Hurricane Ike update

The eye of Ike is still nearly 40 miles offshore, but The Weather Channel’s field personnel are getting tossed around pretty well.  I’ve been in contact with my friends in Texas.  One is in Dickinson, and she’s reported measured wind gusts in excess of 90 mph.  My other friend is in the northwest part of Houston, about 20 miles from KHOU.  He says its starting to get exciting there, with winds around 40-45 knots.

The highest official observation I’ve seen is from the Galveston Pleasure Pier, which had sustained winds of 43 knots with gusts to 64 knots, but it hasn’t reported in nearly an hour now.  Galveston is now completely without power, and the downtown area has four feet of water.  Several large fires are going, and emergency responders along the Texas coast are not currently responding to calls.  We’ll see what the morning brings.

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