Hurricane Ike: Damage Reports

Hurricane Ike swept onshore in Texas as an angry Category 2 hurricane but is now only a mildly irritating tropical depression dying off over the Midwest. Some areas are still expected to get heavy rains, but the worst seems to be over. According to the New York Times, wind gusts of 100+ mph caused extensive damage in the densely populated Houston area.

Ike was a behemoth of a storm at 600 miles wide, but many breathed a sigh of relief that the worst-case-scenario for the storm damage did not occur. But Dr. Jeff Master's Weather Blog lists the storm as the third costliest in US history if initial damage estimates of $27 billion hold true. That makes Ike an infamous United States billion dollar storm. Fortunately, few deaths have been reported unlike the 8000 deaths in the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.

More on the Damages from Hurricane Ike

• USAToday.com Thousands Rescued After Ike
• National Hurricane Center Hurricane Ike Archive
• NASA Hurricane Ike Daily Summaries
• MSNBC.com Images and Videos from the Hurricane Ike Interactive

More on the Galveston 1900 Hurricane

• NOAA History: The Galveston Storm of 1900
• Hand Drawn Map of the Galveston Hurricane Track
• National Climatic Data Center Reviews the Galveston Hurricane
• The Centennial Remembrance of the 1900 Hurricane by CNN.com