Ike Ravages Texas With 130 mph Gusts on Galveston Island & We Brace for its Rain & Wind

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those in Texas and especially Galveston Island as the worst part of the hurricane or the eye wall goes over the island. I am really scared to think what is going to happen to anybody that did not evacuate. Reports of 45 foot waves are crashing over the islands 17 foot sea wall. Chunks of the sea wall are now coming off and I am thinking this storm may change the way these things are covered on television. There are several objects flying through the air at this time and one reporter just asked the cameraman if he got hit and to get down. Why do we have all these people covering this on the beach and I am very worried about somebody getting hurt. Evacuations are issued for a reason and it should include everybody whether you are a meteorologist, television reporter, or President of the United States. Quite frankly the hurricane hype has gotten way out of hand and I do not want to name any names but we all know where it started. Now I do admit I had my fun in Myrtle Beach with Hurricane Bonnie on a television station there and even though I was amazed at the power of nature with 60 to 80 mph wind gusts and a howling sound of the wind that is hard to describe I was thinking about it not being the smartest thing to do or place to be. Now I feel more strongly about this than ever. The picture above tells it all. The yellow band you see above represents the eye wall or the most violent part of a hurricane. It is taking the worst possible route into Texas. Once this eye moves inland it will still bring 70 to 90 mph winds to Houston and even Dallas will see hurricane force gusts and plenty of damage. Here is the latest track tonight and what it means for us in Indiana.

By Sunday at 5 p.m. you see Ike's remnants will move into Indiana. It will still be a tropical depression when it arrives here. The part we need to be on guard for will not just be flooding but severe thunderstorms. These tropical systems cannot be trusted when it comes to severe weather and the areas most vulnerable to damaging winds and tornadoes are in the path of the storm and to its south and east. Based on the track above we are right in the path for not just heavy rain but strong storms. We will have to really watch things carefully on Sunday. Here is what you can expect here at home.

That is right we could actually have tropical storm force wind gusts even though the storm is striking about a thousand miles away. This storm is about 2.5 times the size of a normal hurricane and like Katrina it will pack a punch rarely seen from any storm here on earth. Our weather team will keep you updated. This weekend the Lay Flats Festival is on Saturday with plenty of plans out there and if you have any Saturday would be the better day of the two with occasional rain, but also some dry hours. The heavier rain will try to hold off until late day and the evening just in time for the Purdue-Oregon game. I cannot rule out thunderstorms over Ross-Ade which would cause a delay. We are in a slight risk for severe weather and remember last year the Purdue game was delayed due to lightning during the second game of the season. A repeat? Maybe. We will keep you updated here on Live Doppler 18 with another post coming up today including why severe weather has to be taken in these situations and an update on the possible flooding including the rivers. Keep adding up the rain and take some pictures and our weather team will try to show as many as we can. Stay safe and blog away.

Here is a picture sent to us by Darci Pizzi. She says this is good duck roasting weather. Everybody is fired up for the big game today! Boiler up and roast those ducks on and off the field! Now I am going to try to talk my wife into making some of those chocolate chip cookies. It is going to be a long night.