Hurricane Ike in Town Center, 2008

Hurricane Ike came ashore at Galveston Island at 2:10 a.m. on Sept. 13, 2008, as a strong Category 2 storm with winds near 110 mph. By the time it reached The Woodlands it had weakened, but it still brought hours of high wind and heavy rain. One rain gauge in The Woodlands recorded 11.71 inches, and the Conroe airport logged gusts near 60 mph.

The photos on this page were taken around Town Center on the afternoon of the storm, plus two from about two weeks later.

Rain filled the Waterway to the top of its banks. Water covered the lower walkways, backed up through the storm drains and washed soil off the banks south of the Lake Robbins Drive bridge. A few trees came down along the canal.

Most Market Street shops boarded up their windows before the storm, though plywood is hard to fasten to brick and metal storefronts. At Shoeballou the boards were held in place with trash cans. The lawn and fountain in Central Park flooded, and trees fell near Chipotle and the movie theater. The buildings themselves came through with only light damage.

The wind peeled sections of the outer wall covering off the mall at the entrance where Dick’s Sporting Goods is today. Trees went down across the parking lots outside Macy’s and Dillard’s, and one fell against the Jack in the Box by the mall.

Ike knocked down the traffic signal at Six Pines Drive and the mall ring road and left branches and whole trees across Town Center streets. Some drivers moved their cars into the Cinemark parking garage to keep them out of the storm, and several of those cars still ended up sitting in water on the ground level.

Lake Woodlands rose until it covered the shore walk and the park benches at Southshore Park, and the Rise of the Midgard Serpent sculpture was nearly under water. At Northshore Park the water reached the playground.

Ike shredded the fabric roof of The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and ended its 2008 season early. That story, with more photos, is on Hurricane Ike Ends the 2008 Pavilion Season.

Entergy Texas, which serves The Woodlands, reported that 392,600 of its 395,000 customers lost power. It finished restoring service to everyone who could take it by Sept. 25. Across Texas and Louisiana, about 2.6 million customers lost power. Two weeks after the storm, the trolleys were running along the Waterway again.

For the Waterway, Market Street, the mall and the free trolley as they are now, see The Woodlands Town Center. The Waterway Cruisers page tells the story of the water taxis that ran on the Waterway from 2004 to 2018.