Well y'all, it looks like hurricane Ike is coming my way, and even worse for those in South and East Texas, like wsoape281.
I'm @ home today and planning to batten down as many hatches as possible... tomorrow even more so.
Ike is supposed to come ashore and into Central Texas by Saturday. Winds of up to 111 mph (Cat 3) are possible, though 40-50 mph are more likely here. We live up on higher ground and are surrounded by valleys so hopefully we will be spared the worst of it, especially the flooding possibility. But we will likely lose power for a time.
I normally have about a <20 mile hike to workbut have already spoken to my bosses about the possibility of not making it in on Saturday as planned/scheduled.

Wes! Best of luck to you, Bud, and anyone else that's near Galveston, the Valley or Houston.

Just some rambling thoughts on the subject.

 

we should be alright, but thanks for the concern. we live up on fairly high ground and have double paned storm windows on every opening. our house hasn't flooded yet, but you never know. after a few storms, you start to get a little callused to the whole thing. we have food, water, gas powered stove and water heater, and plenty of candles. every time that we try to evacuate, we get stuck in traffic and can't get anywhere, so that isn't going to happen again. if worse comes to worst, we can go to my shop where there is a generator and it is a good and high off sea level.

 

The most we get up here from the 'canes is some flooding...and I live about a block from the NYB. Best of luck to you both though. You can always just call Siber and have him get you from TN in his F150.

 

definintely be safe V1. the rain is supposed to be starting here tomorrow, so i just put the turbo II to bed and parked the p5 close enough to the house to help protect it. i am sure that insurance can fill in the blanks if anything happens, but it can't replace all of us. be safe to all of you in texas.

 

Yeah, where has Ken been anyway? I've been thinking about him lately too?
I think we'll be all right here. We too live up high (for Texas) on a hill w/trees all around us, but none too close to the house. I am worried aboutthe one next to the shed though??? It's ready to go but it should fall backward, away from the building (I hope.)
I don't think they're expecting the rain to start here until tomorrow night some time, but winds are supposed to pick up during the day.
It's gonna be a long day @ work tomorrow though...... (Grocery business.)

 

Keep your heads down guys....good luck.

 

we went down by the water to see what the surge was up to. got some pics that i will post up later. this storm is a lot less powerful than they thought it would be originally, but we are now on the dirty side of the storm where we could have negative surge (run-off)on the island and all of the wind will be from the north. it looks like we are dodging new bullets on an hourly basis and they are expecting it to cut back to category 1 by the time houston gets the worst of it.

 

Battened down hatches ain't gonna do sh#t versus 20 foot waves, or 24 inches of rain in 24 hours.

 

we are faring pretty well so far, although i am almost out of juice. i will soon have to drink my vodka straight.

 

Luck favors the prepared ... fail to prepare, is preparing to fail ... you got ice?