exceed 20 feet in height, would come as the hurricane's eye crosses the shoreline.

Still, not everyone was heeding the weather service warnings.


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"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.

"The actual stores down here ran out of sand so we took some ice bags and filled them with sand from the beach," he said.

Paul King of Galveston said hurricanes are part of life on the Texas coast, according to CNN affiliate KSAT-TV.

"You enjoy it 360 days of the year," he said of his Galveston Island property. "And the other five, you have to get out of town."

A slight northward change in Ike's path could spare much of the Houston area and its millions of residents from catastrophic flooding by keeping the surge out of the bay and pushing it to less-populated areas.

The August 2005 warning for Katrina said "most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks ... perhaps longer" and that people and animals "exposed to the winds will face certain death."

The warning proved largely correct. Parts of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast still bear the scars of Katrina and remain uninhabitable.

More than 1,800 people died as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds more were never accounted for.

Ike's outer bands began moving across the Texas shore Friday morning, even though the storm's center was hundreds of miles from land.

Minor flooding was reported along the barrier islands south of Galveston overnight, CNN affiliate KPRC reported. Watch waves wash under coastal homes ?

Authorities warned that tide levels could begin rising Friday morning along the upper Texas coast and along the bays. Watch CNN meteorologists track Hurricane Ike ?

"Do not take this storm lightly," Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Thursday afternoon. "This is not a storm to gamble with. It is large; it is powerful; it carries a lot of water."

Chertoff and representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency said their efforts were focused on evacuations as Ike moved northwest at 13 mph across the central Gulf of Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph.

Chertoff also urged people not to succumb to "hurricane fatigue," referring to concerns that authorities were overestimating Ike's potential impact.

"Unless you're fatigued with living, I suggest you want to take seriously a storm of this size and scale," he said Thursday.

Houston Mayor Bill White said he's heard that some people who live in areas under a mandatory evacuation order say they plan to stay home. He strongly urged against it.

"If you think you want to ride something out, and people are talking about a 20-foot wall of water coming at you, then you better think again," White said.

At 8 a.m. ET Friday, the hurricane center said hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 120 miles from Ike's center. Tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 275 miles.

The storm was centered about 365 miles east of Corpus Christi and about 235 miles southeast of Galveston. It was moving west-northwest at near 13 mph. Track the storm ?

Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas told the island's 60,000 people that they should leave. By 7:30 p.m. ET, the city had finished evacuating to Austin thousands of residents who needed assistance leaving because of age, disability or lack of reliable transportation.

Mandatory evacuations remained in effect for low-lying coastal areas northeast and southwest of Galveston, in Chambers, Matagorda and Brazoria counties.

Ships in port were told to leave, said Port of Houston spokeswoman Linda Whitlock. The area's two major airports, George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby, also halted all commercial fligh

[Beachcomber]

I think this storm will spell the end for Galveston. 200 miles away and already flooding in parts? This storm is 200 miles across too.