Hurricane Season 2008 - The Official Thread

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How bad do you think this year's hurricane season will be?

Barely a wind to speak of....
1
5%
We'll see a few small, barely organized storms that will fall apart quickly
3
14%
Several major storms -- at least Cat 3 -- will hit the U.S. causing minimal damage
6
29%
At least one catastrophic storm will slam our shores causing mass destruction and death
11
52%
 
Total votes: 21

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racehorse
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Post by racehorse » 09-19-2008 10:23 PM

Hi Spike Mike. :)

It is great to know that you are OK and nice to see you again.
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Post by SETIsLady » 09-19-2008 11:13 PM

Hi Mike, glad you are ok and thanks for updating us. It was a devastating storm, I was talking to a client today in Texas. She said "she had no idea, it would be this bad". Our prayers are with all of you Mike.

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Post by Linnea » 09-19-2008 11:13 PM

Hey, Spike Mike. :)

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Post by Joolz » 09-19-2008 11:41 PM

Hey there, Spike Mike! Glad you checked in with us. :) Folks here were thinking of you.
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Post by Joolz » 09-20-2008 01:47 AM

Some interesting stuff here at the Chambers County website: http://www.co.chambers.tx.us/StormInfo.html

Check this out! (This was dated Monday, September 15th.)
Right now, the state focus is still search and rescue. Three persons were found alive yesterday that washed ashore into Chambers County from Galveston Co (Bolivar, Crystal Beach, etc.). Today, 3 more persons were found alive. This is incredible. We have spoken to them and they have amazing stories. However, there are also some who were not so fortunate. So, just so you will understand, the state is trying to save as many lives as they can right now, before it is too late. When they complete that, they will shift into full-blown recovery.
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Post by Joolz » 09-20-2008 01:53 AM

Another amazing tale:

Crystal Beach man rode out Ike on log
Friday, September 19, 2008 | 7:26 PM
By Patricia Lopez

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- It's a story of survival that's hard to believe. A man rode out Hurricane Ike floating on debris and anything else he could grab.

He spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News about how he survived after his home was submerged in flood waters on Crystal Beach.

The scrapes and cuts don't even begin to tell the story of Mark Davidson.

"I went and got my dog tags and put them on in case I would die that night because it was getting that bad," said Davidson.

Davidson decided to ride the storm out in his home in Crystal Beach on Avenue D. It was a mistake the retired Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer would soon regret.

"And about that time I felt the back of the house, come up just like the stern of the ship and came down on the pilings pretty hard," said Davidson.

Around 1am Saturday morning, his house started taking in water and slowing drifting. By 2am, Davidson decided to get out. The former U.S. Navy diver would be tested to the limit.

"I swam out and as soon as I surfaced, I was level with the roof," he said. "The water was level with the roof."

For the next 14 hours, Davidson would do whatever it took to survive.

"When I was on the telephone pole, then I started looking around and see what was going on that's when I saw houses floating just like bumper boats, just crushing and ripping in half."

The telephone pole he was clinging to soon went under and Davidson knew he had to swim away from all the debris on Crystal Beach.

"Because that was going to crush and kill me," he said.

He began his journey through town using pieces of plywood to maneuver his way around. But it was a patio table he used as a boogie board that he says saved his life.

"I would not let that thing go for nothing," said Davidson.

For the next several hours, Davidson was drifting toward East Bay.

"It was like being dumped under water and then come up for a breath dumped under water, dumped under water and it was like that the entire evening," said Davidson.

But he endured the storm even after an encounter with an alligator and in the end found safety when he finally came ashore at Smith Point. Where the National Guard help rescue him.

"The one thing I was thinking is that I wanted to see my wife, my dog, my brothers and I have a lot of things to finish in this life," said Davidson. "I am not done yet."

Davidson says he is done living on the coast.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?secti ... id=6402621
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Post by Janus232 » 09-20-2008 02:52 AM

Good to Read you Spike Mike......."

49 platforms destroyed by Ike
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/ ... Energy.php
.... Techno Tribal Positively Primal
Shamanic Anarchistic Archaic Revival....

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Post by Chickadee » 09-20-2008 07:45 AM

I still haven't seen any coverage of how the pets were evacuated and/or sheltered and where they are now.... :(
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Post by OMG » 09-20-2008 01:05 PM

Great to see that update Spike.

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Post by Linnea » 09-20-2008 01:10 PM

Chickadee. Try this google search string:

animal rescue hurricane ike

There are many articles and links there. A lot of effort underway both before and after the storm to care for the animals.

Here is one article from National Geographic:

'Many Texas Pets, Zoo Animals Spared Ike's Wrath':

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... -pets.html

Here's another link to the Houston SPCA:

http://hspca.convio.net/site/PageServer ... ke_Updates

Kitty Found! You Tube Video. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS6-K1YqTaQ

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Post by Chickadee » 09-20-2008 02:09 PM

Thanks Linnea. I'll read. I was noticing the lack of any animal relief coverage on TV news.
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Post by Joolz » 09-21-2008 12:48 AM

This couple has an incredible story to tell. At the link is a video in 2 parts. Part I is fairly short. Part II is about 15 minutes long, but well worth watching.

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/ ... 54f5c.html

Crystal Beach survivor: Ike was 'the meanest storm I've ever seen'

02:51 PM CDT on Friday, September 19, 2008

By Michelle Homer / KHOU.com

CRYSTAL BEACH -- A couple from Crystal Beach shared a chilling tale of survival with 11 News Wednesday.

Frank and Dee Ann Sherman were forced to ride out the hurricane in their beachfront home after trying to evacuate.

The couple, who owns a wrecker service, was busy helping tow vehicles out of high water and time got away from them.

The Shermans were caught off guard when the water engulfed the roads around their house and washed out a bridge.

They were stranded as a powerful Category 2 hurricane barreled toward the Texas coast.

Frank Sherman called 11 News Friday morning while the wind howled and the waves roared ashore outside their home.

They were hoping the Coast Guard could rescue them -- but it was too late for that.

At 10:30 a.m. Friday, Frank Sherman said the water was already three feet high under his home, which sits on 16 foot stilts.

Dee Ann knew she wasn't going to be able to save all of the birds in their aviary, so she set them free.

"I had to just open up and let them fly," she said.

Seventeen cockateels and eight lovebirds flew away. Four lovebirds wouldn't leave.

By noon, Hurricane Ike's winds were already blowing at 35 miles an hour and the water was four feet deep.

Assignments Editor Bill Langlois continued to touch base with the Shermans throughout the day.

At 2 p.m., the water had risen over five feet high and was slowly creeping higher toward the Shermans' living area.

The last time Langlois spoke with Sherman, it was 6:45 p.m. Friday -- a few hours before Ike made landfall.

"The winds are blowing steady at about 60 miles an hour," Sherman said. "And the water is about two feet below my floor boards."

Sherman said he had to get off the phone to try and cut a hole in his ceiling so he and his wife could climb into the attic.

That was the last time we heard from him.

"When I heard he was getting in the attic, I thought that was the last of them," Langlois said.

Many 11 News viewers who heard the Sherman's story on the air Friday, e-mailed and called to ask about their fate.

We tried calling the Shermans several times after the hurricane passed, but we couldn't reach them.

After seeing the first aerials of the devastation on Crystal Beach, there wasn't much hope the couple could have possibly survived. Most homes were washed away and nothing but the stilts remained.

When the phone rang Wednesday morning, Langlois was shocked to hear a familiar voice on the other end. Frank Sherman was alive.

"We survived. We're alive and well," Sherman said.

Sherman said he and his wife were in their attic as the waves came in and washed the walls of their home out to sea.

"We spent the worst of the storm in a little crawl space of the attic, basically praying," Sherman said.

They had a a mccaw, a cockatoo and two dogs in the tiny attic with them.

Below, Ike's wind-whipped waves were tearing their home apart.

Frank: "And we got to sit there, looking down through the hole and watch the waves take the rest of the walls out and take everything out of the house."

Dee Ann: "The sounds were just unreal."

Frank: "We're hanging on to each other, hanging on to the rafters."

Dee Ann: "And he said 'Dee Ann, we're going to die,' and I said 'Baby, it's been good and I'll see you in heaven.'"

Dee Ann: "We just prayed 'Dear God, please let us live' and he let us live."

Miraculously, the attic and the roof protecting the Shermans from a certain death stayed intact.

"The storm finally got over after it lifted the house up in the air and slammed it down several times," Frank said.

"After the water started going down the next day, I spent two or three hours clearing debris from the floor inside of the house to where I could get my wife down out of the attic," he remembered. "Then I climbed down a pole into the water and the mud and scavenged around and found a ladder where she could come down eventually. Then I walked the roads up there until I found enough water and stuff for us to survive."

They tried to flag down several helicopters. Monday morning, a Medevac helicopter finally spotted them and alerted another chopper that came back for them.

"It's the closest thing I've ever come to kissing a man," Sherman said.

The Shermans managed to stay calm through the worst of the hurricane and its aftermath.

"You don't freak out during the emergency," he said. "It was afterwards, we broke down."

Sherman believes several close friends died in the storm, but officials have not confirmed any deaths on Crystal Beach.

He said looting is out of control. "I had to stand off one looter and we ran into several other looters that were down there just robbing jewelry and valuables out of houses."

Sherman and his wife are now at their son's home in the North Texas town of Granbury.

They're upset that they won't be allowed to return to their home to retrieve what few belongings they have left, including their dead daughter's ashes.

"We have nothing at the moment, except the clothes on our backs," Sherman said. "We lost our business, our home, you know everything, completely. And they want us to not go back for months, and leave all of our stuff exposed to the elements and the looters and that's just totally unacceptable."

The Shermans are also frustrated with news reports showing people complaining about no power or relatively minor damage.

"We see all of these people that are crying and moaning because they got some mud on their floor or their lights are out in Houston," Sherman said. "We don't see anything about our friends that died in Crystal Beach and about the fact that our world is totally devastated. I'm 60 years old and I have to start my life all over again."
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Post by Cpt Spike Mike » 09-21-2008 06:20 AM

High weirdness in the storm- first, there's this goofball . . .

Hurricane Bear

Also, there's a report that someone on Crystal Beach had a tiger as a pet. Now the tiger is supposedly loose and roaming the area. To my knowledge no pictures have surfaced.

And Chickadee, for some reason a number of people left their pets behind. It's puzzling as to why they did so, especially after the new policy that pets can be evacuated along with their owners.

Nine days after the storm and there are still over a million homes without power, but when you consider they started with 2.8 million homes in the dark it's considerable progress.

And yes the eye passed over Highlands and most of east Harris County. For two hours it was calm but cloudy overhead (couldn't see stars). About 5:30am the south eyewall started to approach; you can hear it coming. The southern part of the eyewall was noticeably stronger than the north and held its sustained winds longer.

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Post by Chickadee » 09-21-2008 06:44 AM

Mike hello and so glad to see you here. What an experience you went through.

I was afraid that many people had left their pets behind because as I was watching in the days prior, it didn't appear that there were provisions being made and I just didn't see a lot of people with dogs on leashes or in carriers, or, cat carriers.

My feeling is we aren't seeing this covered on television news because there was awful carnage and many pets simply washed away.:(
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SPIKEY SPIKEY SPIKEY!!!

Post by HurricaneJoanie » 09-21-2008 08:45 PM

TERRIFIC TO SEE YOU!!! You've been missed!!

Glad you made it through okay....

There is no excuse for leaving behind pets with Federal laws in place. But tigers, well...!
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