Ike's Winds

This wind swath image shows the maximum sustained winds form Hurricane Ike. It's from the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Hurricane Research Division, Ike Wind Analyses. As Eric Berger, the Houston Chronicle SciGuy, notes about winds,

The reality is that it's hard to obtain valid, widespread wind speed observations for a landfalling hurricane. However, in recent years there has been an increasing fount of data from flight-level reconnaissance, satellite observations, pressure-wind relationships and available surface measurements.

Blue are lighter winds, purple is the highest. You'll need to click on the image to see a larger version on which you can see the speeds. Ike's path is the solid black line, curving from the bottom right of this image to the top left. The coast line runs from left to right about in the middle of the image. Its bays make the line look scribbled. Ike crossed the coast right over downtown Galveston and swept up the west side of Galveston Bay.

Friendswood is under the arrow, in the light green area just to the left (west) of Ike's path and north of the coast. The orange spot just to the left (west) of Ike's path is about where Houston lies. Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana is on the right edge, two thirds of the way up. Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Sabine River (the state line) in the top center.

Now that you're oriented, here are the numbers. Friendswood saw max sustained winds of c. 80 mph winds. That's a weak Cat 1 storm. Same for most of Houston. And yet 95% of the area was without power with Ike's passing. Most of the damage was from downed trees. A few roofs are missing shingles. Of course there was the storm surge on Galveston Island, Bolivar Peninsula, and on Galveston Bay (those communities are a mess).

But inland only every now and then you'll see a toppled truck or a whole roof torn off. But there is remarkably little damage. No major transmission lines were put out of commission and only 0.5% of the wooden power poles (5,000 of the 1 million in Houston) were knocked down. The reason why? Winds were not very strong for a hurricane.