Hurricane Ike...

4 days ago, it looked like Hurricane Ike was heading for our area. With each passing day, the weather weasels moved the prediction further north in the Gulf. Now, we are just hours from Ike making landfall near Galveston Island. It is a HUGE strong Category 2 storm; winds are currently 110 mph, which will cause a great deal of damage. But the real situation here is going to be the storm surge. There are predictions of the surge running in excess of 20 feet in the Galveston Bay area. This is sure to create major havoc with the oil industry, driving fuel prices even higher. Galveston Island is already flooding (7:30 pm local time). Sadly, the worst of the surge is going to hit very near the time of high tide. This is going to be ugly.

Also, with the size of this storm, the affected area along the coast is going to stretch close to 300 miles from the eye.

We are now at a point where we can pretty safely say the Tropical Tip has dodged the bullet on this one. There is some surge predicted, 3-6 feet. We talked to neighbors today who said the water is already high (around noon today). It's not likely that it will top our seawall, but the beach on South Padre Island is seeing very large waves that are topping the sea wall in the Isla Blanca Park area.

We left Branson this morning and are back at the RV dealer in Ozark, MO, getting some minor shakedown stuff taken care of. Our experience with NuWa and this dealer have been very positive. We area going to stay here for a day or two... the lot is paved and sloped. Heavy rain is predicted for this area... yes, the remnants of Ike will come over this area on Sunday, bringing 8-12" of rain. The campground we were staying at in Branson was just a bit too close to the water for our comfort - the RV dealer's lot should be a good place to be until this rain spell passes. In the meantime, we have hookups, our satellite TV, and wireless broadband... even if we don't get out for a day or two, we're pretty self contained.

Our thoughts go out to those on the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast... it's going to be a long, nasty night for those in the path of Ike.