HURRICANE SEASON 2008

[Bianca]

 
       









                                                 Ike's US toll hits 51; search team leaves island






By JON GAMBRELL,
Associated Press Writer
SEPT. 17, 2008
 
TEXAS CITY, Texas - Hurricane Ike's death toll in the U.S. climbed past 50 on Wednesday and appeared to level off in Texas, where search teams pulled out of Galveston having searched the entire island for survivors.
 
A long convoy of rescue vehicles headed back to Houston past a miles-long line of cars trying to get back into coastal communities despite orders to stay out. The backlog of traffic frustrated transportation officials, who pointed out that among those idling in the choked interstate were emergency crews and trucks hauling resources badly needed on the island.

"It's not a good scenario," said Raquelle Lewis, a Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

Lewis would not estimate the number of cars caught in the backlog, which extended miles past the first checkpoint that is 19 miles north of Galveston. Lewis pleaded with Galveston residents to not waste scarcely available fuel by trying to head home.

Much of the confusion stemmed from Galveston officials' short-lived decision to allow people onto the island Tuesday to examine their property briefly and head back out. Many along the interstate were unaware that the "look-and-leave" policy had been suspended.

Carlos Azucena, 47, said he had tried three different times in the last 24 hours to get on the island. He said he waited in line for three hours before his final rejection Wednesday.

"I don't understand this. You see those other people," Azucena said, waiving at utility workers and contractors being let on to the island. "They don't even live here, I live in Galveston."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff returned to Texas for a second time to check on recovery efforts amid growing criticism about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response.

In Houston, most people in the nation's fourth-largest city remained without power for a fifth day, making it tough to track the latest information on where to pick up supplies. For most, the electricity wasn't expected back on for at least another week.

Searchers in boats used sonar to sweep for debris clogging navigation routes into one of the nation's busiest ports.

The search and rescue teams of Texas Task Force 1 spent four days making door-to-door searches across the island for those who rode out the storm. Some of the people they found were evacuated while others chose to stay in their homes.

There were some cases where searchers were told that a resident had stayed on the peninsula for the hurricane, but had not been seen since.

In those instances, searchers checked the last place where the person was seen, then gave their names to local emergency managers for follow up, said Chuck Jones, a task force team leader. At times, information conflicted, with one neighbor saying a person had stayed for the storm and another saying they had evacuated before it hit.

Galveston County Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik said officials had confirmed the first death in nearby Brazoria County. Pustilnik also gave details on five deaths in Galveston County: Three had serious medical conditions prior to the storm but did not evacuate, one drowned in a truck and one was found in a hotel room.

Ike's death toll officially stood at 51, with most of the deaths coming outside of Texas. Authorities may never know if, or how many, people who tried to weather the storm were washed out to sea.

Residents again waited in line for hours Wednesday at the nearly two dozen supply distribution centers set up in Houston to hand out food, water and ice. Mayor Bill White complained FEMA wasn't bringing in the supplies fast enough, and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett had personally taken over coordination of efforts to hand out relief supplies.

FEMA officials in Houston said they were refining glitches in the relief effort and delivering millions of meals and water every 24 hours. Spokesman Marty Bahamonde said FEMA will begin paying for 30 days of hotel expenses for homeowners whose houses are uninhabitable. FEMA plans to reimburse the hotels directly.

___

Associated Press writers Andre Coe, Chris Duncan, Monica Rhor, April Castro and Deb Riechmann in Houston, Pauline Arrillaga in San Antonio, Allen G. Breed on Bolivar Peninsula, Jay Root in Austin, and Christopher Sherman and Juan A. Lozano in Galveston contributed to this report.

___

[Bianca]

                                  Crews finish sweep of Galveston; thousands stay







By JON GAMBRELL,
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 17, 2008
 
TEXAS CITY, Texas - Search crews pulled out of Galveston on Wednesday after completing their sweep of the island for survivors of Hurricane Ike. Thousands remained on the island despite authorities' urging them to leave, and thousands more choked an interstate leading in.
 
A long convoy of rescue vehicles headed back to Houston past a miles-long line of cars trying to get back into coastal communities despite orders to stay out. The backlog of traffic frustrated transportation officials, who pointed out that among those idling in the choked interstate were emergency crews and trucks hauling resources badly needed on the island.

"It's not a good scenario," said Raquelle Lewis, a Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

Lewis would not estimate the number of cars caught in the backlog, which extended miles past the first checkpoint that is 19 miles north of Galveston. Lewis pleaded with displaced Galveston residents to not waste scarcely available fuel by trying to head home.

Much of the confusion stemmed from Galveston officials' short-lived decision to allow people onto the island Tuesday to examine their property briefly and head back out. The city suspended the "look and leave" policy because within one hour of the announcement, three lanes of vehicles stretching along 15 miles tried to get onto the island.

"We could not accommodate that many people at one time," said city manager Steve LeBlanc. "We were hoping to have more of a trickle of cars than a tidal wave."

Many along the interstate were unaware that the policy had been suspended.

Carlos Azucena, 47, said he had tried three different times in the last 24 hours to get on the island. He said he waited in line for three hours before his final rejection Wednesday.

"I don't understand this. You see those other people," Azucena said, waving at utility workers and contractors being let on to the island. "They don't even live here, I live in Galveston."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff returned to Texas to check on recovery efforts amid growing criticism about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response.

In Houston, most people in the nation's fourth-largest city remained without power for a fifth day, making it tough to track the latest information on where to pick up supplies. For most, the electricity wasn't expected back on for at least another week.

Searchers in boats used sonar to sweep for debris clogging navigation routes into one of the nation's busiest ports.

The search and rescue teams of Texas Task Force 1 spent four days making door-to-door searches across the island for those who rode out the storm. Some of the people they found were evacuated while others chose to stay in their homes.

The task force checked on almost 6,000 people who said that they did not need assistance getting out and performed a total of 3,540 rescues since Friday, said Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry.

"They've been working around the clock to make sure they get to each area," she said.

There were some cases where searchers were told that a resident had stayed on the peninsula for the hurricane, but had not been seen since.

In those instances, searchers checked the last place where the person was seen, then gave their names to local emergency managers for follow up, said Chuck Jones, a task force team leader. At times, information conflicted, with one neighbor saying a person had stayed for the storm and another saying they had evacuated before it hit.

Galveston County Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik confirmed the first death in nearby Brazoria County and gave details on five deaths in Galveston County: Three had serious medical conditions prior to the storm but did not evacuate, one drowned in a truck and one was found in a hotel room.

Ike was blamed for at least 50 deaths in the U.S., most of them coming outside Texas. Dozens more died as the storm moved through the Caribbean. Authorities may never know if, or how many, people who tried to weather the storm were washed out to sea.

Residents again waited in line for hours Wednesday at the roughly two dozen supply distribution centers set up in Houston to hand out food, water and ice. Mayor Bill White complained FEMA wasn't bringing in the supplies fast enough, and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett had personally taken over coordination of efforts to hand out relief supplies.

FEMA officials in Houston said they were refining glitches in the relief effort and delivering millions of meals and water every 24 hours. Spokesman Marty Bahamonde said FEMA will begin paying for 30 days of hotel expenses for homeowners whose houses are uninhabitable. FEMA plans to reimburse the hotels directly.

___

Associated Press writers Andre Coe, Paul J. Weber, Monica Rhor, April Castro and Deb Riechmann in Houston, Pauline Arrillaga in San Antonio, Allen G. Breed on Bolivar Peninsula, Jay Root in Austin, and Christopher Sherman and Juan A. Lozano in Galveston contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

FEMA evacuee hotel info: http://www.femaevachotels.com

[Bianca]

                                 Ike victims attempt to return, but get turned away







By JON GAMBRELL,
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 17, 2008
 
GALVESTON, Texas - Residents of this hurricane-wrecked island city launched an ill-advised attempt to return to their crippled hometown Wednesday, but instead fumed in hours of gridlocked traffic only to be turned away at the bridge.
 
Traffic backed up for 20 miles along Interstate 45, the one route onto Galveston Island, jockeying for position with utility workers, repair crews and police trying to begin repairs to the city wrecked by Hurricane Ike five days ago.

The city announced Tuesday that people could briefly return under a new "look and leave" plan, causing evacuees all over the state to pack up and head for the coast. Hours later, it abruptly halted the policy out of fear of just the sort of roadway chaos occurring on Wednesday.

Some people in the long line angrily complained that they'd never heard the policy was rescinded.

"I don't understand this," Carlos Azucena said Wednesday, motioning toward repair workers after waiting in line three hours before he was rejected in his third try to go home. "You see those other people. They don't even live here; I live in Galveston."

Ike's death toll in the U.S. climbed past 50 Wednesday and appeared to level off in Texas, where search teams pulled out of Galveston having searched the entire island for survivors. The task force had checked on almost 6,000 people and performed more than 3,500 rescues since Friday. Seventeen people have died in the state.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was reviewing damage during his second stop in the state since Ike.

In Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city where power was still out and people were still lining up at dozens of distribution centers for basic needs, Chertoff said distribution of food and water were going smoothly.

"I'm happy to see that things are moving there," said Chertoff, who also reviewed operations at FEMA's primary distribution center. "We will continue to make sure the flow to the (centers) works uninterrupted."

His appearance comes a day after local officials complained that supplies were slow in getting to distribution points, and that the entire process had glitches.

Chertoff also said the federal government was working to help restore electricity to Houston, where nearly 1.4 million people were without power, probably until next week.

Emergency crews working to restore power in Galveston were among the long line trudging toward Galveston. The crowd of residents was only delaying repairs, officials said.

"It's not a good scenario," said Raquelle Lewis, a Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

Lewis pleaded with Galveston residents not to waste scarcely available fuel by trying to head home.

Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said police and county officials were working on opening more emergency lanes for first responders.

"We'll get it cleared up. We'll get it unclogged," he said.

The city suspended its look and leave policy because within one hour of the announcement three lanes of vehicles stretching along 15 miles tried to get onto the island.

Officials were working on a new plan to open the island by sections, LeBlanc said.

City and state officials still want people who stayed through the storm to get off the island because of concerns a growing health threat on the island.

Dr. David Lakey, state health commissioner, said he has seen respiratory illnesses, minor traumas such as burns and falls, stress and fatigue.

"The capacity to take care of moderate injuries and illnesses is not here at this time. It's my opinion that individuals should not be living on the island at this time."

The University of Texas Medical Branch hospital won't be able to take patients for a month or more. Seriously injured people are flown to Houston or elsewhere for treatment.

The search and rescue teams of Texas Task Force 1 spent four days making door-to-door searches across the island for those who rode out the storm. Some of the people they found were evacuated while others chose to stay in their homes.

In some cases, searchers were told that a resident had stayed on the peninsula for the hurricane, but had not been seen since.

In those instances, searchers checked the last place where the person was seen, then gave their names to local emergency managers for follow up, said Chuck Jones, a task force team leader. At times, information conflicted, with one neighbor saying a person had stayed for the storm and another saying they had evacuated before it hit.

Galveston County Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik said officials had confirmed the first death in nearby Brazoria County, and provided details on the five Galveston deaths: One drowned in a car, one was found in a hotel room, two dialysis patients died when the power went out and their machines failed, and a cancer patient on a breathing machine also died in the power outage.

Most of the more than 50 deaths occurred outside Texas, although authorities may never know if, or how many, people who tried to weather the storm were washed out to sea.

___

Associated Press writers Andre Coe, Monica Rhor, Paul J. Weber, and Pauline Arrillaga in Houston, April Castro in Austin, and Christopher Sherman and Juan A. Lozano in Galveston contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

FEMA evacuee hotel info: http://www.femaevachotels.com

[Tina Walter]

Hi Bianca,

I sure hope that everyone got through this okay. I heard that the government has installed a no fly zone over the Gulf, with people who violate it being sent to prison. The inclination is that Ike was far worse than they are currently saying ant that the death toll is actually in the thousands, with bodies still floating in  the water.  You never know, the Bush administration has this reputation for secrecy and hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt.

[Bianca]

           








                                      Their House Survived Ike, But It's The Only One Left






By Jason Hanna
CNN
Sept. 19, 2008

   
(CNN) -- Warren and Pam Adams lost a house to Hurricane Rita in 2005, so it seems they'd be relieved to learn their new home withstood Hurricane Ike.

 
Helicopter pilot Ray Asgar submitted the above aerial shot of the house on Wednesday.

But not when their house is the only one still standing in their section of Gilchrist, Texas.

Ike's storm surge last week devastated the Bolivar Peninsula town, flattening most of the roughly 200 homes there. The couple's yellow house at the beach -- supported 14 feet off the ground by wooden columns -- was the only house on Gilchrist's Gulf Coast side not to be flattened.

"As we got there, the tears started flowing," Warren Adams, 63, said Thursday after his first visit to the home since evacuating. "There's a yellow house sitting there, but that's all. It was devastating."

Although the house is there, it might not continue to stand. Huge storm surges walloped the interior, making it uninhabitable and destroying many belongings.

Appliances, furniture, and a grandfather clock were some of the many things rendered useless. Warren and Pam, two of the beach town's several hundred permanent residents before Ike, spent part of Thursday salvaging what they could and lamenting the destruction of their friends' homes.

"It looked like somebody had dropped a bomb," Warren Adams said. "If my house wasn't there, I wouldn't have been able to recognize where I was even at."

The Adams' home hadn't been the only one on stilts. In fact, columns elevated many of Gilchrist's houses, but some houses were only a few feet off the ground, Warren Adams said.

The survival of the Adams' house, where they started living in April of last year, caused a stir on the Internet. Helicopter pilot Ray Asgar shot some photos of the house from the air and submitted them to CNN.

Aaron Reed, a spokesman with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, confirmed that only the Adams' home survived on that Gulf-side beach.

"I thought, if I were to ever build a house on the coast, I'm going to contact the guy who built this," Reed said.

He also said a few other houses on the other side of town were still standing.

Adams said many of Gilchrist's homes were built before current building codes, and weren't elevated or not elevated nearly as high as his.

The couple owned one of those older houses -- on the same lot where their new home now stands. Hurricane Rita destroyed the older one three years ago.

Determined to stay because they loved the beach, the couple decided to build something that stood a much better chance of withstanding a strong hurricane.

Adams, a retired electrical designer, had a Galveston, Texas, engineering firm oversee a contractor as his new house was built. The columns put the house's bottom floor 14 feet above ground, or about 22 feet above sea level. Despite that, Ike's storm surge managed to get in.

"Can we always beat Mother Nature? No," Adams said. "Mother Nature can be much stronger."

Adams said he and his wife almost waited too long to leave the house last week. They boarded the windows and went to bed on the night of September 11 thinking they'd rise at 5:30 a.m. to evacuate.

But he said that shortly after midnight -- more than 24 hours before Ike's center would make landfall -- the effects of the storm were hitting. He awoke to see Pam, 53, out on the deck, crying.

"I said, 'What's wrong?' She said, 'Water is coming up on the road,' " he recalled.

So they left at 3:20 a.m. -- not a moment too soon, said Pam Adams' sister, Judy Hudspeth. 

Hudspeth, who spoke with Pam, said the couple encountered a sheriff's officer as they left the peninsula.

"[Pam] said, 'I almost waited too long,' and the officer told them, 'Yes, ma'am, you did. You're really lucky, and you need to get out,'" Hudspeth, who lives in Richmond, Texas, recalled.

The couple and their two dogs are staying with friends and relatives, and they could get a rental house, Warren Adams said. But ultimately they'd like to return to Gilchrist if the county will allow people to rebuild there.


Adams, who has battled cancer, said he hopes he doesn't have to wait long for the government's decision.

"If we can rebuild, a lot of people will rebuild," he said. "If we can't, tell us that we can't. The sooner we can get this behind us, the better."

[Bianca]

                                      Texas a grim tableau nearly a week after Ike






By JUAN A. LOZANO and
CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN,
Associated Press Writers
Sept. 19, 2008
 
GALVESTON, Texas - It's been nearly a week since Hurricane Ike bulled ashore, and the images of once-bustling coastal Texas communities reduced to only a faint shadow of their old selves are no less staggering.
 
Survivors traipsing past debris piled higher than their heads. Loose livestock grazing beneath downed power lines. Before-and-after shots of whole neighborhoods washed away. Scores of people taking on the drudgery of making it all livable again for weary and anxious evacuees still waiting to come home.

"The city of Galveston is not in ruins," Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said Thursday, striking a defiant tone.

Then she ceded the podium to city manager Steve LeBlanc, who said Galveston basically is on life support.

There's some power to the only hospital, but not enough. Cell phone service is improving, which helps repair crews coordinate, but coverage is still spotty. A single gas pump was working Friday in front of a supermarket. More water is flowing out of the city's pipes than is flowing in.

"Our water system is bleeding," LeBlanc said.

At the very least, the barrier island community isn't ready for the return of the 45,000 who heeded orders to flee, about three-fourths of the population. Officials pleaded with evacuees to sit tight to give workers time to stabilize basic services.

"By staying away and being patient, you are making it possible for us to get you home in a week or so, instead of the months it would take if the city's infrastructure were more overwhelmed at this point," Thomas said.

Galveston Island remained closed, as did the worse-off Bolivar Peninsula. Search teams pulled out of both areas this week after sweeping every house, authorities said.

To the northwest, life took more steps toward normalcy in Houston, where traffic picked up on the downtown streets. Flight control of the International Space Station was to return Friday to the Johnson Space Center, which shut down a few days before Ike's strike.

CenterPoint Energy said it had restored power to nearly 900,000 homes, and the utility was fast approaching the point where more people in the nation's fourth-largest city would be with electricity than without. About 1.5 million are still without power statewide.

More than 1 million people evacuated the Texas coast as Ike steamed across the Gulf of Mexico. Gov. Rick Perry said 20,500 people were still staying in 190 shelters Friday. Ike's death toll in the U.S. stood at 56, with 22 in Texas, though authorities cautioned that more victims could be found.

The Interior Department said Thursday that Ike destroyed at least 49 of the more than 3,800 offshore oil or natural gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, and some may not be rebuilt. The damaged platforms accounted for tiny percentages of the Gulf's daily output of oil and natural gas.

The federal relief effort has delivered hundreds of trucks of ice, water and food to more than 5 million people in the region. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had handed out 2.5 million liters of water, 2 million meals and 100,000 tarps.

Among those accepting a hand was Cheryl Harwell, who holed up in an empty hotel as Ike devastated the Bolivar Peninsula community of Crystal Beach. She ignored a mandatory evacuation order six days ago, and suggested she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.

"I got everything I need here," said Harwell, 50, as she sat on the hotel's second-floor balcony with her husband and a friend.

Destruction surrounded them, but their second-floor abode was dry and tidy, complete with clean linen, bottled water and beer.

"We're happy here," said Harwell's husband, Armando Briones. "We've got plenty of cigarettes and plenty of food."

If they need something, they simply flag down the National Guard, which has been making daily checks.

Back on the mainland, the Red Cross began to close some shelters outside the greater Houston area, though it was still accepting evacuees closer to the most damaged spots, said Jana Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the agency.

"People will come home and realize that their home is not livable, and check back into the shelters," she said.

That's what happened to Virginia Collins, a nurse's assistant who left her home in Houston to stay with family in Denton during the storm. When the coast was clear, she went home to find her ceiling caved in, insulation spilling from the walls and black mold spreading around the house — a place she moved after Hurricane Rita destroyed her Port Arthur home three years ago.

With her Houston home uninhabitable, she was at the city's convention center looking for shelter Thursday.

"I was OK until I got back here," Collins said.

___



Juan A. Lozano contributed from Crystal Beach.

Associated Press writers Andre Coe in Galveston,

Michelle Roberts in San Antonio and Chris Duncan and

Paul J. Weber in Houston contributed to this report.

[Bianca]

                                    Future Fury: Hurricane Effects Will Only Get Worse






Andrea Thompson
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com
Fri Sep 19, 2008
 
The Caribbean and Gulf Coast have seen a spate of devastating hurricanes in recent years that have cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives. As residents recover from the latest hits, they may wonder about the potential for future Ikes and Katrinas.
 
Hurricanes, of course, are nothing new to the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, where tropical storms form between June and November each year. But many factors, both natural and man-made, can affect the number, strength, size and impact of the storms that form each season. For example, the recent surge in storms followed an almost two-decade lull that was part of a natural cycle in hurricane formation.


During that lull, new coastal residents built homes in what they thought was a paradise. But now they've found out just how susceptible they are to nature's wrath. And it looks like the situation might only get worse.




Coastal build-up


In 2003, more than half the U.S. population (or about 153 million people) lived along the Gulf and Southeastern U.S. coastline - an increase of 33 million people from 1980 - and that number is just expected to keep rising.


The buildup of these communities in recent decades and the environmental damage that development has caused exacerbate the impact of hurricanes.


"There's been an explosion of population along our coast," said Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). "That's just putting a lot more people in harm's way."


This is particularly true in Florida, Texas and North Carolina, where populations are increasing the fastest. Hurricanes are especially a threat for homes right on the beach or on barrier islands, such as Galveston, because they receive the full brunt of a hurricane's storm surge.


Coastal features such as barrier islands and wetlands act as natural protection against a hurricane's storm surge, slowing it down and absorbing some of the impact. Studies have shown that every mile of wetlands reduces storm surge by about 3 to 9 inches and every acre reduces the cost of damages from a storm by $3,300, Staudt said.


"Our wetlands and barrier islands ... are our first line of defense," she said.


But the development boom in coastal areas has damaged these natural defenses, putting coastal residents even more at risk.


"The more we develop, the more we lose," Staudt told LiveScience.


The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that since the 1700s, the lower 48 states have lost more than half of their wetlands. While not all of that acreage loss is right along the coast, and some is likely a result of natural changes along the shoreline, a good chunk is due to development.


For instance, some of the Katrina damage to New Orleans was partly a result of the damage to the protective wetlands along Louisiana's coast. Development and subsidence, or outright sinking, of the state's coastline today mean that Louisiana loses an area of wetlands equivalent to the size of 32 football fields every day, according to the NWF.


Many hurricane experts have warned for years against destructive coastal development and imprudent policies that encourage people to build in coastal areas, but that often doesn't stop the building.





Warmer seas


Meanwhile, the oceans are growing warmer. Global ocean temperatures have risen by about 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.1 degrees Celsius) in the last 30 years. And hurricanes are fueled by the warm, moist air over the tropical Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. The warmer the ocean surface, the more energy is available to fuel a storm's ferocious winds.


Scientists have predicted that as global warming continues to heat up the ocean, hurricanes could become more frequent, more intense or both, and several scientists think that change is already evident.

As sea surface temperatures rise, they provide more fuel to the convection that drives the swirling storms. This added energy could notch up the speed of hurricanes' winds (though several scientists say the winds can only increase so much). One recent study suggested that the strongest hurricanes in particular would get a bump from warming waters.

The rainfall brought by hurricanes could also increase because as the Earth's atmosphere also warms, it can hold more moisture. Studies have shown that one of the most damaging parts of a storm can actually be the rain it dumps on inland areas.

Rising sea levels could increase the damage wrought to coastal areas by a hurricane's storm surge.

Warmer water, and more of it, could also mean more opportunities for storms to form. Another recent study suggested that global warming could extend the hurricane season; as the warm water areas in the Atlantic expand, there could be more opportunities for storm formation, particularly early in the season.




Natural cycles

Of course, the changes man has made to coastlines and the climate system aren't the only thing affecting the intensity of any particular hurricane season. Mother Nature provides plenty of variation as well.

Natural fluctuations in the climate that occur over a matter of years, such as El Nino and its sister La Nina, can also affect how busy the Atlantic hurricane season is.

El Nino events, which occur when tropical Pacific waters become warmer, can change the flow of prevailing air currents and stifle hurricane development in the Atlantic. Forecasters think that an El Nino event was the reason for the calm 2006 hurricane season, which came after two of the busiest years for hurricanes on record. La Ninas (when tropical Pacific water become cooler) typically mean more hurricanes.

Another natural cycle, called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, can affect hurricane frequency over several decades through changes in sea surface temperatures, and is thought to be linked to the relative lull in hurricanes during the 1970s and 80s.

While natural cycles can affect hurricane activity from year-to-year or even decade-to-decade, most climate scientists think that global warming will continue to fuel these storms, and accompanied by the increasing coastal population and environmental degradation, lead to the "increasing destructive power of storms," Staudt said.



Video: Learn What Fuels a Hurricane

[Bianca]

Tina Walter
Hero Member

Posts: 395



     Re: HURRICANE SEASON 2008
« Reply #213 on: Today at 08:25:08 am » Quote 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Bianca,

I sure hope that everyone got through this okay. I heard that the government has installed a no fly zone over the Gulf, with people who violate it being sent to prison. The inclination is that Ike was far worse than they are currently saying ant that the death toll is actually in the thousands, with bodies still floating in  the water.  You never know, the Bush administration has this reputation for secrecy and hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt.

[Bianca]

Hi, Tina!!!

Sorry I didn't see your post sooner. It's so good to hear from you again!

So  far, here in Florida, we got away with a very 'light touch' - but, who knows, the 'season' won't
be over 'til November.  Thank you for your concern, it's greatly appreciated.




QUOTE:

"I heard that the government has installed a no fly zone over the Gulf, with people who violate it being sent to prison. The inclination is that Ike was far worse than they are currently saying ant that the death toll is actually in the thousands, with bodies still floating in  the water.  You never know, the Bush administration has this reputation for secrecy and hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt"


I agree with you about GWB!

But, so far, I have not come across anything like what you heard or I would have certainly posted it.
I'll keep my ears and eyes open.....

[V for Vendetta]

Here is something on it for both of you:


Media Obstruction in Galveston
Press denied access in the wake of Hurricane Ike
By Curtis Brainard
Thu 18 Sep 2008 09:07 AM
 
And fear of Internet gossip should not prohibit responsible journalism. The ABC News affiliate in Houston carried a video of investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino confronting Texas governor Rick Perry about temporary “no-fly” zones for TV helicopters over parts of the Bolivar peninsula and west Galveston, the hardest hit areas. Later in the video, Dolcefino tells the ABC anchors:

After Katrina, we were able to go to Waveland, Mississippi, and Gulfport, and Biloxi, and places that were devastated, where there were, sadly, bodies on the road. Now that’s a horrible thing to see and a horrible thing to show, but people who live there, who have friends there, who have relatives there, have a fundamental right to know that stuff. They have a fundamental right to know, not just from the words of a politician or public official, but from the news media, which are independent of government and have also the responsibility of trying to help the public evaluate response…


We couldn’t get crews back on Galveston last night and this morning until we complained on the air for about twenty hours. And it’s not because we want to sightsee, guys, it’s because we have the responsibility of telling people… I made it as clear to [Gov. Perry] off camera as I did on camera that this is not going to be tolerated. You know, we hear about disasters in other countries—what was it, Burma, Myanmar—where they won’t let people in to see and you know, this is the state of Texas; this America. And we’re not trying to interfere with rescue and search operations, nor did anyone suggest we would be.
When asked why he thought the government was obstructing access, Dolcefino did not mince words:

I don’t think they want us to see images that may remind people… of the images that we saw in New Orleans. I don’t think they want us to see the images that were seen in Waveland, Mississippi or Gulfport… I think that’s the reality; they do not want us to see yet, until they can control what we see and how we see it. And that is simply, at least in my career, unacceptable. Maybe a lot of reporters won’t say it, but I will. I think they do not want us to see images of potential fatalities that may be on land or on water.
Other reporters didn’t think access was much of a problem. The Houston Chronicle’s Matthew Tresaugue said he wasn’t sure why TV choppers were prohibited from flying last Sunday, but that there were, in fact, reporters in the air. On SEJ’s list-serv he noted that:

The Chronicle had a photographer over Bolivar on Sunday about the same time as the televised confrontation. I flew with a photographer from High Island to Galveston’s west end to Surfside Beach in a Cessna yesterday, and one of our columnists and a photographer got a closer view of the same area from a helicopter. … I think the difference is the television guys wanted to take their helicopters, and we hitched rides. On my flight, I was able to see what I needed and even double back to take second looks. I can’t complain.
At any rate, its’ hard to imagine that information about the government’s response to Hurricane Ike would not get out sooner or later, and access seems to have improved since the weekend. But authorities should realize that obstructing the media’s ability to report in disaster zones only makes the public more suspicious about the adequacy of their response.

http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/media_obstruction_in_galveston.php?page=2

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Thank you V and WELCOME to Atlantis On Line!!!

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                                      45,000 given go-ahead to return to Galveston






By JUAN A. LOZANO and
CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN,
Associated Press Writers
Sat Sep 20, 2008
 
GALVESTON, Texas - One week after Hurricane Ike wiped out whole neighborhoods and nearly every basic service in Galveston, there is a plan to start letting some 45,000 evacuees back to their hobbled hometown.


Those who left heeded dire warnings to flee.

Now they've been given a new warning: Going home won't be easy.

No power, limited sewer services and spotty water utilities are among the trials that city officials say could await residents when a gradual reopening of Galveston begins next week.

"You will need to decide if you want to come back in those conditions," city manager Steve LeBlanc said Friday.

Residents will be allowed to return in phases, starting from the least damaged areas, primarily behind the seawall on the east side of the island, then out to the heavily damaged west end, he said.

There's only limited fuel and other supplies. But businesses are slowly beginning to open, electricity is coming back on and cell phone service is improving.

Residents of the harder-hit Boliviar Peninsula will also start seeing their homes next week, albeit for only a quick peek. And because the main road is impassible in many spots, residents will be loaded into dump trucks and other heavy vehicles for their tour.

Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough, the county's highest elected official, said 60 state troopers were patrolling the heavily damaged peninsula.

"We need the people's patience," Yarbrough said. "A lot of progress has been made. We're in a marathon. We're not in a 100-yard dash."

Authorities have long since finished searching for bodies on Galveston Island and the peninsula, though they cautioned more could be found. Authorities had blamed 57 deaths in the U.S. on Ike, 23 of them in Texas.

Power had been restored Friday to more than half the customers whose electricity was cut by Ike, though state officials said about 1.41 million remained in the dark.

The nation's fourth-largest city continues recovering. Houston schools that have been closed since Ike are to begin reopening Tuesday. All campuses are expected to be open by Sept. 29.

State Rep. Craig Eiland, who represents Galveston, said officials are trying to gather the thousands of cattle that have been roaming free since the storm surge receded. The water that remains is so salty it could kill animals that drink it, and the grass they would normally eat also has been tainted, he said.

NASA said Friday that flight control of the International Space Station was returning to the Johnson Space Center, which shut down a few days before Ike's strike but did not sustain significant damage.

More than 1 million people evacuated the Texas coast as Ike steamed across the Gulf of Mexico. Gov. Rick Perry said 20,500 people were still staying in 190 shelters Friday.

About 135,500 families had qualified for government-funded hotels, though fewer than 9,000 were checked in, said Richard Scorza, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

___

Associated Press writers John McFarland, Chris Duncan and Paul J. Weber in Houston and Michelle Roberts in San Antonio contributed to this report.

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                                    Frustrated in Ohio: 5 days without power for some






By LISA CORNWELL,
Associated Press Writer
Sat Sep 20, 2008
 
CINCINNATI - Facing a fifth day without power, the residents of a senior housing community in western Ohio took to the street with foam signs to protest the failure of Dayton Power and Light Co. to restore electricity.
 
"You would think that based on our abilities, our capabilities, residents here should draw some priority," resident Bob Williams, 80, told the Dayton Daily News.

Power outages are more than an inconvenience at the Fairwood Village retirement community where some residents depend on oxygen devices, 911 service and working elevators.

Friday's protest seemed to get a reaction. Within three hours of residents heading to the curb with their placards, crews were working to restore power.

The protest was one of many indications that frustration continues to grow as utility crews work to restore electricity to the remaining 330,000 homes and businesses left in the dark since the remains of Hurricane Ike blew through Ohio on Sunday.

A man in a Cincinnati suburb was arrested Thursday, accused of threatening a utility worker with a gun that he said shoots plastic BBs. The man later said he was joking.

Some customers had become so impatient by Wednesday that they drove to a Duke Energy dispatch center east of Cincinnati. Clermont County Sheriff A.J. Rodenberg said Duke asked his office to provide security after a few customers appeared intimidating and threatening to workers trying to get their trucks out.

Approximately 2.6 million homes and businesses were without power at the peak of the outage in Ohio.

Winds reaching 78 mph swept through on Sunday, and at least seven of the 56 deaths blamed on Ike were in Ohio. Trees were uprooted, falling on homes, blocking roads and bringing down power lines and poles. Long lines formed at the gas stations, groceries and hardware stores that didn't lose power. Schools and businesses were forced to close for days.

By Friday, many schools had reopened, piles of tree limbs and other debris were being picked up and traffic lights and gas stations were operating again.

About 164,000 homes and businesses in Kentucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania remained without power.

Utility companies say it is too soon to assess the cost of repairs and how it may affect customers. They urged patience as they move from fixing larger circuits to smaller ones, which often slows the rate of repairs.

"Now we're into situations where maybe if there are only a few homes we have to restore, we may have to set new poles, string new wire or place new transformers," said FirstEnergy Corp. spokesman Mark Durbin. "Those are labor intensive jobs. In some rural locations, trees came crashing down on our equipment."

FirstEnergy reported Friday that it had reduced outages to about 22,000 customers, with about 10,000 in the Cleveland area.

___



Associated Press reporters M.R. Kropko in Cleveland and

James Hannah in Dayton contributed to this report.

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                                                   Lessons from disasters like Ike







By the CSMonitor's Editorial Board
Fri Sep 19, 2008
 
Nearly a week after Galveston Island took a severe beating from hurricane Ike, a Kroger grocery store has finally opened for business, grilling up fajitas for its employees. With the Texas island still not ready to take back evacuees, the open store is at least one encouraging sign of normalcy.
 
For that is the aim of rescue and relief workers, government officials, neighbors, and perfect strangers who all assist in the aftermath of any disaster – to help residents return to as normal a life as possible.

But normalcy has its downside in America's hazard-prone areas. If it means rebuilding exactly as everything was before the hurricane, fire, or earthquake, then business-as-usual is itself hazardous.

The country has learned to do some key things differently in the wake of several years of weather whammies. One of them is to adopt stricter building codes that save lives and money.

New building and landscaping standards spared five communities from San Diego's fierce fires last year. In 1992, when the worst mainland hurricane in US history slammed into Florida, 27 Miami-area houses built to hurricane-resistant standards suffered no structural damage, while other homes nearby were flattened.

Florida now has the most stringent hurricane building codes in the country. After Katrina and Rita in 2005, Gulf states caught on, with Louisiana, for instance, passing a statewide code. Structures along the Mississippi coast are being rebuilt on stilts.

Good job, except for this huge oversight. The rebuilding, with few exceptions, is taking place in the same spots that were wiped out. As naturally as snow falls, people want to build in warm places with beautiful beach vistas – no matter that they're on a vulnerable barrier island such as Galveston.

One thing that would discourage the pounding of pylons in obvious danger zones is market-priced property insurance. It's telling that private insurers have for the most part pulled out of the Gulf coastal areas. As of Nov. 30, State Farm won't renew even existing policies for customers within 1,000 feet of the shoreline.

Customers have therefore swarmed to subsidized state insurance programs, and, of course, should these fail, there is always the National Flood Insurance Program. Or not. Congress is wrangling over renewal of the program, which expires Sept. 30. Sadly, both House and Senate bills perpetuate low-cost insurance that only encourages more building in dangerous zones.

In the absence of correcting market forces, populations along the coastal counties of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts have popped up like beach umbrellas. In 1980, about 67 million people lived in these counties, according to the US Census Bureau. In 2006, just over 88 million. And little has discouraged developers – at least before the housing bust – from marching up the tinder-dry hills of California.

State and local governments should either wean themselves from taxpayer-subsidized, low-cost insurance – or block off the most vulnerable areas. It is possible. After the 1977 Red River flood, Grand Forks, in North Dakota, marked off a "no build" zone near the river. Two decades ago, South Carolina began a gradual retreat from the sea – redrawing its baseline at the shore every 10 years.

Now in Texas, the land commissioner, Jerry Patterson, is proposing that new coastal construction be set back at 60 times the erosion rate – for example, 60 feet for every foot of erosion. Before Ike, he was blasted by local officials who said the restrictions would erode development and resulting tax revenue.

With so much washed out to sea or piled up as debris, Galveston – and other communities – should be welcoming Mr. Patterson's proposal. To prepare for disasters, America should not just batten down, but step back.

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                                      Battered Galveston ready to rebuild after Ike






By ALLEN G. BREED,
AP National Writer
Sat Sep 20, 2008

GALVESTON, Texas - The eight-pointed star on the wall outside Trey Click's office marks it as a "survivor." The squat, orange building withstood the ravages of the 1900 hurricane, which nearly flattened this barrier island city and still stands as the nation's deadliest natural disaster.
 
Click was born on the island. His great-grandparents were among the thousands who ignored warnings that a massive hurricane was pushing a wall of water toward Galveston, and still made it out alive. Last week, thousands stayed behind as Hurricane Ike battered the city with 110 mph winds and a 12-foot storm surge, chewing up landmarks, leaving hundreds homeless and preventing others who fled from returning to the stricken city.

Ike was another tragedy for a place that's had more than its share. But to Click, who publishes a monthly entertainment paper called "The Parrot," the Category 2 storm is just another hiccup in his city's long, slow rebirth.

"Galveston's going to survive because it's an island and it's on the water, and people want to be on the water," Click said as he aired out his muddy, moldering office. "It's going to be a different Galveston at the other side of this, whenever that is."

Galveston, population 57,000, has always wanted to be a glamorous beach resort, but somehow never quite made it.

In the early 19th century, the island was headquarters for the pirate Jean Lafitte, who had been expelled from New Orleans despite his role in winning the War of 1812. A cannon mounted on the upper story of his mansion, "Maison Rouge," gave him command of Galveston Bay.

As the 20th century dawned, Galveston's future looked boundless.

Blessed with the natural harbor of Galveston Bay, the island became one of the nation's largest cotton ports, rivaling New Orleans. It was a popular bathing spot that boasted more than a dozen newspapers. And with 37,000 residents, it was Texas' largest city — far and away eclipsing the grubby oil town of Houston