Hurricane Ike

[Eric B]

The center of the storm is forcast to pass directly over my town today by 3 or 4 PM and it will still be a Cat 1 hurricane or strong tropical storm. I sure will miss checking TubeNet while the power's out.

I've battened down the hatches, I'm signing out, and hunkering down!

[Eric B]

Thanks, Wade. I am filling up both tubs right now. At least I'll be able to flush the toilets. I had not considered that. I should have as we were without power for 2 weeks following a huge ice storm in 2000 when we lived in Texarkana. I'm printing off your post and sending the link to my inlaws in Texarkana and Atlanta, TX. Wow, who would think that TubeNet could make such a difference in our lives . It is very windy right now (gusts up to 50 mph already) and it's only going to go downhill from hear. We're supposed to have 4-6 inches of rain and the possibility of 80-90 mph gusts. Yikes! I'm in a new home after our move and I just hydromulched my yard. Goodbye, money! I could have bought a used F tuba with that

Eric

[Eric B]

Ike has past and everything is fine in Malakoff. Luckily, the storm weakened a lot more than expected before it got to us.

[k001k47]

My school was evacuated and I had to leave my horn behind.
I am very grateful it shifted north at the last minute, but my sympathies are with those in affected areas.

[tubatooter1940]

The top of my dock at the creek was under two feet of water. Boats are riding high and fine.
We got a third of the flooding East Texas and Louisiana got.
Ike passed 275 miles South of here.

[Eupharitone]

Huntsville got nailed by the eye wall as a low level Cat 1 (60-80mph range). We're roughly 120 miles in from the coast. Power's still out for almost all of the town...should be for several days, though the the university and the prison still have power since they're on a different grid (so the death-row inmates still have power and air conditiong while the rest of the town suffers.....where's the justice in that? ).

1 person died, a few were injured. We didn't get hit nearly as bad as the Houston metro obviously....it's a mess down there.

[PWtuba]

Ike blew through central Ohio yesterday with hurricane force winds! In Ohio!
Took out tons of trees and lots of power lines. We lost power at 3:00 pm yesterday and it just came back on at 11:30 today.

[Dan Schultz]

Ike swept through Newburgh, Indiana Sunday morning around 10:30 with gusts to 71mph. I can't imagine what a cat 5 would feel like!

[Casey Tucker]

i stayed in huntsville and we got hit pretty bad. my house had two trees tip over onto the power lines in my backyard and i won't have power for somewhere around 2 weeks. this does, however, give me a TON of free time which means TONS of practice time. the town itself has a ton of uprooted trees laying over roads and houses and the majority of the town (minus the university and truckstops/convienence stores) is without power. overall everyone here is safe and healthy and after a few weeks things should be back to normal. my prayers go out to those who less fortunate than i. your in my thoughts fellow tubenetters!

-CT

[Rick Denney]

Ike swept through Newburgh, Indiana Sunday morning around 10:30 with gusts to 71mph. I can't imagine what a cat 5 would feel like!

Note that gusts and hurricane winds aren't the same experience. Both can knock things down pretty well, of course. But hurricane winds are a never-ending scream for hours until the storm passes. It's unnerving.

My folks in Houston checked into a hotel about a mile from their house just to get into a sturdy building. Unlike during Allison, their house did not flood, and unlike during Alicia (a very similar storm in a lot of ways to Ike), they had their power back by Sunday afternoon. Lots of downed tree limbs, but no structural damage. Had they had any damage to the house, I'd be there now. But that house has survived 100-mph winds before. This is only the second time in my memory that the eye of a bona fide hurricane passed over their house (and over central Houston). It did the same as before--blew out all the windows in Downtown, etc.

Which reminds me--I need to call them again.

Rick "who may go down to help TxDOT rebuild traffic signals" Denney