Saturday, September 13, 2008

Area Reports

Here is a preliminary report from KHOU TV in Texas:

Harris County: Harris County Office of Emergency Management suspends 911 service in Pasadena because of problems. People urged to call (713) 920-2136, (713) 920-1604, (713) 475-9714 and (713) 472-0144

CenterPoint says customers with service through above ground lines are without power

Conroe: Half of the city is without power

Liberty County: Reports of roof torn off of a home near 2018 Grand Ave.

Dickinson: Residents asked to boil water

West Houston: Building collapse at the Palm Court Apartments on 90 Country Place near I-10 and the Beltway

Reliant Center: Hole in the roof

Clear Lake: Damage reported at the Hilton Hotel on Clear Lake Blvd.

Galveston: Hooters restaurant damaged

Galveston: Several boats caught fire at the Galveston Yacht Basin Friday afternoon, but weather conditions prevented fire crews from responding.
Houston: Brennan's restaurant burned to the ground. Three people were hurt.
Downtown Houston: Bus shelters knocked over and shards of glass raining down from
Galveston: There's about three feet of water inside the courthouse building, according to Galveston County Emergency officials. There are 27 people currently inside that building but EOC officials believe they are perfectly safe, because they have moved to the second floor. The water was beginning to recede a bit by 3 a.m., so they’re not worried about it coming up further. The courthouse still has power because it is running on a generator. The people inside managed to move most of the first floor computers and several boxes of election materials up to the second floor before it flooded.

Deer Park: The roof has blown off the Casa El Dora apartment complex at 200 Helgra. Six residents were being taken elsewhere and no one was hurt.

Matagorda County: With Ike making landfall on Galveston, Matagorda County found itself more on the “clean” side of the storm.
John O’Connell with the Matagorda County Office of Emergency Management in Bay City said that outside of power interruptions, there were not reports of major problems within the county.
“We’ve had some gusts of wind and some rain, but no major rain,” said O’Connell.

Kemah: City adminsitrator Bill Kerber said there is high water across Kemah. Six feet deep even in higher areas. City hall and the fire station have some water in them, not sure yet how much. City Hall, which is on Highway 146, sits at roughly the high point in Kemah.

La Porte: With the eye of Hurricane Ike approaching, officials in this Galveston Bay community had reports of widespread street flooding, but no major damage.
But EOC head Jeff Suggs said the true extent of Ike’s damage wouldn’t be known until an assessment of the city could be made at first light after Ike had moved on.

Texas City: Officials in Texas City were breathing a presumptive sigh of relief early Saturday morning as it appeared that the levee system that encircles the city held back the vicious storm surge of Hurricane Ike.
Most of the city is without power and there are lots of downed power lines and tree limbs. Clawson said too that what water was coming into the city was quickly receding.
The local refineries and chemical plants also reported no significant damage.
He stressed that the city won’t be totally out of the woods until Saturday afternoon.
“It’s not where we wanted to be, but it doesn’t look like we suffered any major damage,” said Clawson.

Friendswood: Officials in Friendswood have been unable to assess what damage has occurred because of Hurricane Ike. Police Chief Bob Wieners said there have not been any calls to the public safety building of major damage within the city.
Power has been cut off to most of the city, he said.
He also said there were no calls from residents of life-threatening instances.

Angleton: A large chunk of the Brazoria County Courthouse was blown off by the winds of Hurricane Ike. It also damaged some cars that were in the parking lot.

Freeport: A police car had a window smashed out by flying debris. There are also downed street lights throughout the city.

San Leon: Boats pushed up out of the water into yards and houses

Jersey Village: The roof was blown off a hotel on 290 and Jones Road in Jersey Village and into power lines. The lines are across a feeder road. About 55 occupants were moved to a temporary shelter.