Ike

[longtooth]

Liberty, KBcraig, and anyone else within 20 miles of the coast will especially be in our thoughts and prayers. I anticipate roof damage and blown out windows in south east Ft Bend, but the coastal areas will be terrifying.

OOoooo, if the coast gets w/in 20 miles of KB there are a LOT of us in a heap O trouble.

[Sangiovese]

I feel for everyone in the affected areas. We're looking at 40-50 mph winds here and that's plenty bad for me :(

Just read a piece on CNN that made me kinda mad...

From a CNN article where they talk about some people being instructed to evacuate, and others told not to go.

Residents in safer parts of Houston were instructed to stay inside.
"We've asked people to hunker down," Emmett said.

Most law enforcement and rescue officials will start to leave Friday night, Emmett said, so residents will be on their own after that.

So they tell you to stay... then all the people who keep the peace take off, leaving everyone to fend for themselves. Just another reason why it is foolish and irresponsible to rely on the authorities to safeguard you and your family.

Personally, I think that it is fine for LEOs and emergency response people to get out of Dodge when an area is evacuated... but when citizens are told to stay, then it doesn't seem right for the law and order types to go.

[Wildscar]

Here is another cool tracker.

http://www.stormpulse.com/fullscreen/current" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rokyudai]

Aww great...now not only do we have a hurricane but a dang oil spill from all the mustache wax!

[WildBill]

Well, I am still here watching and waiting. So far just a little wind whipping up. I am as ready as I am going to get. Got some food, water, ice and plenty of ammo and praying for the best.

I had a good laugh watching Geraldo get dumped into the surf. What a weenie, just trying to get his mug on TV.

[jimlongley]

I went to Home Depot today. I don't plan to have a fraction of what is expected further south. I did think it would be good to get a good sized gas can and found the entire selection swiped with the exception of one 2 gallon can and a bunch of .5/1 gallon cans. Hanging on the shelves was a red flyer stating something to the effect that due to the hurricane, supplies were limited. Well, I got to thinking that they may have moved the inventory to stores that would likely sell more of them around this time rather than letting them sit up here. I'd like to think that they donated them but that's just naive on my part.

As a Home Depot associate I can assure you that while there has been some inter store transfer of items to meet storm related demand, most of the empty shelves are due to local shoppers. We have been out of generators since last week, and at this time there are none to be had this side of Wichita Falls.

Today's run has been on flashlights and batteries.

[Piney]

20:30 Baytown here-- N and E of Exxon Plant ( we can sit out back and watch the flares- Mr and Ms Excitement here eh ? ).

Just wind and not all that bad at the moment.

"Old" Baytown has got a good bit of power outages (lots of trees I guess) and some streets under water, with a few being impassable. Roseland Park on Cedar Bayou is under water.

[KBCraig]

Liberty, KBcraig, and anyone else within 20 miles of the coast will especially be in our thoughts and prayers.

OOoooo, if the coast gets w/in 20 miles of KB there are a LOT of us in a heap O trouble.

Yep, there's a reason I don't live near the beaches!

FYI, the coast is 300 miles from me. Our only storm surge is evacuees, but we do get a lot of rain after hurricanes pass inland.

Just today I was in Lowe's, and a couple at the next register were buying some things. I guess their payment method called for a phone number, so I nodded at them knowingly when the wife said "409-... "

[KD5NRH]

Today's run has been on flashlights and batteries.

How hard is it to have basic emergency supplies around all the time?

[anygunanywhere]

2:20 am Saturday. The eye is all the way past the island. The wind here is out of the North so the eye is East of me. The idjits on teevee say the wind is 45 mph in League City.

I beg to differ.

This is very humbling.

Power has cycled 20 times at least. My satellite receiver is tired of rebooting.

So far the house has stood up to the beating. I can see my pines in the front yard bending. Not much else iI can see. I can hear a lot.

I need to see if the water is rising. The Harris County flood gauges have ceased updating. I need to know what Clear Creek is doing.

If anyone thinks this is fun they are not sane.

Anygunanywhere

[longtooth]

Thank you anygun.
Exectricity has cycled once here in Lufkin now.
04:30 & it is starting to blow pretty good now. Looks like it is our turn to join you for a while. Yall have taken a pretty rough beating & looks like for a few more hrs until relief.
Prayers for your area still. Storm safety & aftermath watchfulness & safety.
LT

[jlangton]

Lost power here in Warren at 4am. Wind is wild,my best estimates are 75-85mph gusts,and 30-40mph steady. Lots of limbs down,but unlike Rita,few entire trees toppled as of yet. Wind tossed the kid's playset/swing around like a tinkertoy-I might be able to patch it up.No damage to the old house so far,but this is far from over here-we're on the east side,and the eyewall is only 30-40 mies away from what I can tell. I'm running the DSL modem on the UPS Battery backup to get updates on radar and the Laptop on battery power-I'm gonna leave the generator off until the weather lightens up some.
It's kinda hairy,but not as bad as Rita was by far.
JL

[nuparadigm]

At 0840 in Western Fort Bend County, the Big Deal is past. Lost electricity 2x and 3 1/2 shingles blew off the roof.

[longtooth]

Elcetricity has cycled several times here now. Daughter & S.I.L. are out of power & have reported a tornado so starting to see some damage here. They are about 7 miles from us.
Wind is steady & gusting hard here.
I can now see a neighbors solid fence completely down on one side & the other 2 almost on the ground. Report of trees down & I am sure there are. None that we can see from the house yet.
We are only in the start of it yet. I figure the main wind should be here from about 1:00pm to 5 or 6 pm. Rain from then until it is over. We live litterally "on the hill." We will never be flooded by high water. Maybe from a hole in the roof. When this is over I expect to not be able to get out for several hrs due to high water around us.
So far we have had power better than I thought.
Report again later.
LT