Hurricane Ike update

All the major TV stations in the area are doing continual news coverage of Hurricane Ike. The latest news is that the eye of the storm will make landfall at Galveston. The county to the left of Galveston Bay is Brazoria County. We live in Fort Bend County directly north of Brazoria County. All of Brazoria County is under a mandatory evacuation. Fort Bend County WILL get hurricane force winds of 75 to 85 miles per hour as the storm travels inland (we are about 50 miles in from the coast). What we are hoping is that we will be on the left side of the eye. The right side is considered the ‘dirty side’ of the storm.
I just learned that a storm surge does not mean waves but rather a dome of water. Through mathematical computations scientists have been able to determine that it takes a strong category 4 or category 5 hurricane to produce 20 foot storm surges. But they are forecasting 18 to 20 foot storm surges for Hurricane Ike which is still a category 2 hurricane. This is possible because of the size of this hurricane. It has not formed a well developed eye, pulling in it’s ‘arms’ to spin faster at the vortex and so the size of the storm is capable of bringing 20 foot storm surges. Then 20 foot waves will be on top of the storm surge. Oh and it will make landfall at high tide. Right now the storm surge is at four to five feet high at Galveston. Part of the island is under water. The highways are still open for motorists to leave if they haven’t already done so. News helicopters are still able to fly over the island but will have to stop when the winds are sustained above 35 mph.
Wal Mart and HEB are closed. The gas stations on Highway 6 are out of gas, or they were last night. It’s possible that they have been refilled. Mayor White of Houston said that we have 400% of the typical amount of gas in our area for this storm. Highway 6 is a major evacuation route for most of Brazoria County. So we are to “Shelter in Place”.
Missouri City Mayor Allen Owens just issued a curfew for our city from now until Monday the 15th, sundown to sunrise.
So while we still have power, we are washing all our clothes, baking some mixed berry pies, and cleaning house.
Calling on the land line (home phone) will only get you a ‘all lines are busy now’ message. We have gotten calls on the cell phone though.
We’ll keep you posted.
Love,
Veniece