Hurricane Ike Impact Felt In SpaceScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2008) — Hurricane Ike has delayed the scheduled Friday arrival of a Russian Progress cargo ship at the International Space Station 220 miles above Earth.
The Progress docking was postponed when the space station's control room at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston was closed Thursday because of the approaching storm.
Control of the space station was handed to flight controllers at backup facilities near Austin, Texas, and Huntsville, Ala. Because the Mission Control Center in Houston is responsible for commanding many of the station's systems, U.S. and Russian officials agreed to delay the docking.
Russian flight controllers will execute a maneuver to place the Progress spacecraft into a safe orbit away from the station until docking, which is planned for Wednesday, Sept. 17. If Johnson's control center is not restored to full capability for docking, one of the backup facilities may be used to command the station's systems.
Station Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Greg Chamitoff are awaiting the arrival of the cargo ship. The spacecraft is carrying more than 2 tons of supplies, including food and fuel.
Hurricane Ike Spurs 2,000 Rescues; Thousands More AwaitWhen Hurricane Ike blasted the U.S. Gulf Coast on Saturday, an estimated 140,000 Texas residents refused to evacuate when ordered to do so.
Now 1,984 of these people have been rescued so far in Texas, including 394 by air, authorities said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. A door-to-door search continues in Galveston, where Ike came ashore early Saturday.
(See Hurricane Ike photos.)
Officials are urging all residents of Galveston to stay away from the barrier island, telling them there is no way to live there right now. It could take up to a month to restore power, and roads are still flooded. (VIDEO: Hurricane Ike Devastation.)
Crews navigated debris-strewn streets to reach people still stuck in some of the thousands of homes flooded by the hurricane. Authorities imposed a curfew in Houston and warned it would be weeks before the nation's fourth largest city is fully back up and running.
Heavy morning rains hampered rescue efforts in the hardest-hit areas of the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Meanwhile, residents who had evacuated and tried to return to the Houston area found interstates and streets blocked by flooding and debris.
Authorities hoped to spare thousands of Texans from another night amid the destruction. Eight deaths have been blamed on the storm, and authorities are worried the toll could rise.
"I'm worried about my mother's medical condition. We haven't been able to get to anyone at the clinic on the phone," said Zee Ellis, whose mother, 80-year-old Ruth Willis, fled Houston with her family ahead of the storm.
As they waited out a downpour along Interstate 10 on Sunday morning, Ellis said her mother's cancer treatments had been interrupted as they had moved from place to place, looking for shelter and electricity.
U.S. President George W. Bush planned to travel to Texas on Tuesday to express sympathy and lend support to the storm's victims. He asked people who evacuated before the hurricane to listen to local authorities before trying to return home.
In Houston a weeklong curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. has been imposed, because most of the city is still without power. Highways, darkened streetlights, and pooled water make it difficult to drive.
"In the interest of safety, we're asking people to not be out in the streets in their vehicles or on foot," the Houston police chief, Harold Hurtt, said.
In Hackberry, Louisiana, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the coast, workers moved a large shrimp boat out of the highway with a bulldozer. But the team had to stop because of strong currents in the floodwaters and difficulty in seeing the roadway.
"You can't see the sides of the road, and if you left the road, you'd just be swept away," National Guard spokesperson Sgt. Rebekah Malone said. About 20 people have been evacuated by boat in Hackberry.
Residents of the tiny community of Seabrook, Texas, near NASA's Johnson Space Center, were met by a roadblock as they tried to return home, and police officers standing in the rain turned them away. At times the line was 6 to 12 cars deep.
"It's going to be a while," an officer shouted to one man as he made a U-turn. "Just listen to the news."
"Seabrook is a disaster area: no sewer, no infrastructure. It really isn't safe," said officer Charlie Skinner. "It's making residents pretty upset. I understand, but … There's an order signed by the mayor. We can't let anybody in."
Overnight, a team of paramedics, rescue dogs, and structural engineers fanned out under a nearly full moon on a finger of land in Galveston Bay. To the northeast, Coast Guard crews also worked into early Sunday morning, pulling a half dozen people out of Bridge City before rescue missions were suspended for the night.
Five-year-old Jack King escaped serious injury when a rush of storm-surge water washed out the first floor of his family's Galveston home just two blocks from the bay.
"I falled in the attic," the boy told paramedic Stanley Hempstead of his ten-foot (three-meter) tumble through the attic and onto the garage floor.
Jack and his family rode out the storm with blankets and other supplies. As the Texas Task Force 1 Search and Rescue crew arrived, Jack gazed at a TV aglow with The Simpsons, a Band-Aid covering a gash on his head.
"We just didn't think it was going to come up like this," said the boy's father, Lee King. "I'm from New Orleans, I know better. I just didn't think it was going to happen."
On one side of the Galveston peninsula, two barges had broken loose and smashed into homes. Everything from red vinyl barstools to clay roof tiles litters the landscape.
The second floors of some homes sit where the first floors were before Ike's surge washed them out, and only frames remain below the roofs of others, opening a clear view from front yard to back.
Eight deaths have been blamed on the storm—five in Texas, two in Louisiana and one in Arkansas. Authorities said Sunday three people have been found dead in Galveston, including one person found in a submerged vehicle near the airport. Another person died in Arkansas when a tree fell on his mobile home as the remnants swept through.
Texas Governor Rick Perry's office said 940 people had been saved by nightfall Saturday but that thousands had made distress calls the night before. Another 600 have been rescued from flooding in Louisiana.
In Orange, Texas, Mayor Brown Claybar estimated about a third of the city of 19,000 people was flooded, from 6 inches (15 centimeters) of water to 6 feet (183 centimeters). He said about 375 people who stayed behind during the storm had begun to emerge, some needing food, water, and medical care.
"These people got out with the wet shirts on their back," Claybar said. He said he did not know how many were still stranded. He didn't know exactly how long it would take to pump water out of the city.
Hurricane Ike was the first major storm to directly hit a major U.S. metro area since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.
Ike weakened to a tropical depression early Sunday morning but was still packing winds up to 35 miles (56 kilometers) as it dumped rain over Arkansas and traveled across Missouri. Tornado-warning sirens sounded Saturday in parts of Arkansas, and the storm downed trees and knocked out power to thousands there.
More than three million people were without power in Texas at the height of the storm, and it could be weeks before electric service is fully restored. Utilities had made some progress by late Saturday, and lights had returned to parts of Houston.
In Louisiana, battered by both Ike and Labor Day's Hurricane Gustav, 180,000 homes and businesses were in the dark.
Those residents who did leave were glad they had heeded orders, despite the inconvenience. Retired nurse Ida Mayfield said that, because Gustav hit Louisiana and not Beaumont two weeks ago, many people had decided not to evacuate ahead of Ike. She was warm and dry at a church-turned-shelter in Tyler, along with thousands of her neighbors.
"Two o'clock this morning made a believer out of all of them," said the 52-year-old Mayfield, adding that she spoke to a friend Saturday who was on a roof waiting for help after calling 911. "They're scared now."
Associated Press Writers Pauline Arrillaga in Houston, Jay Root and Kelley Shannon in Austin, Doug Simpson in Baton Rouge, April Castro, Mark Williams and Andre Coe in College Station, Allen G. Breed in Surfside Beach, Juan Lozano in Orange, Elizabeth White in San Antonio and Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.
IKE AND CHICAGO!
KLOT - September 13th to 14th Flooding Event
Flood reports from September 13th to 14th
NWS Chicago Doppler radar estimate of rainfall from Friday evening into Sunday morning. Green shading indicates 1 to 2.5 inches, yellow shading indicates 2.5 to 5 inches, while red shading indicates 5 to 10 inches of rain.
Unfortunately, the rainfall is not over. The tropical remnants of what was Hurricane Ike are moving northeastward into the region and combined with a cold front trying to push through has led to the redevelopment of light to moderate rainfall. As the remnants of Ike reach the Chicago area later this morning, the rainfall is expected to intensify with additional amounts of 1 to 2 inches with locally higher amounts of 4 inches by this evening. With most areas still having standing water and rivers stressed to their limits, any additional rainfall is going to make conditions worse.
Here are a few helpful links to monitor the flooding…
Additional information can always be found on NWS Chicago’s website at weather.gov/chicago
Rainfall Totals From the Storm September 12-14 2008!
Here are the storm total precipitation amounts from our Cooperative Observers as well as our CoCoRaHs observers across Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana. It covers the period from 7 am Friday, September 12 through 7 am Monday, September 15, 2008. The table below is listed from highest to lowest amounts. If you would like to see the list by county, click here.
Thank you to all our volunteers who reported during this rain event!
| Station ID | Name | 3 day total |
| IN-PT-64 | VALPARAISO 1.4 ENE | 11.02 |
| IN-PT-32 | PORTAGE 0.9 ESE | 10.74 |
| IN-PT-69 | PORTER 0.6 S | 10.69 |
| IN-PT-34 | CHESTERTON 1.7 WSW | 10.59 |
| IL-DP-53 | WHEATON 1.7 N | 10.53 |
| ELBI2 | ELBURN | 10.51 |
| IL-KN-30 | ELBURN 0.4 NW | 10.51 |
| IN-PT-60 | LAKES OF THE FOUR SEASONS | 10.41 |
| IN-PT-8 | VALPARAISO 0.6 SE | 10.33 |
| IL-CK-107 | EVANSTON 1.4 N | 10.20 |
| IN-PT-27 | KOUTS 2.8 N | 10.16 |
| IN-PT-62 | VALPARAISO 7.4 WSW | 10.09 |
| IL-CK-69 | PARK FOREST 0.8 NNE | 10.01 |
| IN-LK-6 | CROWN POINT 6.6 ESE | 9.94 |
| IN-PT-1 | VALPARAISO 3.9 NNW | 9.87 |
| IN-LP-14 | MICHIGAN CITY 1.3 SSW | 9.79 |
| IL-CK-84 | BARTLETT 1.2 NE | 9.78 |
| IN-PT-13 | VALPARAISO 6.2 WSW | 9.74 |
| IN-PT-30 | VALPARAISO 5.8 WSW | 9.67 |
| IN-LK-31 | MERRILLVILLE 0.8 NNW | 9.37 |
| IL-CK-46 | DES PLAINES 0.5 NW | 9.36 |
| IN-PT-19 | VALPARAISO 5.9 NW | 9.22 |
| SCKI2 | ST CHARLES 7 NW | 9.18 |
| PAWI2 | PAW PAW | 9.16 |
| IL-KN-8 | GENEVA 3.3 WSW | 9.15 |
| IL-KN-58 | LILY LAKE 2.1 E | 9.13 |
| IN-PT-43 | CHESTERTON 2.3 ESE | 9.13 |
| SCHI2 | ST CHARLES | 9.10 |
| IL-KN-68 | GENEVA 0.9 N | 9.09 |
| IN-PT-12 | VALPARAISO 4.3 SW | 9.09 |
| IL-KN-64 | ST CHARLES 0.1 E | 9.08 |
| IN-LK-26 | CROWN POINT 1.1 N | 9.04 |
| IL-KN-66 | GENEVA 1.0 E | 9.03 |
| IL-DP-34 | WEST CHICAGO 2.7 N | 9.02 |
| IL-CK-75 | ELK GROVE VILLAGE 2.2 WSW | 8.95 |
| IN-LK-8 | HAMMOND 3.0 SW | 8.95 |
| IN-PT-44 | CROWN POINT 7.6 ESE | 8.90 |
| IL-CK-64 | HOMEWOOD 0.1 ESE | 8.89 |
| IL-KN-31 | ST CHARLES 1.6 SW | 8.83 |
| IN-PT-14 | CHESTERTON 3.0 ESE | 8.77 |
| IL-CK-76 | FLOSSMOOR 1.1 ESE | 8.76 |
| IN-PT-25 | VALPARAISO 5.1 WSW | 8.76 |
| IL-CK-63 | ELK GROVE VILLAGE 0.6 ESE | 8.74 |
| IL-DP-61 | ROSELLE 0.5 S | 8.61 |
| STAI2 | STREATOR | 8.55 |
| IL-WL-25 | CRETE 2.6 E | 8.55 |
| IN-LK-24 | CROWN POINT 2.0 WSW | 8.55 |
| IL-KN-63 | GENEVA 1.7 WSW | 8.54 |
| IL-KN-1 | GENEVA 1.6 ENE | 8.52 |
| IL-DP-42 | CAROL STREAM 0.3 SSE | 8.51 |
| IL-CK-18 | SKOKIE 1.0 NNE | 8.47 |
| IL-DP-11 | CAROL STREAM 0.7 WNW | 8.45 |
| IN-PT-18 | HEBRON 3.7 NE | 8.31 |
| IL-KN-33 | NORTH AURORA 1.5 NE | 8.27 |
| IL-KN-10 | ELGIN 0.9 WSW | 8.26 |
| IL-KN-23 | BATAVIA 1.5 WNW | 8.23 |
| IL-KN-57 | GENEVA 1.9 W | 8.21 |
MARITIME NOTE
A Sri Lanka Rice Cargo Ship Sinks Near Chittagong Harbor – 16 Crew Men Rescued, One Missing Thu, 2008-08-21 14:31By Walter Jayawardhana
A Sri Lankan cargo vessel carrying 3609 tons of rice was sunk off Banglades’s Chiitagong harbor after colliding with a Panamanian empty tanker , the harbor authorities said.
Radio Controller of Chittagong Port Authoritiy,Wahidur Rahman said, “After receiving an SOS from the vessel rescue boats of the harbor authorities saved 16 Sri Lankan and Myanmar crew men but one Myanmar man was still missing.”
The rice laden Sri Lankan vessel, “Badulu Valley” collided with the unloaded Panamanian oil Tanker, Hung Geu in the rough weather August 20 at 11.45 Chittagon time and capsized by the rough sea.
The port authorities said the Chief Engineer of the vessel, Aung kian, a Myanmar national is believed to be trapped inside engine room of the sunken cargo ship.
The accident is believed to have occurred near the outer anchorage of the Chittagon Harbor. The rice laden ship was believed to be moving towards the jetty while the unloaded oil tanker was anchored about one nautical mile away from the coast when the accident happened.
When captain of the sinking Sri Lankan ship radioed an SOS three rescue vessels rushed to the spot and rescued the 16 crewmen.
The sunken vessel sailed from Kakinada port in Orrisa, India on August 17 and was scheduled to berth at Chittagong port Wednesday, said Chief of Operation of the local agent of the vessel- CLA.
Though the oil tanker suffered physical damage following the collision, it fortunately did not catch fire as its hatch was empty, a local newspaper reported.
An official of the local agent of the sunken vessel Continental Liner Agencies (CLA) Saiful Ahmed said that the rescued crew was Myanmar and Sri Lankan nationals.
The search work for the missing engineer started by marking the place of accident.
Sources closed to the rescue workers said that the possibility of finding the missing person is bleak.
However, Radio control room suspected that the missing man might have been trapped in the engine room and the body could be found after recovery of the wreckage.
A two-member probe body comprising - Captain Jashim Uddin and Assistant Harbour Master Rahmat Ullah - has been formed to look into the incident, secretary of the CPA Farhad Syed Uddin Ahmed said.
The probe team has been asked to submit its report within seven days.
10:00AM 16 September 2008 =WebCast
Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
Oil Spill in New Orleans in July 2008 and Safety on the Inland River System
* 2167 Rayburn House Office Building
Full Summary of Subject Matter
RS
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