Ike Aftermath Satellite View

Photos

Virgina Point, Texas Gone

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uploaded by John Astad

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After over a week now when Hurricane Ike passed overhead here in Santa Fe, Texas I really had no idea how lucky our neighborhood was in escaping severe damage. That was until after viewing satellite pictures that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)  provided on their website.

There is a huge difference concerning the amount of damage a structure will sustain in respect to whether the eye passes either to the right or left of one's location. Viewing the NOAA satellite pictures confirms this fact.

To comprehend the true extent of storm damage, one must be able to view "before" pictures in comparison to "after" pictures. Google Maps, in the satellite mode makes this possible. Click on this Google Map link of  "Ike Aftermath Satellite Pictures," then click on the balloon icons where hyperlinks of  Ike  NOAA satellite pictures  can be viewed in comparison to the before Google Map satellite pictures. 

NOAA's National Hurricane Research Division has recently provided an experimental product in their "Ike Wind Analysis." Now after the fact it appears that the wind from the hurricane that struck the Galveston County mainland and most of Houston was  in the range of tropical storm force winds <74 mph or a weak Cat 1 (74-95 mph).

Areas on the eastern shores of Trinity Bay, such as in Chambers County experienced higher winds with heavier destruction. Yet in most of the major network news reports, their is not much mention of these sparsely populated areas and the devastating destruction wrought by Ike. In contrast, Guy Reynolds, a reporter for The Dallas Morning News, provided an illuminating story of the damage that Ike caused on the dirty side of the storm.

It's amazing that the fourth largest city in the nation and the largest city in Texas can be brought economically to it's knees when most of the power grid and communication infrastructure is shutdown for nearly a week through the results of a very weak hurricane. Still over 616,000 Center Point Energy customers are without electricity as of 9/23/08.

Web Link: Ike Aftermath NOAA Satellite Pictures