That's what Thing One did today. He and Jen arrived here at BHF about 8:00 this morning, pulling his boat loaded with all kinds of personal stuff.

Here at BHF we've stockpiled Spam and beer.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Experimental storm surge prediction display. Play with it.

http://www.weather.gov/mdl/psurge/active.php?Ty=gt10&Th=10&Z=y5

B

I heard on either Fox or TWC this morning that Gadlveston was in the path. 20 ft. surge predictions. Galveston's sea walls are 17 ft.
I heard that they were advising people to "GET OUT OR DIE!
Is Galveston still in the direct path?
Is this going to be the proverbial 100 year storm? Galveston Island was wiped off the map on Sept. 8, 1900.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WEATHER/09/07/galveston.backgrounder/index.html

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/galveston.htm

When they awoke on the morning of September 8, 1900, the 38,000 residents of Galveston, Texas were unaware that this day would be their city's last. They had no idea that before the day was done, 8,000 of their fellow citizens would perish with the city. The culprit was a hurricane. The storm swept in off the Gulf of Mexico packing winds up to 135 mph - a category 4 storm in modern terminology. The storm propelled a fifteen-foot surge of water before it; easily swamping the 8.7-foot-high island that Galveston called home. Together, the wind and the water destroyed everything in their path and created the worst natural disaster in America's history.


After the Storm
There was little warning and no defense. In the early morning, high tides flooded some of the inland streets. Yet, this was not unusual in a city that barely rose above sea level. Heavy swells began to appear, but the mostly blue sky prompted a confidence that nothing out of the ordinary was about to occur. Most residents reasoned that even if a storm was on its way, they had weathered storms before. As a relative of one victim later recalled: "Mama didn't want to leave. She'd been through it before and wasn't worried. It had never been that bad." However, Galveston had never seen a storm like this one.

By mid-morning rain clouds took over the sky and the wind began to pick up. By mid-afternoon the hurricane hit with an intensity that only increased as darkness descended. The storm made its exit during the early morning hours of the next day; the total devastation it left in its wake revealed only with the rising sun. The bodies of the storm's victims littered a landscape strewn with debris in which few buildings remained standing.

The city immediately began the task of clearing up the wreckage and rebuilding. To bolster its defenses, the city actually raised its buildings by as much as 17 feet by pumping sand beneath their foundations. A thick, sturdy seawall was then built along the island's ocean front. But Galveston was never the same; once the busiest port in Texas, with the promise of becoming the "New York of the South," the storm convinced shippers to move north to Houston's safer harbor.

"...all at once the house went from its foundation and the water came in waist-deep:"

Milton Elford was a young man living in Galveston with his mother, father and a young nephew, Dwight. Milton was the only one of his family to survive the storm. He described his experience in a letter to his brothers in North Dakota. We join his story as the rising water and intensity of the storm persuade the family to leave their home for a sturdier brick house across the street:

ADVERTISMENT

"We left our house about 4 o'clock thinking we would be safer in a larger house, not dreaming that even that house would be washed away. We went across the street to a fine large house, built on a brick foundation high off the ground. About 5 it grew worse and began to break up the fence, and the wreckage of other houses was coming against us.

We had arranged that if the house showed signs of breaking up, I would take the lead and Pa would come next, with Dwight and Ma next. In this way I could make a safe place to walk, as we would have to depend on floating debris for rafts.

There were about fifteen or sixteen in the house besides ourselves. They were confident the house would stand anything; if not for that we would probably have left on rafts before the house went down. We all gathered in one room; all at once the house went from its foundation and the water came in waist-deep, and we all made a break for the door, but could not get it open. We then smashed out the window and I led the way.

I had only got part way out when the house fell on us. I was hit on the head with something and it knocked me out and into the water head first. I do not know how long I was down, as I must have been stunned. I came up and got hold of some wreckage on the other side of the house. I could see one man on some wreckage to my left and another on my right. I went back to the door that we could not open. It was broke in, and I could go part way in, as one side of the ceiling was not within four or five feet, I think, of water. There was not a thing in sight.

I went back and got on the other side but no one ever came up that I could see. We must all have gone down the same time, but I cannot tell what they did not come up.


Taking bodies to be burned
I then started to leave by partly running and swimming from one lot of debris to another. The street was full of tops and sides of houses and the air was full of flying boards. I think I gained about a block on the debris in this way, and got in the shelter of some buildings, but they were fast going down, and I was afraid of getting buried.

Just then, the part I was on started down the street, and I stuck my head and shoulders in an old tool chest that was lying in the debris that I was on. I could hardly hold this down on its side from being blown away, but that is what saved my life again.

When the water went down about 3 a.m., I was about five bocks from where I started. My head was bruised and legs and hands cut a little, which I did not find until Monday and then I could hardly get my hat on.

...As soon as it was light enough, I went back to the location of the house, and not a sign of it could be found and not a sign any house within two blocks, where before there was scarcely a vacant lot.

I then went to the city hall to see the chief of police, to get some help to recover the corpses, thinking, I guess, that I was the only one in that fix.

The fireman and others started before noon to bring in corpses; they brought them in in wagon loads of about a dozen at a time, laid them down in rows to be identified, and he next day they were badly decomposed, and were loaded on boats and taken to sea only to wash back on the beach. They then started to bury them wherever they were found but yesterday (Wednesday) the corpses were ordered burned. Men started removing the debris and burning it, and when they came upon a corpse it is just thrown on the pile."

Well I haven’t lived on the Gulf for 30 years but this hurricane is gonna hurt. My daughter lives (did) on a channel on Tiki Island, TX. This is right to the west, from the beachside of the bridge to Galveston. Does not look at all good. They raised the boat about 8 feet off the water and the upper living space is up 12 feet, but that isn’t gonna cut it. The game room and bar they turned the lower ex-garage into is just to cool, but “such is war”. They’ve also got a rental over in Texas City and are only hoping the tenants boarded it up – to many things to do.
Got the animals, cars, truck and all the neighbors sequestered in a motel over in Katy. Guess we’ll find out how good the insurance is. Fingers crossed

__________________
89 300E
79 240D
72 Westy
63 Bug sunroof
85 Jeep CJ7
86 Chevy 6.2l diesel PU

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
Marcus Aurelius

Anybody who hasn't read Isaac's Storm, about the 1900 storm, should. The difference now is that they can tell you it's coming, in 1900 people really didn't see the storm coming, and once they realized there was a problem, it was too late to run.

__________________
2002 Ford ZX2
2 x 2013 Honda Civics

Got up this morning to fill up the W124, and a church friend of mine pulled up at the other pump. He works along the coastline in Houston and he and his crew pulled out the day before.

He told me they expect Ike to hit Jamaica Beach, which is a few miles outside of that seawall...so those 20 ft surges being predicted will be devastating for any town with no buffer...

__________________
2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

Im staying put...

Heres the news....

__________________
91 350SD
14 F150 Eco
19 Fusion Hybrid
11 GT500

Bye Galveston we hardly knew yee.

I spent many weekends as a young soldier soiling my oats on the oil soiled beaches of Galveston I recall oil splotches on my bathing suit that never came out and jelly fights on the beach..ohhh what fun. We used to spend Friday night on the beach to avoid paying for a hotel that night, the swims in the morning were nice since I didn't fear sharks back then. One morning we got stuck driving on the beach and could not make it to the party group of cars, the following morning one of the cars was half submerged from the tide.

wtf???

__________________
2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

Sounds like the days when the "Hut Club" was still on the beach - you could just drive up and park next to it. Ahh the memories.

__________________
BENZ THERE DONE THAThttp://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...c/progress.gif
15 VW Passat TDI
00 E420
98 E300 DT
97 E420 Donor Car - NEED PARTS? PM ME!
97 S500
97 E300D
86 Holden Jackaroo Turbo D
86 300SDL
(o\|/o)

A little something I put together a few days ago.

__________________
'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Getting ugly early....and fast.


..............The National Weather Service warned that people not heeding evacuation orders in low-lying parts of the coast “may face certain death” and that many homes on the coast would be destroyed.

Waves over Galveston seawall

In Galveston, residents nervously eyed the seashore as white waves as tall as 15 feet bashed over the seawall and crept into clusters of houses perched on stilts.

“I’ve never seen it like that before. I’m scared, I’m leaving,” said Roy Patel, manager of the Economy Motel. He had boarded up his on the sea front and was headed to the mainland by car. ............


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26637482?GT1=43001

Streaming Ike Coverage From Houston News Channel

I hope everyone in Ike's path makes it through alright.

My family in Cuba came through just fine.

__________________
Current Benzes

1989 300TE "Alice"
1990 300CE "Sam Spade"
1991 300CE "Beowulf" RIP (06.1991 - 10.10.2007)
1998 E320 "Orson"
2002 C320 Wagon "Molly Fox"

Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

I heard on one of those reports that 25-30,000 folks stayed on Galveston to ride out the storm. Good Grief.

Maybe Jim Cantori should split now show the others the way off the island.

Fark 'em all if they get in over their heads. They had warning. But, undoubtedly, there will be *****in at govt. failures to protect its citizens from the dead folk's next of kin!