“I wish I were in Galveston,” says Jim Spencer, KXAN‘s popular chief weathercaster sounding a helluva lot less frazzled than I assumed he would. Spencer’s not in Galveston, he’s in Austin. Since Hurricane Ike‘s impact is likely to be felt here in town, he had to stay put.
According to Jim, “We’re going to see gusty winds – maybe not tropical storm forces, but 39-50mph gusts nonetheless. We’re in for heavy rains, but flash flooding now does not look likely. Now just east of us – Bastrop, Lee Fayette Counties – they’re in tropical wind warnings and they’ll be seeing gusts of 40-70mph.”
Station reporter Shannon Wolfson is on the ground in Clearlake, near Galveston Island. “Ike hasn’t even hit the Texas coast and we’re already seeing flooding and wind gusts up to 35mph. It looks like the folks along the Texas coast will be in for a long night.” she says.
Jim didn’t correct me when I called the storm a monster. “It’s big, but the real concern is the surge. Houston may be in for Alicia ’83,” he said He added that the storm surge for Galveston may surpass that of the Great Storm of 1900. “The seawall was erected after that storm, but we may still see water over the wall.”
This article appears in September 12 • 2008.