Flooded Houston Highway
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3pm: We left our location at the flooded out highway and made our way downtown. Fortunately, Kris Gutierrez spent a few years reporting in Houston so he knew his way around. We passed by Reliant stadium, which apparently has damage, but we couldn’t see any driving by.
Downtown was a different story. At a neighborhood near downtown there were trees and bushes all over the street. Further down, at the JP Morgan Chase center, there are windows busted out all over the place. Apparently furniture from one building flew out and busted windows on a building across the street. Workers are trying to get it all cleaned up. In fact, driving around town, it’s been impressive. There are city crews all over where we’ve been cleaning up trees and debris.
Cars driving on the wrong side of the freeway.
11:45 a.m. The first we new something was wrong was when we saw a car driving right at us. What the? No one is supposed to be on the freeway much less driving the wrong way on the freeway. A couple other cars passed us driving the wrong way. Then we saw it. Highway 288 just south of downtown Houston dipped down and disappeared into a lake. In both directions. A TX DOT employee told me it’s at least 6 feet deep.
We met a poor man who drove right into the water before he realized anything was wrong. He got his car out but there are now at least three inches sitting in the bottom of it.
Tags: hurricane ike
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Maggie Kerkman is a field producer in FNC’s Southwest Bureau. Based in
Dallas, she has been on a variety of stories, covering everything from
shuttle launches, to illegal immigration, to destructive hurricanes. 
WHERE IS GERALDO TODAY?? Why is he not present with the film footage of damaged in the area where he stayed last night?
No one wants to watch water that has amased under an underpass, you wasting you time. Move on to a more important and MORE interesting story involving people.
This flooding is nothing compared to tropical storm Allison in 2001. The downtown area look great compared to images from that storm. Maybe you guys have forgotten but, it is 10+ feet of water in all buildings in the downtown area. Do a web seach, you will find many images that are far more devesting than Ike.
While I appreciate the behind the scenes views on Hurricane Ike by actual news reporters, I am appalled at the encouragement by Fox news of citizen videos and photos. Many regular citizens have put their lives in danger to capture the effects of Hurricane Ike. I feel Fox news has a responsibility to the public to keep them from danger in these situations. Advertising on TV and Internet for citizens to send in photos and videos just keeps the behavior going. Fox news should absolutely refuse to broadcast any type of media obviously taken during the height of the storm. In addition, I am also appalled by the appearance of Geraldo Rivera at the very last minute. This man is old and tired and has nothing to do with storm reporting. We all had a good laugh here at his ridiculous antics including stumbling over his words, holding his head, and wading out into the water only to be hit by floating debris. Why do we need him anyway? The running joke in our community is that you don’t know we are in a disaster unless Geraldo shows up. Fox should leave the serious reporting to the younger reporters and keep Geraldo out of danger behind a desk.
Those individuals that decided to stay against federal/state mandatory evacuation orders. IF, you need to be rescued by any local, state or federal agency due to your stupidity for not following orders you should be assessed a surcharge. Let’s say a $500.00/per individual. Let’s see if the next time you take it serious. Coast communities should pass this as law.
I just heard that overnight, dispatchers received thousands of calls from frightened residents who bucked mandatory orders to leave as the storm closed in.
Plus nearly 3 million people are without power in the Houston area.
I am glad it wasnt as bad as the forecasters predicted, although there was four deaths blamed on the storm.
Good stuff. Yes, Tropical Allison did quite a bit of damage; however, it lacked the wind by about 110% and I think when a few people go without electricity and possibly work for a few weeks they may see the damage that has yet to be unfolded.
Why not show us the rest of Galveston – some of the old homes. We’re seeing the same old piles of debris all morning. There are some beautiful old homes there – how did they fare?