Kevin's Blog

At 10pm CDT, dangerous Hurricane Ike continues to churn towards a landfall on the Texas coast late Friday night, or just after midnight Saturday morning.

The latest hurricane statement from the Galveston office of the National Weather Service contains the following sobering text for residents along Galveston Bay:

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.

MANY RESIDENCES OF AVERAGE CONSTRUCTION DIRECTLY ON THE COAST WILL BE DESTROYED. WIDESPREAD AND DEVASTATING PERSONAL PROPERTY DAMAGE IS LIKELY ELSEWHERE.

VEHICLES LEFT BEHIND WILL LIKELY BE SWEPT AWAY. NUMEROUS ROADS WILL BE SWAMPED...SOME MAY BE WASHED AWAY BY THE WATER. ENTIRE FLOOD PRONE COASTAL COMMUNITIES WILL BE CUTOFF. WATER LEVELS MAY EXCEED 9 FEET FOR MORE THAN A MILE INLAND.

COASTAL RESIDENTS IN MULTI-STORY FACILITIES RISK BEING CUTOFF. CONDITIONS WILL BE WORSENED BY BATTERING WAVES. SUCH WAVES WILL EXACERBATE PROPERTY DAMAGE...WITH MASSIVE DESTRUCTION OF HOMES...INCLUDING THOSE OF BLOCK CONSTRUCTION.

Over the past several hours, Ike has been sliding slightly south of the forecast track from this afternoon, and appears to be destined for a landfall somewhere in Matagorda, Brazoria or Galveston County. The target symbol on the image below is the current position of the eye of the storm. It is plotted with the previous position (the hurricane symbol with the 2 in it) and the forecast track from the 4pm CDT advisory. Notice again just how big this storm is!

Ike is still a very large storm, and tides are still running 6 feet above normal on the Mississippi coast, and 7 feet above normal along the Louisiana coast. Tides at Pleasure Pier in Galveston are currently running 2 feet above normal.

During the day tomorrow winds will begin to increase along the upper Texas coast, and tides will begin to run five feet above normal by early afternoon.

Ike is still a very large storm, and hurricane force winds (74 mph or greater) now extend 115 miles out from the center of the storm to both the northeast and southeast quadrants of the storm. On the west side of the storm, hurricane force winds extend out 60 miles. That means 175 miles of coastline will experience hurricane force winds. In addition, tropical storm force winds extend out 265 miles to the east, and 180 miles to the west of the storm. We expect 440 miles of the coast to experience tropical storm conditions. Tropical storm conditions will exist as far east as New Orleans, LA and Lake Ponchartrain.

Because of the massive extent of Ike's wind field, water is being piled up around the storm in staggering amounts. Waves are at least 12 feet for over 300 miles in all directions from the center of the storm.

There is still a possibility that Ike could intensify during the day tomorrow. Conditions will begin to deteriorate along the Texas coast very quickly tomorrow evening.

Keep your browser on Fox Weather for the latest updates. If you have any questions about Ike and its impacts, ask here! We will be available to answer your questions all weekend!