Saturday 13 September 2008

Saturday 13 September

Overcast and pretty calm in Stornoway this morning. Cruiseliner Marco Polo lies anchored off the lighthouse whilst its passengers are ferried ashore in tenders for tours around Lewis.

Not so calm in Texas, where hurricane Ike came ashore at 2.10 CDT as a borderline category 2/3 hurricane. Landfall occurred at Galveston, and the storm has tracked north towards Houston. Currently, Ike is beginning to pull away from latter city, after battering it with winds of 80 to 90 mph. Hurricane conditions will persist through the day, and tropical storm force winds will continue into Sunday. Ike will recurve northeast and turn into a non-tropical depression over the Mid West.

Limited service is resuming in the Channel Tunnel, following its closure due to a fire on Thursday. Also on rail-related matters, a two-train crash near Los Angeles has left 17 dead. A freight train hit a commuter train head-on during the rush hour yesterday afternoon. The front coach of the passenger train was crushed by the locomotive in front of it. Many people are still trapped in the wreckage, and the death toll could yet rise further.

4 comments:

  1. i've got close family in Austin...they are safe.....it is raining here now for 2nd day....we needed it in Ohio. I like that cruiseliners name. Have a good night, Guido!

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  2. Praying for those in the path of Ike.  I read on AOL about that train crash, how sad.

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  3. We're starting out a little overcast today but it's supposed to burn off and be in the high 70's again.  Southern Texas is really getting hit hard.  I hope those people who elected to stay in their homes will be ok.  And I still need to find out if the train accident in the L.A. area was between a freight train & the Metro Link that Bob and I have ridden so many times. However, I don't believe the Link between Pasadena & L.A. shares it's track. However it does go right into Union Station in downtown L.A.  What a tragedy!  Linda in WA

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  4. I hadn't heard about the train crash in L A, how awful.   Ike was something else, I watched alot of the coverage late last night, what a storm!
    Lisa

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