The Sewing Mom

Hurricane Ike will be making landfall tonight in and around Galveston. 60% of Galveston’s population has evacuated while the remaining 40% opted to stay put and attempt to ride it out. I hope they have a good boat because with a 17-20 ft. surge, pretty much everything on the island will be under water.

Upon making landfall, the hurricane is expected to take a slight turn and head north over Houston, the 4th largest city in the United States. We lived in Houston for many years, and still have friends there. We’ve been able to touch base with some and have even offered our home as a refuge if they need it, although, for their sake, I hope they don’t. They will suffer the most from the high winds which will cause trees to come down and power to go out.

The storm will, at some point, downgrade to a tropical storm and that is what we’re expecting to see here in the Dallas area sometime tomorrow afternoon. We have been instructed to tie down anything and everything that is remaining outside so that our patio furniture and trash cans don’t become projectiles in the high winds. This is one of the few times I’m thankful that we don’t have any tall trees, but I will be praying that we don’t sustain any damage, particularly to our home.

I’ve purchased fresh batteries for the flash lights, stocked up on bottled water and filled our gas tanks. At this point, the only thing we can do is wait. It’s times like these that I wonder why we didn’t buy a house on Maryland Golf Courses or in the mountains with a view.

By the way, were you aware that you can visit LocalGolfConditions.com to find a comprehensive database of all area public golf courses in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. These databases are interactive and reviews are created by other golfers. In other words, at they say at LocalGolfConditions.com, this is “a website for the public golfer, by the public golfer”.

Texas is under severe weather alerts and keeping a weather eye on Hurricane Ike, currently in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ike will more than likely make landfall sometime early Saturday morning and then move quickly north covering most of East Texas, including the Dallas area.  While Ike is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it moves across land, but Dallas can expect 4-6 inches or more of rainful, gusty winds and toranadoes may develop.  We may expect sustained winds of anywhere from 30-50 mph.

Needless to say, we will be battening down the hatches and pulling in all of the patio furniture.  We are receiving direction to tie down or put away anything that is not permanently attached.  Right now, we are definitley experiencing the calm before the storm.