Hurricane Ike (calling FL/hurricane peeps)

[Shoopy]

As of yesterday it turned into a cat 4. Florida is in the 5 day forecast cone still. The Miami Herald says the cone has a huge margin of error so here''s hoping for the best. But it looks like Cuba and Bahamas have a high chance of being hit

It''s a massive storm. I''ve never been through a 4 and don''t have the desire to

Anyway, we don''t have shutters

The FI was supposed to install last year but we didn''t get hit with any storms so we bailed

. His parents have shutters and they prep the house pretty well but if it does hit and its a 4, I''m hightailing out of here.

Are you guys worried at all or are you thinking it''ll switch course?

 

[jcrow]

yikes! board up and get out.
we just returned from fleeing from gustav. not fun, but i''d rather watch it from afar. no way i''d want to stay for a 3, 4 or 5 storm! scary stuff.

 

[Shoopy]

How was the evacuation process? We were talking about our plan yesterday and there''s a lot to think about. We know what we would take from the house if we had to leave but the headache is deciding which cars and who comes with us. I also have two brothers in different cities for college so we''d have to figure out transportation for them.

 

[bebe]

The long lines of traffic leaving the HOuston area, getting back into Lousiana was awful. Then when the poor folks got closer to their homes, they found no gas stations open due to no electricity.

My thoughts go out to those dealing with all this. Ike is a huge threat, we are watching it carefully. We are leaving for NYC on Monday 8th and I''m concerned
the rains from Hannah will reach us there. Then we have to watch Ike and see if it makes it into the Gulf. But I''m afraid the islands and Florida are sitting ducks.

 

[starsapphire]

It is still fairly far away as of Thursday. We won''t know until prolly Sunday or Monday. I am just outside Tampa. I think going thru a Tropical Storm is enough for me! Heck, some of our afternoon storms are pretty bad!

 

[Shoopy]

bebe-That sounds awful

For Katrina we waited from 3AM until about noon to fill up on gas. Major chaos. My car was on empty by the time I got to the pump. My poor FI (bf at the time) had to push my car while I drove his to fill up. I have never been without at least half a tank of gas since then.

Date: 9/4/2008 1:09:21 PM
Author: starsapphire
It is still fairly far away as of Thursday. We won''t know until prolly Sunday or Monday. I am just outside Tampa. I think going thru a Tropical Storm is enough for me! Heck, some of our afternoon storms are pretty bad!

My coworkers and I were talking about this right after gustav. Right around 3 we get these awful showers that are worse than a TS.

 

[Shoopy]

This was just sent to me so I have to share

:

As we watch the progress of the storm, the following are the firm''s guidelines based upon the hurricane''s intensity:
Hurricane Category #1 –
No excuse for being late. Leave earlier to give extra time to avoid fallen trees and limbs.
Hurricane Category #2 –
Due to the horizontal rain, you may wear jeans.
Hurricane Category #3 –
Whereas most of the downtown area will be flooded we suggest you avoid wearing open toe sandals when coming to work. Canoes will be provided to those that park in Garage so as to get to the building safely without getting wet.
Hurricane Category #4 –
More than likely there will be no electricity. Given that, we will have manual typewriters available to all staff members. Ladies, please take extra caution and wear water-proof make-up if Category 4 or above.
Hurricane Category #5 –
Velcro will be provided to keep you attached to your chairs when the windows blow out. For those that survive, we will have chocolate cake from Publix at 3:00 pm in the kitchen.

 

[meresal]

Well, it just keeps turning towards us

... so much for that high/low(??) coming off of Florida, that they said was going to push it to Northern Mexico and Southern Texas.

Jcrow, is anyone there worried that it is going to keep turning and hit the Louisianna coast?

 

[LuckyTexan]

They are saying it''s going to hit close to US... We are just southwest of Houston. We are prepping for a cat 3 in all counties up to Harris.

News is updating us, but not fast enough! They keep saying stuff over and over and over, and even the national weather service''s trackers are updating every like 5 hours! Annoying! We want LIVE coverage! LOL!

 

[meresal]

I thought you were on the north side??? odd... We must be municipal neighbors. We're about 30 miles SE though.

I just got word that NASA has closed for the rest of the week. We are unhooking all of our electronics to take them to FI's parents house a little more inland (we don't have renter's insurance

) and are just getting everything worth moving, off the ground. This is my first hurricane, and I'm guessing it's one of yours as well.

I still think that if the "line" has moved this far towards the east in one day, that there is still a chance it will keep shifting and past us to the Louisianna border... who knows though. I'm with you, I really wish they would update these news casts. Apparently the city is having non-stop meetings, so why aren't we getting updates?

 

[loriken214]

I live in Katy, TX and we are preparing for high winds and lots of rain. My family and I survived Hurricane Alicia, Cat 3, which hit Houston in 1983. Our neighbor''s tree fell on our power/telephone lines and we were without power for 10 days and phone service for 7 days. It was during the heat of late August, but we made it. Houston/Galveston took a direct hit and there was lots of damage, but we did the best we could.

Fill your gas tanks, get lots of bottled water and non perishable foods, battery operated radio, flashlight, etc. Make sure you have all of your medicines, pet food, etc. Bring in all of your outdoor items that might blow around....even a little bit of wind can send them flying away. Most of all, don''t panic. If you aren''t asked to evacuate, then decide if you should sit in the traffic or not. We live right off of I-10 West and don''t plan on going anywhere. I refuse to sit in that traffic, but that''s ME.

Lori

 

[bebe]

We live in the north/east side of Houston. (KW for those who know Houston) Scared to say the least. But hubby and I are in NYC. Due to fly home Sunday am. Guess that won''t happen.
Our house has french doors, 8 pairs across the front. That bothers me - afraid they will be blown in. We have massive trees on our property. During Alicia, we had 5 trees
on our house and I said we would never go through that again. I''m so worried I can''t enjoy being in NYC.

 

[Shoopy]

I saw the news this morning that it is headed towards Houston. Stay safe everyone and listen to the evacuation orders!!

 

[appletini]

Well I''m at work today, I''m surprised they haven''t dismissed us yet, b/c usually they take the precassion and close all the offices. I''m near Meyerland, but our house was built in 1956 and has made it through Carla and Alicia unscathed. Old man next door has been there for over 30 years, said during Alicia when the eye passed over he went out and did yardwork until it started up again. DH is making his second trip to Lowe''s in less than 24 hours...he''s in full panic mode...I on the other hand and am trying to remain calm so I can still enjoy myself until if/when the chaos starts. Hoping it will full a Rita go super nort east and the last minute.

I think the name of the thread needs to be changed to Texas peeps.

 

[meresal]

**Update** I''m taping windows, packing boxes to take to the storage facility, and taking everything off the ground.

Found out this morning at 7, on the way downtown for work mind you

, that my zip is mandatory evac, 77058. FI''s mom, his grandparents and I have our hotel rooms set in Austin and will be leaving early this afternoon. FI and his dad will be securing everything at the company (oil, so there''s pipes and material everywhere) and will be meeting us up in ATX late tomorrow, hopefully.

I hope that everyone stays safe, it''s just going to be way to dangerous to stay down here near the coast where we are. We''re about 3 miles inland of Kemah. My prayers are with everyone and your families.

 

[loriken214]

My DH is running all over the place and is driving me nuts! I''m calm, at least for now. We''re on the dirty side of the storm and are supposed to be getting 80 to 90 mph winds and lots of rain. Katy is about 85 miles from the coast.

We''re going to secure my late parents'' house which is located in the Spring Branch part of Houston. It is the one we rode Hurricane Alicia out in. I went outside during the eye of the storm and it was really quiet and peaceful until the winds started up again and the rain began stinging as it blew in.

Prayers for all who will be going through Hurricane Ike!

Lori

 

[appletini]

I just found out our friends around the corner got a gernerator! office closes at noon.

 

[Courtneylub]

Date: 9/11/2008 9:39:24 AM
Author: appletini
Well I''m at work today, I''m surprised they haven''t dismissed us yet, b/c usually they take the precassion and close all the offices. I''m near Meyerland, but our house was built in 1956 and has made it through Carla and Alicia unscathed. Old man next door has been there for over 30 years, said during Alicia when the eye passed over he went out and did yardwork until it started up again. DH is making his second trip to Lowe''s in less than 24 hours...he''s in full panic mode...I on the other hand and am trying to remain calm so I can still enjoy myself until if/when the chaos starts. Hoping it will full a Rita go super nort east and the last minute.

I think the name of the thread needs to be changed to Texas peeps.

We are in the Meyerland area of Houston too. Still close enough to the coast to get the strong stuff. DH is out shopping and has been to Home Depot. Good thing we have them out doing that stuff huh?

I wish they would hurry and send the email out that we''re closed tomorrow. I doubt we will get to leave early today which ticks me off. We should be able to in order to prepare for this. We shall see.

 

[luckystar112]

Date: 9/11/2008 11:04:45 AM
Author: meresal
**Update** I''m taping windows, packing boxes to take to the storage facility, and taking everything off the ground.

Found out this morning at 7, on the way downtown for work mind you

, that my zip is mandatory evac, 77058. FI''s mom, his grandparents and I have our hotel rooms set in Austin and will be leaving early this afternoon. FI and his dad will be securing everything at the company (oil, so there''s pipes and material everywhere) and will be meeting us up in ATX late tomorrow, hopefully.

I hope that everyone stays safe, it''s just going to be way to dangerous to stay down here near the coast where we are. We''re about 3 miles inland of Kemah. My prayers are with everyone and your families.

Aw Meresal have a safe trip to Austin!

45 looks like a complete mess right now, not sure about the other roads. I''m assuming you''ll take the beltway to 290? Definitely research those back roads!

I''m on the north side, and it appears that my classes have been cancelled (I go to a satellite school for UHD located in the woodlands, but my classes are interactive TV, so my profs are down there). Well, only one is cancelled, but I''m not sure if I should even attempt to go north right now.

Here is Houston traffic updated in real time. Hopefully this will help someone

http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/layers/

 

[luckystar112]

style="WIDTH: 99%; HEIGHT: 95px">Date: 9/11/2008 11:48:23 AM
Author: Courtneylub




I wish they would hurry and send the email out that we''re closed tomorrow. I doubt we will get to leave early today which ticks me off. We should be able to in order to prepare for this. We shall see.

Court...my boss is a joke. I work for a company that helps pipelines comply with government standards, so we have tons of information on when inspections are do...etc.
He told us that he is going to get back to us later in case he needs us to go there and help him back all of the computers and sensitive information. Mostly everyone I work with is located in the Med Center and he''s all the way up in Tomball. I know in the middle of a hurricane the first thing I''M going to think of is going to work.

 

[Courtneylub]

Lucky, I know!!! We found out that we open all day today and that we''re closed tomorrow. Are you kidding me??? I work near Willowbrook but live in southwest Houston. Just because 85% of the employees here live on the side of town, doesn''t mean everyone should stay at work! It''s ridiculous. I work at an oil and gas corp. and every other company is closed for the rest of today! BP, Marathon, etc.

Grrrrr.

Meresal, have a safe trip to Austin! We would be going there too, but I think we are in a safe area where we can just board up.

 

[LuckyTexan]

Date: 9/11/2008 2:02:15 PM
Author: Courtneylub
Lucky, I know!!! We found out that we open all day today and that we''re closed tomorrow. Are you kidding me??? I work near Willowbrook but live in southwest Houston. Just because 85% of the employees here live on the side of town, doesn''t mean everyone should stay at work! It''s ridiculous. I work at an oil and gas corp. and every other company is closed for the rest of today! BP, Marathon, etc.

Grrrrr.

Meresal, have a safe trip to Austin! We would be going there too, but I think we are in a safe area where we can just board up.

HOW southwest are you? You hear the reports for SL? 95mph winds!!!

 

[LuckyTexan]

Date: 9/11/2008 12:39:13 AM
Author: meresal
I thought you were on the north side??? odd... We must be municipal neighbors. We''re about 30 miles SE though.

I just got word that NASA has closed for the rest of the week. We are unhooking all of our electronics to take them to FI''s parents house a little more inland (we don''t have renter''s insurance

) and are just getting everything worth moving, off the ground. This is my first hurricane, and I''m guessing it''s one of yours as well.

I still think that if the ''line'' has moved this far towards the east in one day, that there is still a chance it will keep shifting and past us to the Louisianna border... who knows though. I''m with you, I really wish they would update these news casts. Apparently the city is having non-stop meetings, so why aren''t we getting updates?

We live on the east side of SugarLand... my aunt works at NASA... long history of family members there too... do you work at NASA?

 

[iwannaprettyone]

So many Texans!

We should get some rain in DFW and possibility of high winds.

 

[LuckyTexan]

Date: 9/11/2008 8:16:58 AM
Author: bebe
We live in the north/east side of Houston. (KW for those who know Houston) Scared to say the least. But hubby and I are in NYC. Due to fly home Sunday am. Guess that won''t happen.
Our house has french doors, 8 pairs across the front. That bothers me - afraid they will be blown in. We have massive trees on our property. During Alicia, we had 5 trees
on our house and I said we would never go through that again. I''m so worried I can''t enjoy being in NYC.

From what local news is saying, you''re far enough north to not have to worry about it.
BTW... we are looking to build on a lot in the Atascocita neighborhood... we''d be neighbors

 

[appletini]

Courtney, you can add Chevron to that list too. I just got back from making a spec''s run...most important part of hurricane preparedness

Beau got a generator so if your power goes out go over there

 

[Lexie]

Well.. I live in the Gallera Area of Houston, which I'm sincerely hoping is inland enough to avoid any sort of catastophic damage

-crosses fingers- Went to Home Depot, Target, and a nearby convenience store for practically all of the hurricane necessities earlier this morning/afternoon. That part of the day was a piece of cake. Getting gas, however, was a complete and utter nightmare and took foreeeeeever

However, we did finally fill up our Escape and four five-gallon gas cans. At this point, I guess we're just going to have to wait and see how everything pans out. My house survived Tropical Storm Allison and Hurricane Rita unscathed, and that trend better continue..

I hope that all of my fellow Houstonians and Texans will stay safe! Best of luck to y'all!

 

[loriken214]

DH just went out for more supplies, AGAIN, and was told that he has to work tomorrow and Saturday! Are you kidding me...his boss has never been through a hurricane and has NO CLUE!!!!

I''m staying home with the furbabies and will ride out the storm here. Katy is expecting 95 mph winds and heavy rains. We will probably lose power right away and our roof will suffer and may even leak. That is my worst fear....water damage from a leaky roof or overflow of the drainage ditch that is behind our house. We live in Cinco Ranch and there is a HUGE bayou/ditch/culvert behind our house and I''ve only seen it fill up once where the water came into our back yard. There is a good possibility that it may do that this time.

We''ve already gotten some rain and wind from the outter bands....this storm is HUGE!

Jamie, from Whiteflash, sent me an email wishing us the best during the storm....they are so awesome!

Best of luck to everyone as we go through the storm!

Lori

 

[LuckyTexan]

Date: 9/11/2008 8:50:43 PM
Author: loriken214
DH just went out for more supplies, AGAIN, and was told that he has to work tomorrow and Saturday! Are you kidding me...his boss has never been through a hurricane and has NO CLUE!!!!

I'm staying home with the furbabies and will ride out the storm here. Katy is expecting 95 mph winds and heavy rains. We will probably lose power right away and our roof will suffer and may even leak. That is my worst fear....water damage from a leaky roof or overflow of the drainage ditch that is behind our house. We live in Cinco Ranch and there is a HUGE bayou/ditch/culvert behind our house and I've only seen it fill up once where the water came into our back yard. There is a good possibility that it may do that this time.

We've already gotten some rain and wind from the outter bands....this storm is HUGE!

Jamie, from Whiteflash, sent me an email wishing us the best during the storm....they are so awesome!

Best of luck to everyone as we go through the storm!

Lori

Lori,
We live on man made lakes... with a bulk head... I've seen water in my yard a few times after a good rain... but never up to the house... we are like a good 5' UP from the water!

I think all these Houston area PS's need to get together at the Galleria one day when we aren't being blown away... we can all drool over Debeers haha!

 

[LuckyTexan]

So far so good! Best updates I''ve found is www.myfoxhoustonlive.com Has streaming news and webcams all over... and an interactive chat between newscasters and the public!