Incident Details

Name - Hurricane Ike - 2008
Date - 06-Sep-2008
Location - Gulf of Mexico
Countries - Dominican Republic, Cuba

A tropical disturbance developed off the coast of Africa near the end of August. It tracked south of Cape Verde and slowly developed. On September 1 it became Tropical Depression Nine while west of the Cape Verde islands, it then intensified into a tropical storm, and was named Ike by the NHC. Ike developed an eye late on September 3 as it underwent explosive intensification, as it strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in twelve hours with an estimated pressure drop of 43 mbar (from 991 to 948), and a 24 hour pressure drop of 61 mbar (from 996 to 935). Ike weakened back to a Category 2 hurricane before re-intensifying back to Category 4 as confirmed by reconnaissance flight reports. It ripped across Grand Inagua Island and Grand Turk Island, where 80% of the buildings on that island were severely damaged or completely destroyed. It weakened into a strong Category 3 in the late afternoon of Sunday September 7 as it headed for landfall on the northeastern coastline of Cuba that evening. In addition, the storm has killed at least 61 people in Haiti and 1 person in the Dominican Republic. As of 5am EDT on September 8, Ike has weakened to a Category 2 while over Cuba.