Hurricane Ike Rips Through Galveston

September 8, 1900. The Great Hurricane pummeled an ill prepared port city on Texas's Gulf Coast. 108 years later, Galveston never fully recovered. Before the great hurricane Galveston was the largest city in Texas, and was destined to be the most important port city on the Gulf Coast. That one storm changed everything when it essentially leveled the entire city, and killed upwards of 8,000 people. Galveston was rebuilt, and today it houses nearly 60,000 people. However, it never became the major city that it was expected to become. Instead, people moved into the nearby bay and turned Houston into that port metropolis. Five days and 108 years later was Ike here to repeat history?

Ike previously devastated Cuba as a compact but intense hurricane with winds upwards of 125mph. After crossing the entire island, Ike pushed into the Gulf of Mexico where it began to intensify. Most storms use the warm gulf waters to fuel a small area around the center of circulation, and as a result maximum wind speeds increase dramatically. Ike, on the other hand, spread the energy provided from the gulf over a wide range. Despite a dramatic pressure drop, Ike's maximum wind speeds never eclipsed 110 mph in the Gulf. However, Ike's overall size dramatically increased and hurricane force winds could now be felt over a region spanning 120 miles across.

As Ike moves inland today, the thousands of people (over 40% of Galveston's population) that decided to ignore evacuations will wake up to a different landscape. Storm surge ahead of Ike pulled sea water all across the island. The heavy rain bands around Ike's eye dumped over 2" of rain per hour adding to the flooding. Hurricane force winds battered the island for hours and ripped apart weaker structures. It is going to take a major effort to rebuild this region, as Ike likely did over $1 billion in damage.

Luckily for the Galveston, the hurricane did not pass to the south or east. Therefore, the south winds that develop as a hurricane passes in its lower right quadrant missed the city, and allowed the sea water to drain back into the bay. Nonetheless, Ike was a devastating storm for Galveston, and it's name will likely be retired with Gustav at season's end but, thankfully, the Great 1900 Hurricane still stands alone.

Note: I'll post more on Ike and the rest of the season over the next few days. In particularly, I'll write an article about the devastation in LA from Ike and Gustav, and I'll write an opinion article about the people who didn't heed evacuation orders. Right now, I'm just going to take some time to let the details to come back out of the region.