Ike Storm Story: Keystone Kop Rescue

Yesterday on Pensacola Beach a county deputy sheriff sitting on an ATV tried to warn young, fit, surfers near the Gulf Pier out of the water, made dangerous by Hurricane Ike. In all fairness, the deputy's heart was in the right place. But his head? Well....

Not surprisingly, the surfers wound up rescuing the deputy. Unfortunately for the deputy, two beach goers were armed with video cameras -- that latest Can't-Do-Without-It beach toy. Here's the whole story from two different perspectives:

iVert3 - Kop to the Rescue

Sharpshooter1220 - Surfers to the Rescue of the Kop

Hurricane Ike Threatens "Certain Death"

Hurricane Ike likely will make landfall late tonight or early tomorrow morning. "Certain death" faces anyone who remains at home in Galveston, Texas, a local NHC advisory said in Houston this morning.

The advisory paints a truly appalling picture of the devastation expected from Ike:

PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES MAY FACE CERTAIN DEATH. MANY RESIDENCES OF AVERAGE CONSTRUCTION DIRECTLY ON THE COAST WILL BE DESTROYED. WIDESPREAD AND DEVASTATING PERSONAL PROPERTY DAMAGE IS LIKELY ELSEWHERE. VEHICLES LEFT BEHIND WILL LIKELY BE SWEPT AWAY. NUMEROUS ROADS WILL BE SWAMPED... SOME MAY BE WASHED AWAY BY THE WATER. ENTIRE FLOOD PRONE COASTAL COMMUNITIES WILL BE CUTOFF. WATER LEVELS MAY EXCEED 9 FEET FOR MORE THAN A MILE INLAND. COASTAL RESIDENTS IN MULTI-STORY FACILITIES RISK BEING CUTOFF. CONDITIONS WILL BE WORSENED BY BATTERING WAVES CLOSER TO THE COAST. SUCH WAVES WILL EXACERBATE PROPERTY DAMAGE... WITH MASSIVE DESTRUCTION OF HOMES... INCLUDING THOSE OF BLOCK CONSTRUCTION. DAMAGE FROM BEACH EROSION COULD TAKE YEARS TO REPAIR.

Although Galveston itself is under a mandatory evacuation, authorities in Houston have announced only a voluntary evacuation for parts of Houston:

Harris County executive Ed Emmett told the Houston Chronicle that people who live on high ground should remain at home.

"Unless you are in danger of water coming into your house, and I mean storm surge, not rainfall, you need to stay put," he said.

In other words, "Hunker down, Houston."

Houston-based blogger SciGuy reports:

[I]t appears as if Houston remains on target to take a direct hit by Hurricane Ike. The official forecast has changed little other than increasing landfall intensity from 110 mph to 115 mph, at landfall.

At whatever strength Ike comes ashore, it's going to be a nasty, nasty storm for coastal dwellers in southeast Texas and southwestern Louisiana.

Here on Pensacola Beach, nearly 500 hundred miles east of Houston, the outermost band in Hurricane Ike's enormous windfield appeared to be passing overhead early this morning.

Winds and surf will be roiled for much of the day, although technically not approaching tropical storm conditions, much less anything like what the Houston-Galveston area will be seeing a few hours from now. Local street flooding has begun to recede somewhat from yesterday's high tide watermarks.

Revenge of the Deer

Escambia County primary election voters yesterday tossed out of office two of our world famous deer slaughterers, county commissioner Mike Whitehead and incumbent sheriff Ron McNesby. You might say Whitehead was slaughtered, himself, at the ballot box by Wilson Robertson 4,744 to 1,126.

But the deer can't take all the credit, no matter how much they may have contributed to his opponent's campaign chest. Whitehead also is a known enemy of the Perdido Key mouse... Pensacola Beach's governing Island Authority ... a failed real estate mogul... a serial liar ... and BFF with the despised Buck Lee.

It remains to be seen if Robertson, who will be sitting on the commission for the second time around, is any better on beach issues than Whitehead was. But it's for sure he can't be worse.

Fellow deer killer Sheriff McNesby was defeated in the Republican primary by David Morgan. This November, Morgan will face Larry Scapecchi, a former lieutenant of the Escambia sheriff's office who is running as Democrat.

Policing the Last Weekend

While generals are fighting the last war, Escambia County deputies are policing the last weekend. The more they do so, the harder the Pensacola News Journal fights to fill the front page.

April 30: "Beach to Get More Deputies This Weekend." (19 paragraphs).

Monday May 5: Nothing happened yesterday (27 paragraphs).

Beach Melee Videos

Sad to say, a number of vacation videos from Pensacola Beach like the one above are likely to be making their way onto A&E's "First 48" television series, or some such true crime program.

This past Sunday an afternoon gathering at the west end park of a predominantly young, African-American crowd turned nasty. If history is any guide, it isn't likely to be the last such scene this year.

Michael Stewart has been covering the story for the News Journal with admirable skill. Monday's article, "Several Arrested After Crowd Becomes Unruly," was thorough, balanced, and exceedingly well-sourced. Today's follow-up, "Weekend Gathering Spurs Confrontation," is equally deft, although it adds few new facts to the story.

What it does add is mostly news about the profusion of cell-phone and video camera clips of the episode that are making their way onto YouTube. No shocking Rodney King stuff, here. Not this time, anyway.

But give it time. Everybody -- the deputies, the young people, the amateur video artists -- are still learning. If the SRIA doesn't get a handle on how to safely accommodate the local minority community's needs, someone's bound to be hurt very soon. And we'll all get to see the results on YouTube.

Further Amplification

See: "A Different Drummer"