Hurricane Ike Resources and Tools
Posted on September 12, 2008
Hurricane Ike is a monster storm with hurricane force winds that extend out 120 miles and tropical winds force that extend out 275 miles. Ike is forecast to become a Category 3 storm before landfall but the surge is expected to be larger than a typical Category 3 storm because of Hurricane Ike's immense size. One thing that is certain about Hurricane Ike is that it will impact a large of large areas including some big metropolitan centers. Houston and Galveston will be hit very hard by Hurricane Ike. The surge will be devastating along the coast including Galveston and all along the southeast Texas coast and parts of the Louisiana coast. People living along parts of the coast have been warned that they face certain death if they do not evacuate.
CNN reports that an advisory warns: "All neighborhoods ... and possibly entire coastal communities ... will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide. Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family one- or two-story homes will face certain death."
Cities like Austin, Dallas and Shreveport will also experience strong winds and heavy rain. There will be widespread power outages in Houston and if the impact path does not change there could be some long delays restoring power. There will also be power outages throughout north and east Texas. The current forecast even has Hurricane Ike as an extratropical depression near Detroit and then on Main Resourcinto Canada so other U.S. cities may experience some fairly strong winds from Ike.
You can keep track of Ike at the National Hurricane Center and at Wunderground Tropical Weather.