Ike: NWS Warns of Certain Death on Texas Coast

Buoy #42001 has seen the eye of Hurricane Ike pass overhead and it is now in the eastern eyewall, with winds gusting to 78 mph, and waves building again. I would have expected more, but the strongest winds are probably north of the buoy right now. As during Katrina... the NWS is issuing dire warnings to try to convince local residents to leave Galveston Island, Texas before Hurricane Ike hits (see below):

I'd normally say that this will turn out to be an exaggeration, but they weren't far off in what they said about Hurricane Katrina. Again though, Katrina was a Cat 5 in the Gulf; Ike is a Cat 2 so far, and still looks disorganized on satellite. Regardless, it would be extremely difficult to ride out even a Cat 2 storm on Galveston Island, so I sincerely hope no one is still there. Remember, even if you can survive the storm you may have to survive days or weeks with no food, water, shelter, medical facilities or sunblock. Unfortunately, if you look at the Raw Video at right you'll see one couple that just won't leave.

If you split the difference between the AccuWeather (red) and NHC (yellow) tracks, you get a very similar landfall as the famous Galveston Hurricane of 1900 (read more about it). 1900 was, of course a Category 4 storm. AccuWeather is currently calling for a Cat 3 storm; NHC for a Category 2.

I am definitely concerned that the media seems unconcerned with the storm. 36 hours before Gustav hit, there was massive coverage on every channel. Tonight, the major news cable outlets have little news.