Here Comes Ike!

Thinking of all of you in Ike's way....please stay safe & check in when you can.

Nearly 1 million people along the Texas coast were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm, which was expected to strike late Friday or early Saturday. But in a calculated risk aimed at avoiding total gridlock, authorities told most people in the nation's fourth-largest city to just hunker down.

"We are still saying: Please shelter in place, or to use the Texas expression, hunker down," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the county's chief administrator. "For the vast majority of people who live in our area, stay where you are. The winds will blow and they'll howl and we'll get a lot of rain, but if you lose power and need to leave, you can do that later."

Ike is huge, taking up nearly 40 percent of the Gulf. The National Hurricane Center said tropical storm-force winds of at least 39 mph extended across more than 550 miles, and hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph stretched for 230 miles. A typical storm has tropical storm-force winds stretching only 300 miles.

Because of its great size, storm surge and gigantic waves are the biggest risk, said Hugh Willoughby, former director of the federal government's hurricane research division. The larger the storm, the longer it hits and the higher waves can build.

And because the water is so shallow along the Texas coast, the waves pile up, creating a big storm surge, he said.

"We're not talking about gently rising water," Harris County's Emmett said. "We're talking about a surge that will come into your homes."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080912/ap_on_re_us/ike

I hope that they are making the right decision.




I live in another hurricane prone state, not in Texas.

If a hurricane was coming towards my hospital, I couldn't leave since
I was volunteered for the A team. This means I must pack enough
food for five days that does not require cooking. Bring my own water.
And, bring enough clothing for that length of time with my own bedding.

Our hospital is directly on the water. I guess, that someone must have
donated the land as the only reason to have built a hospital on a small island
like this We do have a beautiful view however, and would be able to watch the
storm surge coming towards us if we had any spare time on our hands which isn't likely.

I live in Houston and this is precisely one of the reasons I am agency. to hell with a hospital, my family and I are bunkering down and riding the torm out. No way in the world would you find me at work during this storm or any like it. I have plenty of food, water and ammo...