Hurricane (Typhoon) — Liberty, Texas

2008-09-12 to 2008-09-13 · Liberty, Texas

Event narrative

Widespread wind damage with limbs down and trees uprooted in many

Locations. Shingle damage to roofs. Trees on homes. Damage consistent with wind Gusts in the 70 to 90 mph range.

Wider weather episode

The eye of Hurricane Ike moved ashore in Galveston County near the city of Galveston. At landfall, Ike had a central pressure of 951.6 mb, as measured at Galveston Pleasure Pier, and a maximum estimated storm surge of 17 feet over portions of Chambers County and the Bolivar Peninsula. Maximum sustained winds at landfall were estimated at 95 knots (110 mph) with gusts to 110 knots (127 mph). A ship near the coast recorded a wind gust of 105 knots as the eye came through. At landfall, Ike was a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale based on wind speed, but due to its large size, had a storm surge more typical of a category 3 or 4. The height of the storm tide ranged from 4 to 6 feet in Matagorda county, 6 to 9 feet in Brazoria county, 10 to 13 feet along most of Galveston Island and Galveston Bay, to as high as 17 feet over portions of the Bolivar Peninsula and Chambers County. The majority of property damage at the coast was a result of storm tide.

Collectively, damage amounts are estimated to be near 14 billion dollars over the counties of Harris, Chambers, Galveston, Liberty, Polk, Matagorda, Brazoria, Fort Bend, San Jacinto, and Montgomery with an estimated 8 billion of that due to storm surge in coastal Galveston, Harris and Chambers Counties. Fresh water flooding also occurred near the city of Houston where up to 14 inches of rain fell over a two day period, first from Ike, then from a line of thunderstorms associated with a cold front moving through the following day. The number of fatalities directly related to Ike was 12 in the aforementioned counties with 11 of those occurring in Galveston County from drowning due to the storm surge. In addition, there were at least 25 fatalities indirectly related to Ike, either due to carbon monoxide poisoning from generators, accidents while clearing debris, or house fires from candles. There were no known tornadoes associated with Ike.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 136439. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.