#40: He simply makes me smile when I see him.

[PerusingOne]

Solo just texted that she has evacuated and is safe. She will check in after the storm.

[KAndre]

Well dang. Looks like waves are already coming over the seawall in Galveston. And they are making note that Ike is following along the path of the 1900 storm. Eeep. Well, at least Ike is still only a Cat 2....

[playbiller]

That is scarey - the beach is gone and waves are lapping at a high rise. People who didn't getout in time are being evacuated by helicopter, not exactly the cheap way. a few miles from the beach they say 70% evacuated. I hope taht is enough. I can't believe some people are trying to stay in Mobile homes. just thin tin cans. So easy to crush.

Haiti is frightning, I don't understand how people sourvive some places. I wonder if they undercounted the dead there.

be safe.

[Carolina Clay]

Good Morning, FCA! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Sending good thoughts for all our Gulf Coast members. I hope you all stay safe. :thbighug-1:

Hurricane Hazel hit when I was a kid. We lived 48 miles inland but still had flooding and trees down.

During my childhood, I lived through Hurricane Hazel in Wilmington, 10 miles from the coast.

That was always my guage for a dangerous storm until I rode out the F-5 Lubbock Tornado in a mobile home. Stupid move on my part. The devastation for the narrow strip of the city hit was unbelievable. I was working for the Lubbock newspaper, and -- like our home -- the office was dead center in the tornado path. The first couple of editions afterwards we sent our copy to the Amarillo paper to be printed.

I have a personal connection to Sept. 11, 2001, but thankfully not because I lost someone. My mom and I were watching the horror unfold on TV, much like everyone else. Except we were watching it in the waiting room of a doctor's office. She was there to see her oncologist for the first time after having been diagnosed with stage iv breast cancer and undergoing a double mastectomy. We both decided then and there, although we didn't speak about it until much later, that no matter what the doctor told us about her prognosis, it would be ok. Even if he said she only had a few weeks to live, it would be more time than those poor people in NY, DC and PA on that awful morning.

Seven years later, my mom is still here, cancer-free and one of my best Clay buds. I sent her flowers today. We'll never forget about all those who lost their lives, but it's nice to have something hopeful come out of that day.

annabear, thank you for sharing this beautiful story.

TGIF -- take care, all!

Caro

[Couch Tomato]

Well dang. Looks like waves are already coming over the seawall in Galveston. And they are making note that Ike is following along the path of the 1900 storm. Eeep. Well, at least Ike is still only a Cat 2....

thanks for checking in KAndre. Solo..yay you.

Good karma thoughts heading that way to everyone in the path.

Thanks for sharing your story Annabear.

[annabear]

I was watching the Weather Channel a bit this morning... :o Ike is SCARY. Still sending out {{{safe vibes}}} and prayers for all in the path. PLEASE check in when you can, or with someone who can check in for you. :thbighug-1:

Thanks for the comments on my story about my mom. I made the mistake of watching some 9/11 coverage last night right before trying to go to bed. I was a sobbing mess. I think having visited NY for the first time just a few months ago, it's still so fresh in my mind and seeing all of the videos from 2001, of and from places where we were, it was even more surreal.

Lack of sleep and a sinus headache have me dragging today. At least it's finally FRIDAY!

[Desertrose]

I am in mandatory evacuation zone. I should have evacuated yesterday at 12 pm. Because of the nightmare during Rita evacuation, I chose to stay. I am the only one left in my cul de sac. It was scary last night. This afternoon I will go to my son's house to ride out Ike. He and his family are a mile away and also in the mandatory evacuation zone. 75% of his neighbors chose to stay as opposed to all my neighbors evacuating. My granddaughter's future in laws, also in mandatory evacuation zone, evacuated to Dallas yesterday. It took them 12 hours to get to Dallas which is 4 hours away. They were scared to stay because during Alicia Hurricane, the roof came off their house.

This will be my first hurricane and hopefully it will fizzle out and turn into a category 1. So far it is a category 2 even though the news media keeps saying "possible category 3." I am close to the water but my house is supposed to be 36 feet above sea level so as far as storm surge, I should be ok. Have to wait and see. DIL is scared that we will be under water. Somehow, I don't think so. At this point all I can do is wait and see because we have definitely decided not to leave. I am surprised that Keepingfaith in League City was not under mandatory evacuation because League City is really close to the water. Go figure!

KF,

I have not been reading the board because I have been busy preparing for IKE, but I hope that you are ok wherever you are. I remember you posting that your father said he would not evacuate again. That is what I said, and at this point, I am sticking to it. Hope that I do not regret it too much. I am glad that Solo evacuated safely.

[merrieeee]

I hope all my fellow eHP peeps stay safe.

I've brought all my "stuff" from the outside in. I have enough water to float a battleship, lots of Smoked Salmon and Nutella.....hey I'm going to ride this out in style!

Desertrose if you have to leave your welcome to come to my place. I believe KF is in River Plantation with her sister.

[Desertrose]

I hope all my fellow eHP peeps stay safe.

I've brought all my "stuff" from the outside in. I have enough water to float a battleship, lots of Smoked Salmon and Nutella.....hey I'm going to ride this out in style!

Desertrose if you have to leave your welcome to come to my place. I believe KF is in River Plantation with her sister.

Thanks Merrieeee, I will keep your number handy just in case.

[Cotton]

Lack of sleep and a sinus headache have me dragging today. At least it's finally FRIDAY!

Oh, baby. I'm with ya' on the sinus headache. They are no fun and they can hang on for days.

:o

I hope all my fellow eHP peeps stay safe.

I've brought all my "stuff" from the outside in. I have enough water to float a battleship, lots of Smoked Salmon and Nutella.....hey I'm going to ride this out in style!

Oh, well. You are all set then!

ETA:

I have CNN on. Lordy! Ike practically fills the entire Gulf!

If I haven't already said so, Y'all be careful out there!

[Couch Tomato]

Desertrose!! Be careful. I'm glad you'll be with family.

[KAndre]

KAndre looks at merrieeee's post, grabs her Nutella and spoon (can you believe people take the time to put it ON stuff? Amateurs!), and settles comfortably in her chair...

Desertrose, as bad as the Rita evacation was (and that was a nightmare) - Alicia was worse. And 36 feet above sea level isn't all that much - downtown is 50 feet above sea level and the flooding during Allison was horrific. I'm keeping an eye out, and I'm nowhere near an evacuation zone, but by 6 this evening, if I'm at all a little worried, I'm heading to merrieee's (mainly because I will probably have run out of Nutella, and I would have to tie up and sit on my other north living friend in order to watch sufficient amounts of clack. Not that I wouldn't do it, but it might make things a little awkward.) People are already being airlifted from Galveston, because the water is coming up much faster that expected...and this isn't even really the storm surge yet.

[wandacleo]

Texas

[Couch Tomato]

posthoing to laugh with KAndre.

and to report that ALL IS WELL... ipod recharged. Two weeks without the voice? God it's gorgeous. I'll never take it for granted.

[annabear]

KAndre looks at merrieeee's post, grabs her Nutella and spoon (can you believe people take the time to put it ON stuff? Amateurs!), and settles comfortably in her chair...

Who would do something like that?!

God the voice is gorgeous. I'll never take it for granted.

A minor change = thread title?

*suddenly craving Nutella*

[heinz]

All those in the path of Ike- please stay safe!!

This is a very informative site for those wanting to watch the progress of Ike online:

http://www.intellicast.com/Storm/Hurricane...&type=track

[Cotton]

posthoing to laugh with KAndre.

and to report that ALL IS WELL... ipod recharged. Two weeks without the voice? God it's gorgeous. I'll never take it for granted.

Couchie, Clay was just helping me cut the grass! heh

Yup. Gorgeous!

[Gibby]

I'm still sending positive vibes to the eHP, DesertRose and anyone else in Ike's path. Stay safe!! *HUGS*

And YAY for Couchie's ipod!!

And now, I'm off to work, where I have to work on the booooorrrrring project some more. I don't mind it for awhile, but get so bored after several hours. My pocket pc is freshly charged so I can at least listen to Clay!

[playbiller]

If you are going to evacuate, leave now - don't wait any longer, it is bad. geeze the storm is bigger than Texas. Ifyou anighbors have left, it would be a good idea if youdo as well. being alone in a bad storm is not good.

Annabear's story reminded me of how my Mother fit in with my own personal luck since I worked in NYC most of my career. Living close, I knew people who were in the buildings, I worked with people who lost family, including one teen age boy who was called by his sister and didn't want to hang up the phone as if he could still have her after the connection was lost and we walked and worked in the stench for a week afterwards.

I did contract work where the contracts were for 6 months at a time, but most companies extended it enough so I stayed for years. In 1998, my Mother was getting older, I had spent some time talking to her about an extreme operation her doctor wanted her to have, and finally took her to my own doctor. My doctor told my Mom she would die in a few years without the operation, but she would most likely die or be hospitalized for the rest of her life from the operation, the success rate was small. So, my Mother decided not to have the operation, but the thought of her limited time stayed in my mind. In 2000, I was in a nice cushy job where people liked me and in the the 5th year of working for them, when I was told I had to convert to an employee (at a greatly reduced salary) or find another job. Well, I found another job, it was a 6 month contract in the North tower, with renewal a distinct possibility. She seemed to be failing, seemed to have more memory problems, whcih she tried to hide. I decided to become an employee, take the pay cut and be 20 minutes from her house rahter than take the NYC job, where it would take me longer to get to her house. Two weeks after I became an employee she had a stroke and I got there quick enough to get her to a better hospital than where the local the ambulance would take her. My Mom recovered from the stroke, and we had her for another year before she passed on early 2001. I stayed in the same job as we processed the will and everyone was so thouhtful (before the merger, ick), it was easier not to change jobs at that point. So in a way, everything that happened then was all mashed together in my mind and hard to separate the parts.

[muskifest]

All you Texans and Louisiannans (is that a word?)...PLEASE take the warnings seriously. Heinz...thanks for the link to that Intellicast site...it's very informative...

and scary.

You guys please keep us updated when you can, okay? :F_05BL17blowkiss:

[cindilu2]

Watching CNN and HN - man, the reality is bad enough - the (almost eager?) speculation of the newsmedia makes it so much worse.

Please stay safe, friends. :thbighug-1:

[luckiest1]

I can't watch the news coverage at work, but the articles CNN are posting are scaring me. Please stay safe everyone!

[Desertrose]

Watching CNN and HN - man, the reality is bad enough - the (almost eager?) speculation of the newsmedia makes it so much worse.

Please stay safe, friends. :thbighug-1:

I so agree about the news sources. I could do without the speculation. It is bad enough. At this time, my son and his family are not evacuating, so I can not leave them behind. I think that we will be all right. At least I hope that we will be all right. It is scary that they are comparing this storm to Carla. I am still in my house, but at 3PM son is picking me up and taking me to his house. He lives a mile away. He is an engineer who worked with Friendswood Corporation, which developed Clear Lake, and he says that we are high. Another engineer who lives in area and lived in same house he is living now during Carla and Alicia, says the same thing. He did not get any water. A tree did come down, but did not damage his house. He said he did not suffer any damage. That doesn't mean that we will not suffer damage this time. Sure hope that they are both right that we will be OK. I do not like that it is not raining yet but some of the bayous are not draining.

We will be in the big walk in closets (2) when Ike goes through. We will not be near windows or in any part of house that is close to live oak trees in case trees come down.

[jazzgirl]

<snip>

Annabear's story reminded me of how my Mother fit in with my own personal luck since I worked in NYC most of my career. <snip> In 1998, my Mother was getting older, I had spent some time talking to her about an extreme operation her doctor wanted her to have, and finally took her to my own doctor. My doctor told my Mom she would die in a few years without the operation, but she would most likely die or be hospitalized for the rest of her life from the operation, the success rate was small. So, my Mother decided not to have the operation, but the thought of her limited time stayed in my mind.

Play, thanks for sharing your story too. Sometimes, looking back, we can see how fate smiled on us in its own way. Other times, when everything goes wrong, we are left to ruminate on why bad things happen to good people (*useful book, BTW*). .

Hope those in Ike's path keep posting throughout the storm.

[playbiller]

It is probably too late to evacuate anyway, better that you be with someone, DesertRose rather than alone. Bring water and fill the bathtub incase you need to flush.