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Sep 13, 2008 10:40 AM | 6
After making landfall at 3:10 a.m. this morning near Galveston as a Category 2 storm, Hurricane Ike's eye was just northeast of Conroe, Texas as of 8 a.m. CDT, according to the National Hurricane Center. With winds of 90 miles per hour (145 km/hr), it is now a Category 1 storm.
Overnight, Ike flooded Galveston's historic district and left all of Galveston County without power, the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management reported on its Web site. Four million people in Houston also lost power.
Officials have blamed Ike for three deaths. All 22 people aboard a Cypriot freighter that was caught in the storm off the coast of Texas were safe, however, according to the Coast Guard, which had earlier abandoned efforts to rescue the crew because of Ike.
The hurricane is expected to move through eastern and northeastern Texas today, weakening as it travels inland, and then into western Arkansas tonight, the Hurricane Center said. Its projected track will take it over Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and then Ohio before hitting Canada late Sunday.
For more on what causes hurricanes, and how they are linked to global warming, see our in-depth report.
Hurricane Ike wind speed history, by NOAA
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texas,
storm,
conroe,
hurricane,
galveston
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6 Comments
Add CommentHere in southeastern Kansas we have been inundated with thunderstorms and flooding since Friday morning even though we are at least 600 miles north of the storm. I pray those fools who didn't evacuate from Ike's path get the divine protection fools often do.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thistesting one, two, three
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe evacuated to Dallas and are getting no information about the status in Galveston. we desperatly need some kind of news. Will Lyda Ann be giving and interview or are all communications out. Is the news media cut off down there?Any current news, what about the eastend?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWaiting to hear updates from galveston east end, is it still there? Is it flooded? Need news. when do they estimate we can return?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis has been a *manufactured* emergency. We were told that Austin would be hit with 70 mph winds and 6 inches of rain. Not a drop, and the skies have been lovely all weekend. *People* did swamp central TX from the coasts, but having been born and raised on the Gulf, I can tell you that the hysteria around this set of systems is highly suspicious. Qui bono? Hmmm... shutting down production in the Gulf, and $4.25 gas ring a bell?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou might want to look a little closer to home for the source of your rain. Ike died about 100 miles north of it's contact point (which wasn't Galveston, by the way).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeople on the Gulf Coast are quite accustomed to 80 - 110 mph winds sweeping through 4 or 5 times a season. This is nothing unusual for this area. What is unusual is to have people in Chicago and Seattle wake up to headlines about the hurricane season on *their* front pages. What's up with that??