Hurricane Ike - Pictures Added

[boBQuincy]

Find somewhere where they eye passes through, you can be in calm weather (for a few minutes anyway) and get some good photos of the maelstrom around you.

 

[ukcatfan]

I have plenty of experience with them. We were hit by Charley (eye was 7mi. from my house), Frances, Jeanne, Wilma, and now Fay. There are going to be some nice shots before the storm and after the storm, but there is nothing worth photographing while it is overhead. All it will be is shots of heavy rain.

Do not forget that much of the damage from a hurricane is from the mini tornadoes it generates. They are completely unpredictable and extremely deadly. Even 60 miles in, you will not be safe from them. I would not even stay in your house if it stays as strong as it is now. There is no way that a vehicle will keep you safe. Please do not become a statistic.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Well, they are saying it could still be a hurricane by the time it gets all the way up here to us.
We are on the 3rd floor, so flooding won't be a problem for us but we may blow away! I am sure DH will be out on the balcony taking pics if he can figure out how to keep the camera dry!

Mark, good luck!

 

[JenLovesMickey]

Any other suggestions on where or what to shoot?

Yeah, how about you shoot from Oklahoma??? My mom had CNN on earlier tonight and they were giving an update on Ike. The weather guy was quoting some official from Texas as saying "if you stay you're going to die." Wow, how encouraging! I know a severe storm like this isn't really a laughing matter, but I just thought it was crazy that some "official" (can't remember if it was a mayor or who it was exactly) put it so point blank like that. Whatever you do Mark, like everyone else said, just stay safe!

 

[AndrewWG]

Here are a few of my pics from just after the storm, Hurricane Bob in 1991. We walked around the neighborhood to inspect the damage. The pics are junky as they are from my old p&s film camera and scanned.

The center of town. I suppose that you can imagine that these boats are supposed to be in the water.

 

[Frantasmic]

On the bright side, if you do get blown away, you can practice your panning.

Seriously, stay safe. I live in DFW, so I know we won't get near the impact people south and east of us will.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Things have gotten worse here. The storm is now headed directly at Galveston. A direct hit there by a large Cat 3 storm will be pretty devestating.

As for the Texas official, they have a special problem they need to deal with. Despite calling for "mandatory" evacuations, they can't actually require people to evacuate. Texas doesn't give officials the authority to require that a person leave. Instead, they resort to ominous sounding terms like "mandatory evacuations" and lots of statements overstating the danger.

It's not as bad as with Rita, but a lot of people are evacuating from safe areas. It is my assessment that my neighbors that are evacuating are putting themselves into much greater danger on the roads than they would face staying at home.

We've stripped the yard of all projectiles (lawn chairs, pool toys, etc). We're still surrounded by tall trees (it is The Woodlands), so there is always the risk of tree fall.

We've already had our first major tragedy. One of our AC units has failed (broken coil). It cools our master bedroom and my home office. My wife and I spent the night camping in our theater room. There was just enough room between the front row of seats and the stage to put down some camping pads. We watched "Goodnight, Mr. Tom".

It looks like the storm will pass directly over us in the early morning tomorrow (5:00 or 6:00). They are now predicting that we have a pretty strong chance of getting hurricane force winds (barely) even all the way up here. I can assure you that there is no chance that it will still be a hurricane by the time it reaches Dallas some 250 miles inland. Of course, even there the danger of tornadoes exists.

It's calm and quiet outside now. The kids are home from school today and I'm not going in to the office. I'll give some updates later if I still have power and Internet connectivity.

 

[Steve's Girl]

Seriously, Mark, please keep you and your family in a safe place. I have no experience with hurricanes, but have been through some tornados, and they can pop up out of nowhere and do some very serious damage. Falling trees are not to be taken lightly!

 

[DVC Jen]

I have been thinking about you Mark. I really hope you and your family come through it OK.

On a side note - I am kinda bummed that the eye will be passing east of us. A few days ago they thought it would go just west of us and we were going to get some really nasty stuff from Ike. The storm spotter in me was getting all excited.


Take care - let us know how you are doing and I can't wait to see your photos!

 

[11290]

Went through a couple of "tropical storms" when I lived in Spring, TX in the early 80's and I thought it really strange the amount of deaths that occur from these "events" back then were from people drowning from driving in flooded underpasses. Sometimes just the hard spring rains would result in several deaths. You would think people would learn not to do that, but it seems to continue.

Really liked that area north of Houston and also The Woodlands area. Hope all goes well for you.

 

[WVDisGeek]

Mark,

Stay safe, take care of your family and if you absolutely MUST try to get photos of the storm, invest in some Pentax gear, at least they are weather sealed for the trip to "OZ"!

Seriously, hope all goes well and things get back to normal quickly for you.
I am sure the kids will love the "adventure" aspect of the whole ordeal.

Actually, the eye pictures would be really cool if you could get a 360 pano of the entire eye wall....just a thought!

 

[bnorm27]

If Mark puts all his photo gear on, like he did in that picture that was posted here recently, there is no storm known to man that could blow him away!

But seriously Mark, be safe, not stupid. If not for yourself, then at least for your family.

 

[klmall]

Preface: When I was growing up here in the metro Washington, DC area we had some wild hurricanes come through. One, Hurricane Hazel in the ‘54 season blew the roof off our house when I was a kid and several others knocked out power so often we bought a generator. Wish I could find that picture of our 'naked' house!

We still get plenty of hurricane-related rains and flash flooding sometimes enough to close schools for days even up here.


Here are 2 pics from a June 4th microburst that ripped two big trees out of the ground in our front yard. This wind preceded a thunderstorm (without a T-storm watch or warning which is very unusual!!!) and knocked out our power for 5 long days. I will take a hurricane anytime over this scary experience!!!

And the last is the house next door crushed by a 100+ footer that same day and still under repair. And remember we had no warning to take cover! I did move to the basement with my purse, cell phone, and one cat when I saw the deck furniture begin to move. And the Weather Service says we didn't have anything close to a tornado that day.........

Keep safe Mark but if you get some pics you know we want to see 'em!

 

[Gdad]

They are streaming the Channel 11 KHOU on DirecTV- I have been working at home with it on all afternoon. Kind of funny they keep saying people should NOT be out in it- but IF YOU ARE out in it please send us some pictures and video and we will put it on the air! (I think of you every time they say that Mark.)

Anyways- it looks pretty nasty. Stay safe. Our prayers are with you and everyone in it's path.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

It was clear and sunny all morning. We swam at the next door neighbors for a couple of hours.

It's getting dark now. We've got a houseful of neighbors. They're playing the Wii downstairs and watching Happily Never After in the theater upstairs.

We drove around the neighborhood doing a "before" video earlier. We'll drive around in a couple of hours when the early winds start to pick up. Tomorrow morning after the worst of it, we'll drive around one more time for an "after" video. I'll post the results if we see anything interesting.

We should see the worst of it between 2:00 AM and 10:00 AM.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Still alive. The storm is about 170 miles away. It's getting windier, but still not too bad. I just got rid of the rest of our guests. We had about 20 people here for a while. Now everyone wants to get together in the cul-de-sac at 7:00 PM for an impromptu block party. It's a strange neighborhood.

 

[jann1033]

Yeah, how about you shoot from Oklahoma??? My mom had CNN on earlier tonight and they were giving an update on Ike. The weather guy was quoting some official from Texas as saying "if you stay you're going to die." Wow, how encouraging! I know a severe storm like this isn't really a laughing matter, but I just thought it was crazy that some "official" (can't remember if it was a mayor or who it was exactly) put it so point blank like that. Whatever you do Mark, like everyone else said, just stay safe!

i think that is so the idiots who don't know they should evacuate can understand it, short simple sentences and all.

 

[bnorm27]

I was watching the news feed on DirecTV. They are asking people that are staying behind to write thier social security numbers on their forearms so they can identify them if something bad happens.

Be safe down there Mark, and anyone else in the line of fire!

 

[Villainess]

Stay safe Mark! Prayers are with you, your families and friends!

 

[WeLubDeeDub]

Had to stay late at the office, so I'm sitting here listening to XM's coverage from a Houston radio feed. They just mentioned that some heavy weather (relative, of course) is headed towards The Woodlands. Stay safe Mark (and anyone else in the path)!