Hurricane Ike

[SCPD]

Yeah, CBS-11 is saying the same. A Cold front coming in will push Ike out, but not before firing up a BUNCH of rain. (mostly along the red river)

Convoy of NATIONAL GUARD leaving SAT to Galveston.

Galveston Photo's show island is devastated!

 

[LEH]

Palestine, TX. City is under water. Eye is still South of Palestine.

Hope this one is wrong. Three of the ladies I work with (we all work remotely) live in that area. IM'd one earlier and she said it was raining and she was watching the storm coverage on TV.

One of the ladies husband is a minister so I am sure they will be out helping folks after the storm goes by.

 

[SCPD]

Yes, some of it was incorrect, but I Blame KTVT-11 CBS Dallas for that. 6 inches under water was more the case. (Between new stations, there has been much conflicting info, I catch a lot of it, but some I miss.)

Per Gov. Perry (Press conference) TP&W Air boats being deployed, 5 Black hawk Choppers sent to area. Texas deploying the Largest S&R operation Texas has ever done.

Listening on Echo Link (442.5750) Hearing some one coming from the Navasota area with Generators to be used on Cell Sites to get Cell back up.

Gov. Perry PISSED about those who refused to evacuate, Putting State workers at risk to perform rescue's while power lines are down has Austin Irritated.

Pennsylvania Task force-1, Texas Task force-1, South Carolina Electric crews all either en route to or on scene assisting.

 

[Boulder]

Heard a chunk of the roof from Reliant Stadium was taken off, so looks like the Texans will be looking for a new home for a little while while repairs will be underway. Strong winds up this way up towards Tyler. Heard lots of reports of winds 40-50 mph south of Tyler. Highest windgust from East Texas was earlier in Lufkin at 69 mph. About 13,000 without power in Smith County and heard about 30,000 out around Lufkin and Nacogdoches areas. Tyler 911 is flooded with calls from people saying they are out of power, so officials are not very happy. Looks like drier air is filtering into the storm and is helping bringing down the winds as the storm moves north. Winds and rain are playing havoc with radio communications. TXDOT is out in full force clearing roads around the area as trees keep falling around the area.

 

[SCPD]

CHASE Bank, Houston (The tallest building in Texas at 74 stories) Lost all its Glass. That was an amazing site. My Dish is in and out so I suspect the heavy rain is here and is here early. Winds are 35 Sustained gusting to 40/45. ONCOR Dallas 00-106 is getting more active with Service calls. CNN has KTRK video footage showing DT Houston (When my Dish comes back from time to time) And I am hearing more activity on TP&W 151.4150 from South Texas.

Exxon/Mobile has the Largest and Most productive refinery in the Country near Texas City. (500,000 Barrels of Oil turned to Gas a day) Is down because of power. NE States seeing $4.75/Gal gasoline, D/FW seeing high prices too and hearing regular gas is at a shortage Statewide.

CNN Now reporting 2.6 Million without Electricity in Texas. (However they are miss-pronouncing names and miss-reporting weather conditions so maybe they are mis-sing the real story)

 

[BaLa]

We got some wind......and some rain...that's about it...

I think it didn't move NW long enough for us to get too much of it.
They even changed the forecast.
20% chance of Heavy Rain for tonight...yeah right..

 

[Boulder]

As of 6:45 pm Oncor is reporting about 100,000 customers in East Texas are without power...also AEP SWEPCO is reporting about 41,000 out at this time in East Texas. This will also be greater as the number of small rural electric Co-Ops around the area that provide services to rural parts of East Texas.

Looks like the center of the storm is now moving across the Red River North West of Texarkana still moving pretty quickly to the North East. Power companies are buzzing with activity as the winds die down enough they can begin work the lines. Looks like before long Texans will be through with Ike finally once and for all.

 

[kkn50]

2008/09/14 afternoon

Don't know that this is the best thread for posting this info but there is a convoy working on LCRA talkgroup 07-087. I am receiving on the LCRA Comal tower. Sounds like they are on I-35.

 

[mfn002]

Sam Houston State University sent out an automated phone message yesterday saying that classes won't resume until *at least* Wednesday. At the time, almost the entire campus was with out power and there was heavy damage.

The photos in today's Houston Chronicle of Galveston Island seemed to remind me of New Orleans after Katrina. Whole neighborhoods were underwater. According to the paper, ten bildings burned to the ground on Galveston Island, and seven collapsed from the wind. They said that some restaraunts on the seawall, including Murdich's Pier, the Mermaid Pier, Hooters, and the Balinese Room, were destroyed. A photo showed a huge pile of rubble where the buildings once stood. The roof of Reliant Stadium was heavily damaged, with huge sections missing.

Spent 3+ hours today clearing branches from the yard. There was not much structural damage here (even though there were gusts upwards of 60 mph), and we only got 3" of rain. Bryan Texas Utilities Electric Cooperative was out almost the entire day yesterday responding to trouble calls. Bryan Fire Department had 40+ calls yesterday, which is a lot for this area. Went to church around 6 pm yesterday and everything seemed fine, except for numerous branches laying around in yards. Surprisingly, the power never went out at my house (but it did blink and flash alot). I also heard some of the shelter managers discussing on the radio what kind of plans were in place for long-term evacuees.

Grimes County SO is directing traffic around long lines of evacuees heading south filling up at gas stations. Yesterday, Grimes St. Joseph Hospital in Navasota was evacuated because the water supply went out.

 

[FlashSWT]

Can anyone give me the freqs possibly in use by the Texas Air National Guard helicopters doing S&R and the Texas Task Force 1 search and rescue teams?

Thanks

 

[nd5y]

I don't know how accurate this still is but in the past I have heard the Texas National Guard helos out of Grand Prairie on
46.80
139.100
242.600

A few years ago according to the VFR supplement they changed to
36.90
134.100
247.400

Back in the 80's during a flood in Wichita Falls the ground units used 41.00

 

[FlashSWT]

Thanks nd5y, I'll plug all of those in and try them out when I make it down the island today.

 

[mfn002]

Thanks nd5y, I'll plug all of those in and try them out when I make it down the island today.

At the risk of sounding dumb, if you are talking about Galveston Island, then the mayor has declared the ENTIRE island "uninhabitable." For some reason, Galveston Island's condition seems to sorta remaind me of New Orleans after Katrina.

Another update:
Sam Houston State University has power, while all of Huntsville (which uses Entergy) still has no power. Despite this, classes will resume Wednesday. Grimes County sustained that company's worst hit, with nearly 8000 customers-or pretty much the entire county-without power, and I don't think you'll be hearing from rattler anytime soon. Here, all packaged bread and other items have been almost completely drained from local stores, with people driving as far as 100 miles to get necessities. Gas stations have been drained of fuel.

EDIT: Just got an email from Sam saying they will be closed the rest of the week, and will reopen Monday 09/22.

 

[bpckty1]

A big difference that Ike had from other storms was the cold front that came to SE TX after the disaster. It could be worse, I can recall it being in the upper 80s and lower 90s and very high humidity following earlier storms that were not as disastrous (and I do include Carla, which was a bad storm).

 

[FlashSWT]

Michael, as credentialed media I've been on and off the island several times since Sunday. You're right, it is pretty bad down there. They tried "Look and Leave" this afternoon and it was a disaster. Tensions are running high with everyone and there are serious communications problems between agencies. County/city units still running on Starnet (which seems to have held up just fine) can't get in touch with DPS units when needed.

I didn't get anything today on the suggested frequencies however the National Guard helos are fewer in number and I hear the door to door searches were fairly complete. DPS on the island appear to be using Texas Law 1. I also heard in use: Texas Law 2, U Tac 43 and V Tac 11. Never had time to figure out who was on which.

EDIT: And bpckty1 you are so right, if it wasn't for this cold front people would be much worse off than they already are. I'm worried about what is going to happen when it warms back up.

 

[rbhtxk]

Chambers County EOC Starnet/Entergy Moto TRS

Talkgroup 48368 is active with "EOC" traffic for relief, LE coordination, and lots of other aftermath information. Listening off the Liberty County tower, CC 866.050 MHz. I have heard DPS, FEMA, and a lot of other agencies working coordination on Starnet today.

Entergy is up with multiple talkgroups working continuous traffic on the Liberty County Site, CC 860.8125 MHz.

We are down here working repair and fixit for the relatives. Still lots of areas without electricity. There appears to be plenty of fuel available. Other than a few gas stations and mom-n-pop operations, places to eat are far and few between. The military is still passing out food, ice, and water.

Have noticed many fiolks appear to be moving, loading up their funrniture and hitting the road; guess they don't want any more hurricane headaches.

Sounds like most cell phone sites are up and running with some outages still reported. We just got power a few hours ago. Working off dialup for internet.

 

[mfn002]

Looks like I'll be heading back to school Monday.

Does anyone know the status of the STARNET sites in Walker County (20, 21, 102, 103)? Since I always bring my PSR500, I'd just like to know what to expect. Also, is there any "common frequency" that the crews sent to help Entergy fix the power lines are using? Speaking of which, I just heard a news report saying that Huntsville might not have full power until 10/05.

I found some freq's that are (possibly) being used by the National Guard (I don't know for sure).
I know these are in the Texas DB, but I'll reprint them here so they'll be easier to find.

149.8375...CH 01/NG JTF1
140.4125...CH 02/NG TAC2
141.6750...CH 03/NG TAC3
142.4000...CH 04/NG TAC4
138.4000...CH 05/NG TAC5
144.9500...CH 06/NG TAC6
146.3000...CH 07/NG TAC7
139.5750...CH 08/NG TAC8
148.8250...CH 09/NG CONVOY1
149.8250...CH 10/NG CONVOY2
142.7625...CH 11/NG REPEATER

 

[rbhtxk]

Walker Co Starnet

I'll be in Hunstville tomorrow. Will let you know what we hear tomorrow evening.

 

[mfn002]

I'll be in Hunstville tomorrow. Will let you know what we hear tomorrow evening.

So will I. SHSU resumes classes tomorrow.

Oh, and I will take some photos of the area, since there does not seem to be that many out there (Not even in the Huntsville Item). I'll try to post them here as soon as I can.

 

[rbhtxk]

Huntsville STARNET

Could have just been me. However, we didn't hear anything on any of the STARNET systems in the area. The control channels were there (at least one), but there was no voice activity heard. I did not get to pay a whole lot of atention; runing the wife to-and-fro. I was there for about an hour. I did see a lot of tress down, but not nearly the mess I saw in Liberty and Polk Counties. Good luck.