Ike

[filkertom]

Forecasters are warning that residents of Galveston Bay in Texas "face certain death" if they don't get the hell out of Ike's path NOW.

Not the kind of weekend forecast one likes to hear.

Anybody who's down that way, or within a few hundred miles (I'm lookin' at you, starcat_jewel, FenCon folks), PLEASE GET TO SAFETY NOW. And check in here so we know you're okay. (I saw that marcgunn and Andrew are going to be in Florida today, so I presume and hope they're fine. Steve Jackson, let us know what's goin' on, man.)

Comments

Fencon Folks

[the-blue-fenix.livejournal.com]

Speaking from Fencon, we're good. Dallas is many hours' hard driving north of the coast. (Texas. It's as big as a whole other country.) The Houston fans I for one know are scattering away from the coast with admirable speed.

What we're bracing for is evacuee traffic and ordinary heavy rains and winds. A couple of saplings in our yard, planted this spring, may need re-staking. Also we're rearranging stuff in the deep freeze in case the power goes out (more a rural thunderstorm issue than a hurricane-specific issue).

Whatsisname, Jim Cantrell, on the Weather Channel seemed just short of incoherent last night. I'm guessing single-digit hours of sleep in the last several days.

Re: Fencon Folks

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

About the same here in the Austin area. We're not so much worried about Ike as stuff that could happen as a consequence of Ike hitting the coast.

Re: Fencon Folks

[eleri.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* I get into Austin on Monday morning for GDC, and we're eyeing the whole thing with much trepidation. I have to call today and see if theyw ant to reroute my flight, since it's supposed to stop in houston.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Another Dallasite here. And I'm quite confident that nothing awful will happen to my house, because my housemate is ABSO-TOTALLY FREAKED about the storm and thus we will be horribly overprepared, just like we were for Rita.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

You mean like the SIX THOUSAND people who died in the Great Storm of Galveston in 1900? You'd think their great-great(great?) grandchildren would have learned something in the past 108 years.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Steve J., if you check in here, Loren's brother sez Hi and reiterates Tom's request.

[cainle-bean.livejournal.com]

we are at Ft. Hood. And this will be our first storm here. Neither of us is very worried, prepared, but not worried. Now all of the critters are making out like there is a good set of storms coming in, so the worst we have so far is nervous dogs, cats, and ferrets.

[marcgunn.livejournal.com]

yeah. looks like we might just be passing through devastation on the way home.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

We're staying put. It's the storm surge that's the killer, and it would take a tsunami-level wave to get this far in. We're boarding up the windows and taking all other appropriate precautions, but the prediction is that our part of the city will get no more than tropical-storm-level winds. Russ was at Ground Zero for Hurricane Andrew, so I trust his judgment on whether or not evac is necessary -- and the authorities here haven't called for it either.

Galveston, now that's a different story. Those people do need to get out; they're going to see 15-20 feet of storm surge. We're 50 miles inland.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Now, uh... What's this all you Texans were saying about climate change being a myth?

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

"Well, it is!" the hypothetical person replied. "This is just a regular weather cycle. It'll all calm down in five or ten years. Maybe fifteen or twenty, I don't know."

[caraig.livejournal.com]

... It's kind of a whole 'nother level of 'HOLY $#!^!' when forecasters use terms like 'face certain death....'

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Some of us up here are kind of wishing they hadn't.

'Cause when they use words like that and then something weird happens to blunt the worst of the damage, they lose tons of credibility. And I'd really rather not have to wish that there be casualties just to ensure people will listen to evacuation orders next time.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I'm about a hundred miles inland... surrounded by very tall trees with a tendency to shed limbs in ordinary thunderstorms. Local TV forecasters are predicting hurricane-force winds in my area- again, a hundred miles inland- for twelve hours solid.

I'm not looking forward to the next twenty-four hours.

[ms-dblk.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to know somebody actually lives there (just checked your profile). All I've ever met are the Escapee types... Hoping no tree limbs get in your immediate way (our pecans love to shed as well).

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

My sister checked in from one of the Houston suburbs around 8:30 last night.

She, her husband, and the cats are all fine, but they're under a curfew and aren't allowed to leave the house until 10 am Saturday.

An update...

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

starcat_jewel and her SO had a tree fall on their house, punching holes in the roof over their bedroom and computer room. They're currently without power, but otherwise all right- just very badly inconvenienced with some sincere water damage. Their business is going to suffer until they get power back and repairs are made.

My home is also without power, but the trees just missed me, so I and the CDs I just bought from you are quite all right indeed. }:-{D

Kris Overstreet