IKE.... YIKES!

MommyToAshley wrote: I know we have a few of you on here from the Texas area (Jimmie, Abbie) and I thought of all of you when I was watching the news this morning. "Forecasters warned because of Ike's size and the shallow Texas coastal waters, it could produce a surge, or wall of water, 20 feet high, and waves of perhaps 50 feet."

You all are in our thoughts and prayers. STAY SAFE!!!

Our Lil' Family replied: Yes, please stay safe! We started feeling the winds this morning...already lost power for 2 hours and I'm like 5 hours away from Houston. This thing is MASSIVE!

lisar replied: Stay safe

MommyToAshley replied: I just saw this... OMG

mckayleesmom replied: I hope they all evacuated

danahas4monkeys replied: My cousin lives in Houston and was going to ride it out but has decided to evacuate. Stay safe to all of you down there.

A&A'smommy replied: its scary I have been keeping an eye on it today I really hope it doesn't do the damage they think its going to do!! My prayers with Jimmie and Abbie!!

grandma replied:
Just talked to my girlfriend in Houston, her work place sent them all home yesterday. She's not going anywhere, normally Houston's damage is only wind and rain. She said she almost went to a hurricane party last night, but decided to stay home instead (I remember those from when I lived there..lol).

mummy2girls replied: is thsi one worse than katrina?

MommyToAshley replied:
It is not as strong as far as winds, but it is much much larger in size. (Ike is only a cat 2, but expected to be at least a cat 3 when it hits). From what I understand from the news, it's the size of it that makes for larger storm surges which is the leading cause of death in hurricanes. They said the waves could get up to 20-50ft... can you imagine???

lisar replied:
I dont wanna imagine.

Yall all stay safe.

grandma replied:
Yes, it is bigger than Katrina, it covers 85% of the gulf, going from Galvestons Bay to Port Authur. It's HUGE.....

luvmykids replied: I tried calling Jimmie and haven't heard back, but they were planning on leaving sometime yesterday. The good news for her is it's farther east than originally anticipated so hopefully her area won't get hit too hard.

mom21kid2dogs replied: We were watching some of the coverage earlier on TWC~scary looking stuff!! Hope you all stay safe.

Hurricane funny~while we were watching it Olivia said "Mom, i know how to be safe in a tornado and a lightning but what do I do if a hurricane comes here?" I told her "You might want to pray honey~we live in Ohio!"

MommyToAshley replied:
Ashley asked the same thing about hurricanes, but my answer was no where near as clever as your answer. Too cute.

Calimama replied: My family is going home today (they are from Corpus Christi) I guess it's supposed to hit more of Galveston than Corpus.

grandma replied:
I can't believe they are going home today. Corpus isn't far enough away from Galveston for me!

Maddie&EthansMom replied: Yep, it's projected to hit us pretty hard as well (North Texas). High winds and thunderstorms (possible tornadoes) and loss of power. It's already raining here, I can't imagine what it's like on the coast. When I was at Wal Mart there were a lot of evacuees there shopping.

They say the warmer the water, the faster it grows. So we know it's really thriving in the Gulf. Hopefully it doesn't gain any speed.

grandma replied:
My friend in Houston said the Walmart there closed for the storm LAST night, the windows were boarded up......that's scary!

luvmykids replied:
Tell them to BE CAREFUL, they just said nobody on the Gulf is safe from the possible flooding. It's a HUGE storm....covering 40% of the Gulf right now.

grandma replied:
Off topic - did you grow up in Corpus Christi? It's beautiful there!

A&A'smommy replied: ok now they are saying it wont be a cat 3 but that it is still predicted to be BAD

CantWait replied:
WOW that picture while beautiful is horrific.

Stay safe everyone that is in Ike's way.

Kentuckychick replied: I've been home sick with tonisilitis today so I've watched a lot of news and I'm just amazed and devastated for the folks who live in those areas.

My grandfather was supposed to be flying home from Houston yesterday but they told him to stay put, that all flights have been canceled and it could be as late as next weekend before he can come home. So far he said it's just very windy there.

I couldn't believe when they said that approximately 46% of Galveston residents have STAYED on the island. I do feel for those people, but honestly... that disgusts me. This is no Katrina. There's been a TON of fair warning. They've known this is going to be bad for well over a week and even as far as this morning they were urging them to evacuate and even PROVIDING them with the means to do so. Fema's not going to take the brunt of it this time when these people end up dead (and I hate to even think it but that's what they've been saying all day... "Leave of you may very well die"). I just don't understand this at all. I was watching a few hours ago and a group of people were sitting at a bar patio right on the beach there in galveston drinking. Sadly my only thought was... maybe they'll die to drunk to remember.

A hurricane is the ONE natural disaster that affords individuals the time to get far enough away to be safe. I'll never understand why people don't take the chance.

I'll definitely be praying for all of them...

grandma replied: That's exactly why I never really understood the good ole 'Hurricane Party'. I guess there are many reasons ppl stay and won't leave; money, illness, lack of common sense, stubborness and who knows what other reasons.
God bless Texas!

punkeemunkee'smom replied: Thank ya'll for the concern and prayers! We are at home -the storm moved way north of where it was supposed to come in which was good news for us. We will get lots of rain and tropical storm force winds coming in tonight but better than the 100+ mph they were calling for. Jimmie and family evacuated yesterday although it doesn't look like they will be hit as hard either-Thank God! They are at their destination safe and sound! I will keep you updated as long as I can...we may lose power but we are hoping not!

MommyToAshley replied: Thanks for checking in and updating us. You know us, we're a bunch of worriers. We'll probably still worry about all of you, just not quite as much now.

Stay safe.

skinkybaby replied: I live 20, 30 minutes from Galveston. We evacuated, but a lot of our friends stayed. I don't understand people living in Galveston not evacuating, but after Hurricane Rita Houston experienced the largest evacuation in the history of the United States. It took us 25 hours to travel what should have taken us 4 hours. And after all of that gridlock Rita missed Houston. So a lot of people would rather take their chances at home than be stuck on the roads when Ike makes/made landfall.

Now I'm just waiting for the storm to pass so I start calling and checking on people. Thank goodness for cell phones!

MommyToAshley replied: I'm glad you evacuated too. I don't understand people in Galveston staying either. But, at least the storm surge wasn't as bad as they originally predicted. I hope your friends are all ok.

P.S. Is that picture in your siggy the view where you live? If so, I can see putting up with a few hurricanes for paradise.

BAC'sMom replied:
I am not sure why people stay. Sometimes they are just stubborn, sometimes they don’t have the means to leave. I will say though that one should not compare hurricanes. EVERY storm is different that is why they receive a individual name. You never know what a storm is going to do ill regardless of the category. Katrina made the 2nd landfall as a Catagory 3. But of course she was one of the costliest hurricanes as well as one of the five deadliest.