Ike's Storm Surge Charts

Here are two charts of water level in Galveston and Manchester Texas. As you can see, although the water level rose well before the storm, it did not go above 15 feet in these locations, which made a big difference in flooding. It was bad, but it could have been worse.

Give credit to the National Hurricane Center with a pretty good forecast track. The eye made landfall in Galveston at 2:10am local time. The path and position of the eye kept the worst storm surge just east of Houston. It could have been much worse if the eye had been 20-40 miles left (south west) of the actual track. As a result the winds in Houston were more from the east as opposed to the south. Now we wait for the full assessment in daylight. I would suggest there are devastating results in spots not covered yet...