LIVE BLOG - Ike Devastates SETX

UPDATED @ 5:34 PM Monday - A couple of people have volunteered to blog with us as well. Here are links to their blogs:

• Karen Chapman's Blog - Downtown Beaumont
• Kevin Herrin's Hurricane Ike Ride Out Blog
• Start your own blog here!

3:21PM - Right now it is 3:21p and the winds are starting to pick up a little bit. Its gusty enough to be bothersome. The outers bands are rolling in. We are just a few hours away from seeing significant wind and rain.

I have to go upload some videos to keep all of our out of town viewers up-to-date on what's going on. I'll be posting interesting videos in the right column of this blog throughout the night and tomorrow that I think are worthy of your viewing!

I'll be back in a while to let you know what's going on right here in your hometown!

4:15PM - I just walked outside to check on the conditions and the main thing I noticed was how heavy the air was. It was very humid, very heavy and getting more windy. The clouds continue to roll in and a light drizzle is still falling. Nothing heavy or severe yet here inland around Channel 6. Later!

5:30PM - Everything is still quiet around here. The phones have not been ringing off the hook at afternoon. I think we can thank all emergency management as well as patting ourselves on the back for making sure everyone got every bit of information that they needed before this storm hit.

If you haven't seen the video of the family being rescued by the Coast Guard in Galveston yet, click on it in the right column. Nearly all of our coast line residents left the area to move further inland and we are greatful for that. I think it's good we don't mess with mother nature! She usually wins, these folks were lucky someone caught them stranded before surges got too high.

Heavy rain bands are forming offshore right now and moving into the area. Galveston County seems to be getting hit the worst right now. Ours will come later this evening. Check back in, we'll tell you what it's like. I'm going to try and get some pictures up later.

7:02PM - We have just decided to run a SPECIAL STREAM AT 8PM...along with our 8PM CUTIN.... check for more details.

7:31PM - Here we go, about 3,500 people in Port Arthur are now without power. The storm is making it's landfall. We have great rain to the southwest of us now.

7:34PM - Kelli and Bob Phillips just brought us some awesome peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies! Tasty! We have enough cookies to survive for two weeks! 

8:44PM - About 17,000 homes are without power in Mid and South Jefferson County at this time according to the Entergy website.

9:03PM - Everyone is blowing up their air matresses ready to "hunker down" as everyone keeps terming. I honestly never heard that statement until yesterday morning with Dan Gresham and James Brown. I'm not sure which one uses it the most.

Walked outside to get something out of my truck and was soaked by the streaming rain. It looks fascinating but this is of course not going to be fun at all.

9:07PM - We just saw a report with 2,100 homes in Orange County without power.

9:18PM - More than 29,000 homes the Entergy service area without power. That's out of all of Entergy's Texas homes.

9:25PM - There is a lot of chatter in the newsroom right now. Greg Bostwick just got a report from the National Weather Service saying the storm surge was above expected in Cameron, Louisiana and it will be moving toward Port Arthur overnight.

That is our big story right now and we're sending crews out to the Neches River and as close as we can get to the potential flood zones from the surge.

This of course will be out big story at 10PM during our stream. I'll get you updated.

9:44PM - I am putting a webcast together. It should be ready as the 10PM news comes on. We'll tease it in the newscast, you can watch it after the stream.

9:55PM - Photographer Troy Harper just drove to the low lying areas of Beaumont and reports that there is no flooding going on. We still have a crew driving down to Mid-County.

Bostwick and our Executive Producer Scott Lawrence just walked outside with Greg saying "It's getting a little active out there."

10:08pm - Power Outages in Beaumont - about 1,600 at this time.

10:17PM - Everyone here is looking at this storm and wondering where the east side intensity is going to come from. For some reason It looks like Ike's strongest winds and rains are in the top left quadrant. We'll continue to watch this storm's motion inland and the wrap-around of the intense portion to the northwest.

10:29PM - We just received a phone call from Port Acres. A viewer has lost two carports and has been getting wind gusts of 45MPH so far.

10:36PM - A viewer from Beauxart Gardens in Port Arthur just called us and let us know their power is still on.

Another lady near the sea wall called and said her power was on as well and conditions were not that bad.

Meanwhile, right outside the station, the power has gone out here in Beaumont.

10:38PM - Our executive producer just turned around and remarked "This area always loses power."

10:40PM - I just walked by the weather center and Greg Bostwick chatted with me about the formation on the south side of Ike. He then told me "yeah it's going to wrap around and whack us!"

I guess that's what we'll be blogging about later on in the night. Let's hope it's just fists, not boards or bats!

11:08PM - It is definitely getting more intense outside. I walked out in the front of the building to look at I-10 and saw zero cars of course for about ten minutes. Steady wind gusts right now and it's raining like crazy.

11:21PM - Ashley Rodrigue is still down in Port Arthur. I am thinking about going to Orange, but James Brown came in and said wait until 3 or 4 in the morning and check on the storm surge.

11:25PM - Man just called in from Bevil Oaks and said there are no trees down so far.

11:38PM - OK just a tease when I walked out to the newsroom. The stream is going to stay up. If you would like to chat with me about what's going on with the weather right now as well, go ahead and click right here:

12:07AM SATURDAY - GO MIZZOU TIGERS... IT'S COLLEGE FOOTBALL DAY!!!

Ok so the chat was an excellent idea and I'm so glad everyone joined....but it was a horrible format! I had 90 BOXES OPEN AT ONCE ALL BLINKING!!!! and couldn't get to everyone's questions! So here's the deal.

In this building, we have one of our internet lines knocked out. I had 90 boxes trying to interact with me and the reaction time was deathly slow! I would type out a full response and it would show up in the IM box 20 seconds later. I was only able to answer about 50 questions. Next time we'll have to set up a chat room or something. Something more open so everyone can chat with one another! It will happen, if we can stream live news to you, then we can set up a chatroom!

So go ahead and email me and I'll email you back.

By the way, the official landfall of Hurricane Ike is going to be in about the next hour.

12:27AM -  Email was a much easier and better choice! We are currently discussing where to send our crews as the worst approaches.

12:39AM - Bill Leger and Bob Phillips are about to go meet the storm near the coastline. Wish them luck...

12:44AM - The next live stream is going to be around 2AM...maybe a little earlier...

12:48AM - Kelli has now decided to chase the storm as well...this is going to be one heck of team....

12:49AM - I am no longer going to take emails! Im going to answer the rest of these then go to Orange or Bridge City...

1:05AM - Streaming is Live once again...check it out...I'm about to hit the road to Bridge City with Tom Wright...

1:08AM - One of our engineers, Mark Simmons says power is out at his house in Mauriceville....

UPDATED @ 1:45 AM- Hello I'm Executive Producer Scott Lawence, filling in for Lance Edwards. Lance ran into a flooded highway on I-10 East at 1132.  The highway is flooded.  He just went over Cow Bayou.  The storm doesn't want him on the highway.

UPDATED @ 1:35 AM- Hello I'm Executive Producer Scott Lawence, filling in for Lance Edwards.  Lance is on I-10 heading toward Orange County.  His crew had to swerve around sign debris as soon as they got on I-10.  There are big gusts in Rose City.

Around 2:30 AM - if you are familiar with the boat dock at the end of South Patillo road in Bridge City, then you'll recognize this story.

We were able to travel up and down the entire road but water was starting to pile up at the end of it well near the boat dock. No homes were under water down this road, and all of the roads leading into that area.

We decided to get out of there and moved on down into Bridge City at the corner of 87 (Texas Ave) and Roundbunch Street. We went across the big bridge towards town and saw an awning from a business on the left side at the intersection that had wrapped around a powerline and was sparking with every gust of wind.

As I was concentrating across the street with the camera, behind us, there was what seemed to be a towing company. The entire roof blew off the building, simply peeled off according to our Robert Boggs and Mark Simmons in our backseat.

We said "peace out", went back across the small Cow Bayou bridge, and noticed there was a little water standing on the right hand side. It was the most standing water we had seen and it wasn't quite to the main drag. Everything was completely dark, and we did not want to venture off the main strip with 70mph winds bombarding us.

After hearing reports of people stranded and wishing they would have left BC, we decided to not veer off Texas Ave. and into the reported flood zones.

We will return in the morning to see what happened. There really wasn't great video. We got the sparks from the awning vs. powerline, but that even looks dark. We'll throw something online in a bit.

Updated 3:37AM - The wind is absolutely pounding our building, right now. I'll be back with some wind gust reports in a bit.

Updated 3:46AM -  The wind gusts here at Channel 6 have reached 90 miles per hour according to Greg Bostwick.

We've been told 177,000 people without energy here in Southeast Texas 

Over in the Houston area, it's been reported that more than 4.5 Million people are without power through CenterPoint Energy.

Updated 3:53AM - Greg Bostwick just called Port Arthur Police Chief Mark Blanton to tell him that the tide gauge around Sabine  Lake is going down. He said it gives him a lot of hope that the waters and the surge will not cause destructive flooding in the area.

Updated 5:17AM - Michael Kern from Lumberton says "Im in lumberton off of old silsbee hwy winds are strong and we do have a
couple trees down. No lights or cable"

WE STILL HAVE A COUPLE OF MORE HOURS OF THIS STRONG WIND AND RAIN.

Update 5:33AM - We are getting several emails about stranded loved ones throughout the Golden Triangle.

Update 6:16AM - We will be streaming again at 6:30AM 

Update 6:26AM - The highest the storm surge reached in Sabine Pass was 14.24 feet...Port Arthur was 12 feet and just a couple of feet shy of breaching the levee.

Update 6:34AM - We lost a couple of dishes in this storm. Ike really was a pain in the butt.

Update 6:55AM - The winds have FINALLY stopped howling outside. it's about time.

Update 7:05AM - We just received an email from a viewer in Port Neches saying the river is 3/4 high and no major damage has landed in the area. There are a few car ports and trees here and there, but nothing significant to their eyes.

Suns about to rise and we'll be going out to get some video.

Update 9:20 AM - Just drove around the West End of Beaumont in 50MPH winds. Dodged about a powerline or tree every half block. I will have video posted later.

We'll also have an interview with Nederland's mayor posted on here in just a while.

Update 11:01AM - We have just learned that more than 7,000 computers logged on to the video stream last hour. I appreciate all of the thank yous. It helps us when we get one thank you in between every three phone calls!

For Vidor - the Old Lost River Bridge is closed and there is a report of an overturned truck on F.M. 105 (we got it right baby, because it IS NOT A STATE HIGHWAY!)

For people who live in Beaumont (near me), Gladys, Edson, Thomas, Lucas, Delaware - there was not one block without a tree down...powerlines were VERY BAD at Thomas and Gladys as well as Calder and 23rd.

Thomas Road is pretty much devistated....Kelli Phillips reported there was a tree laying right down the middle of one house...as you saw in the streaming video, powerlines and trees are down everywhere...you can't walk a foot without running into a HUGE tree limb, not just brush, but a huge limb. (WE WILL BE SHOOTING VIDEO OF THIS LATER)

For Bridge City and Orange, there is an overtopping, not a levee breech... if you know the city of Orange it has been reported that if you were driving toward the Shangri La, at that point you can not get into the city of Orange....Ashley Rodrigue reported that she can't get into Bridge City on Highway 87. Winds are still high right now....AND THERE ARE SNAKES EVERYWHERE

For Mid-County and Port Arthur - VERY LUCKY and as Greg Bostwick said around 1AM, "dodged a bullet on this one."

For those in Lumberton, Silsbee, Kountze, Buna, Kirbyville and all the way to Jasper and Newton we will try to get information in the future. Right now we have to cover where the storm IS NOT the heaviest. I also know we should probably report on Deweyville and Mauriceville. We'll have an update later...I may not update this blog for another hour or two since we'll be shooting video.

Updated 11:32 AM - Here is a helpful tip from Alan & Denise Croft... if you have a black screen and ARE HAVING TROUBLE STREAMING, THE CLICK ON THIS LINK....

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909554/en-us#appliesto#appliesto  

Updated 11:42AM -

For Port Acres - HWY 73 at the Taylor's Bayou bridge...According to Jessica Holloway, the water is vicious and up the first story of homes and apartments in the area are covered with water.

Updated 11:54AM - Greg Picazo will be talking about his drive into work from Hardin County and his night in Lumberton during the Noon cut-in.

Updated 12:04PM - Larry Beaulieu just walked in with two things on his mind...how is everyone and how can we get this transmitter back on so our satellite viewers at least can get on-air updates.

Updated 12:15PM - Auto-pedestrian fatality was NOT TRUE...

Update 1:59PM - Just got back fom roaming around Beaumont again. We have plenty of video to keep you entertained over the next few days. Trust me.

Update 2:12PM - "Should I get some sleep? Or should I keep trucking along? I don't really want to sleep without showering. Well I can't shower so I guess I won't sleep." - - - That's what I just thought to myself over the past 13 minutes! I got nothing done!!!

Update 2:54PM - I just made some Cheesy Mac for Linner....Dunch, whatever you want to call it!

I wanted to take this time to address a couple of areas that were asked about A LOT through phone calls from displaced viewers.

For Labelle - the surge reached levels of about 7 feet from a caller. I believe Jennifer Heathcock is on that scene so we'll get the details in on that later.

For Crystal Beach - flood levels during their storm surge were around 23 feet.

Update 3:02PM - I would like to add to my latest travel out into the field. For a second time today, I went to Beaumont's west end, all the way to West Brook High school where the side front entrance into the gym was complete gone and the scoreboard at the football stadium was of course knocked over. I made it over to Central as well where we saw the baseball and softball teams' home dugouts just completely demolished.

Along both 11th Street and 10th Street I'm almost certain that a tornado marked it's path. Coming across the Maury Meyers Bridge near the big water tower, there were two huge telephone poles, both facing different directions and parallel with the ground.

As you move toward 10th street all the way back to I-10 if you turn left on the street...there's just a path of tree after tree after tree facing opposite directions. Then after jumping across I-10, it seems as if it ripped through another set of powerlines as well.

Just an incredible yet unpleasing site to me. 

Updated 3:36PM - I'm going to go take a nap.

Updated 7:28PM - Ok now I am awake after a great three and a half hours sleep. So what are we going to talk about? I'm going to advise everyone reading this to check into our message

Updated: 8:13PM - I have decided that we must have an online community on our message boards. If you haven't signed up already, the do it now for FREE.

GO TO THIS PAGE, CLICK HERE and sign up for KFDM FaceTime. This is the perfect way for us to share photos and information with one another in one place.

Updated 1:24 AM  - - - It's Sunday. So we went out and had a little R&R after all of this madness here tonight. We'll be back in action tomorrow morning ready to inform you.

While you were hopefully sleeping, we updated a few more videos to hold you over until tomorrow morning's 9AM Live Stream.

My plan for in the morning is to hopefully drive around and find a church to keep everyone from this area in my mind. Yeah I'm not afraid to say it, I'm going to pray for everyone. If you don't pray, then simply reflect and know that this will be a huge story in your life down the road just like similar moments in the past.

I thought about this real hard tonight, being the Catholic boy that I am. I wondered how awesome it would be if I could show up at Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Parish in Beaumont some time tomorrow and see just a few people gathered together in celebration of their Church Bazaar and existence in the community. If you are not very religious, I'd like to share with you that the word Catholic also means "universal" which transcribes to us all being one. I've sure had some moments in the past 24 hours that made me do a little more thinking about things.

So if you are thinking about gathering some time tomorrow afternoon, or in the morning, email me ledwards@kdfm.com.

If you just want your prayers heard and shared with all of Southeast Texas, then free to email them to me as well. I'll string them all together for everyone to read and connect it to this blog, heck I'll put it on the front of the website!

Good night once again and a big hug to everyone who has not been able to see this mess yet and can't stand being away from home. We'll keep trying to show you all of the images.

It's Sunday, here we go.

Updated 10:06am - we are reveiving lots of reports of chaos at a couple of gas stations in Beaumont. People are lining up to fill their cars and their generators, and they are all tested from the damage left behind from Ike.

We have a crew running out there now.

We are also working on getting into Orange and Bridge City today with a boat to show you the situations there as close as we can.

Update 10:13 - Labelle-Fannett is still bad with flooding. I know we haven't been real clear with this online but we are sending a crew to that area today, hopefully.

Chief Charles Sonnier has told KFDM that he has rescued a few people from their homes in the area. We will update you with more when we can.

Update 11:28AM - I'm going to shoot some video of the crazy gas lines a selective stations around Beaumont Then I'm going to shower, salvage food and keep you informed all afternoon and night.

Update 1:51PM - So I just came back from the crazy gas lines and everyone was in happy spirits.

The most important news to me for the trip away from this blog was the fact that my house was ramsacked. My two roomies and I had our bedrooms tore up.

I shot video of this and will be putting it online, attaching it to this blog in a bit.

Nothing big was stolen, I can report that only cash and coins, liquor, and DVDs/CDs were stolen out of my house. It was very weird but I guess it's just whatever you can handle in a quick break in. I sure hope nobody else experiences this.  

Update 2:22PM - Larry Beaulieu is excited about our signal going back up around 2:30PM so people locally can watch us on regular TV. He just cracked a joke about his new call-in television show that will be coming out in the spring...."Ask Uncle Larry" - this is just a joke!

Update 2:34PM - I realize that with everyone out of town, that some have children and need to know when school is going to be back in session. I can tell you it is going to be a while before Jefferson County schools are restored to order....but for all other areas, as soon as information comes in, we will be posting it on the school districts High school pages that can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Update 2:41 Reporter Ashley Rodrigue reports from Bridge City that water has receeded in BC and streets that were once impassable are now driveable....search and rescue mode is still going...numerous homes in Bridge City received water damage and some even destroyed.

Business along Texas Avenue received 2-3 feet if not more inside of their buildings.

Those who have been rescued have been taken to shelters in Orange County. There have been no reports of fatalities at this time.

Update 2:45 -  Here's a report from the Coast

We spoke with Jennifer McKnight from the Bolivar Peninsula special utility district and she reported severe damage to homes and businesses along Bolivar Peninsula.

She also said first indications are that numerous homes were destroyed in the Crystal Beach and Galveston Ferry area.

From the big store back to the ferry, everything has been demolished.

Update 2:49PM -  Roll over bridge is gone and High Island is actually an island.

(Click Here - Click Here - Click Here)   WE NOW HAVE FORUMS SET UP FOR HURRICANE IKE ONLY...FEEL FREE TO AD TO OUR TOPICS OR TO ADD YOUR OWN. Let everyone away from Southeast Texas know what's going on here at home... 

Update 7:29PM - I've been gone for 5 hours. All of our great video has come back from the field except the stuff from High Island.

Update 8:25PM - Photographer Troy Harper reports that the Charlton-Pollard neighborhood in Beaumont faired pretty well. It looked like there was some street flooding, in the area, and the usualy downed trees damages and limbs everywhere.

There was sporadic roof damage, about the same as everyone else in Beaumont.

This was in between MLK and the Port of Beaumont.

Update 8:29PM - we are stacking up our 10pm newscast. Just for a quick note, and please don't get confused, we are showing our ON-AIR newscast at 10:44PM because of the football games on CBS running over time.

HOWEVER, the streaming newscast will air at 10PM on schedule as promised. Trust me on this one! If you were here locally, you can watch it twice, back to back if you wanted to. Once on KFDM.com and the second time on regular TV.

Update 8:40PM - I noticed all of the comments that were questions at the bottom of this page. If you logged on and asked a comment but you have not been answered, take those questions and ask them in the appropriate county in our Hurricane Ike Forum by clicking right here.

We have broken down each area county by county and others who are here in Southeast Texas have been giving as much information as they know. It's the best way for those outside to know what's going on inside.

Just real quick I want to list our programming schedule for tomorrow:

Monday Morning September 15, 2008!

8:51AM - Orange County residents can come back to check their property, but the officials don't want people to stay. Just assess their damage and find somewhere to stay.

8:53AM - Judge Carl Thibodeaux was on with Dan and Greg this morning. We will put his interview up in a short while. "The odds of being able to stay today are very very slim...unless of course they have a camper they could possibly stay here"

"We advise them to come check their properties, then turn and leave, don't check out of their hotels rooms just yet."

8:56AM - Call FEMA and register with them: 1-800-621-3362 - Once you get your registration number, see if they approve the hotel you are staying in and you could possibly not have to pay for your hotel bill.

You can also register at FEMA.gov

There were several hundred rescues in Bridge City on Sunday. We knew there were at least 350 rescues, but there is another rumor saying their were possibly around 600-700 once the day was done.

9:48AM - According to Nicole Murray, residents of South Beaumont were offered a chance to leave the area by the city. The city was going to organize busses so people could reach electricity, ice, food, and proper shelter if their homes were damaged.

10:36AM - What's open in the area? - Click On this Link to find that out and help us fill this list.

11:36AM - Dan Gresham was on the phone describing some damage in Beaumont. He said if you drive by the Montagne Center at Lamar University, you can see a whole section of seating in the stadium area because the walls are knocked down.

James Brown is ready to grill whatever is in our freezers.

We received word that Greg Bostwick will be with us in studio tonight to deliver you the weather. We have not really publicized this but people in his community around East Chambers and Nome all know that his house was severely damaged during the strom. So keep him and his family in your prayers and tune in tonight to see what he has to say after the storm.

Update 12:07PM The Star Mini-Mart on Fannett Road has unleadded gas pumping out at $5.49 cents per gallon. This may have been mentioned at the top of my blog, but I know I was telling my friends this... Our entire economy is going to take a huge beating from this storm, especially after it passed through Galveston Bay.

Update 12:08PM - We just received a phone call that volunteers set up ice and MRE giveaways in Fannett, then FEMA came through and shut them down. This is not confirmed and we will be looking into this.

The reason I believe this may be true is the idea that the mandatory evacuation has not been lifted for the Jefferson County, so providing ice and food to citizens encourages people to come back home and stay, which is something we are not prepared for yet.

However FEMA has opened their first POD in Southeast Texas. At First Baptist Church in Kribyville on West Main, FEMA has opened distribution center which is handing out ice and MREs (food) to Southeast Texans.

Update 1:32PM - Salvation Army mobile canteens are being deployed to the area, however that help is NOT available at this time.
The Salvation Army does NOT have water, ice, groceries or shelter for distribution at this time.

Update 1:34PM - We are announcing the schools closings under the districts high school page at the following link:

http://www.kfdm.com/sections/teams/

So look for your high school page now and see when school is going to resume in your area.

Update 2:30PM - We just feasted on some grilled chickens and steak and stuffed meats ... a James Brown BBQ. That's what we needed to get back into action and to clear our minds for a while.

Things have slowed down in the newsroom itself, but our reporters and photographers are busting it out in the field getting as many images and stories as possible.

Update 2:37PM - I don't know if you are looking at any national news, but this story of the Train Accident with 20+ deaths in Los Angeles is just very odd... apparently the accusation is the engineer driving the train was text messaging:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/15/national/main4449292.shtml

Update: 5:35 - I just updated the photo galleries with about 20 more shots. Enjoy them and remember to keep adding your pics too.

LAST UPDATE ON THIS PAGE.....8:26PM - So I've critically slowed down with this blog. You now know how to share photos, stories, you know where to go for all of the archived videos from this storm. I hope this served you well while you were out of power or out of town.

Thanks for all of your attention. We update you all of the time here on KFDM.com and we know that you choose us whenever you want to hear the latest on the BIG STORY. We'll keep the updates coming and you keep clicking.

Remember to check when school starts in your district by finding the high school in your area on the following page: http://www.kfdm.com/sections/teams/