It's always that way before a hurricane hits land, in my experience, and I've been through about a dozen.

My brother, who lives in Friendswood, has evacuated to his sister-in-law's house in The Woodlands. Certainly, he will escape the flood surge as that is higher ground; however, I'm not sure he will escape the wind damage that a hurricane of this size causes when it moves on land and starts snapping 130' pine trees like toothpicks.

Lots of folks left from Beaumont down to Port Aransas yesterday, so those who want to change their minds and leave now should still be able to get out in time if they make up their minds in the next hour or so. For anyone who is still on Galveston Island, GET OUT NOW!

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Can they still do so? I heard a report that I-45 was flooded out in spots.

Looks like I-45 is still passable:

http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/c...ml?mnu=freeway

Click on IH-45 Gulf

Check out the cams near the bottom of the list...they are on Galveston Island.

The Galveston FD is reporting that water is rising abut a foot every 15-20 minutes. Keep in mind landfall is still ~12 hours away.

For the sake of comparison, Biloxi started flooding about 7 hours before Katrina's landfall.

Some officials predict that Galveston will be inundated for 12 hours. Based on predicted surge and reports of what happened in 1900, that is a possibility.

We are quite far from Ike but the gas stations here are all up $0.25 since last night. I filled my car last night, the wife filled hers this morning, and I looked at both receipts (same station). Hmmm.

I think that the gas stations are allowed to recoup increased transportation costs to bring the gasoline in, but no more than that. If it gets worse, keep records and report them to the Consumer Affairs department after the storm.

Yeah, that can happen when diminishing supply hits a greater demand. The refineries were shut down in the last two days, so with the unknown prospect of when they might open again, it's going to be a seller's market for awhile.

Not sayin' it's right in a situation like this, but without the government stepping in and freezing gasoline prices, the free market economy will tend to take over. Fortunately, being well-versed in this, I suggested to the wife that we both fill our tanks yesterday when everybody started moving north from the coast. It was still the same price as last weekend when we did.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

We're a little closer to the GOM than MSO. The discount stations look to be jumping 10 cents/gallon as they get new product......from $2.45 to $2.55/gal.

Almost 20% of US refining capacity has been shut down, and crack spread has been quite low this year.

Accordign to the mayor of Galveston, ~40% of Galveston residents have decided to stay and ride it out. This same mayor is already in CYA mode, saying that Ike wasn't forecast to their area and "took a turn" to surprise them.

We may have thousands dead again, ala Katrina.

Wow. There's approximately 60,000 people who live in Galveston proper and another 190,000 that live in Galveston county. If we just count those living in Galveston, that's 24,000 people riding out the storm, which is potentially four times as many as were killed in the 1900 storm that hit the island.

Oh well. I guess you can't save people from their own stupidity. There was plenty of warning this time.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Ugh... I was wondering why my nose has been bleeding for almost 24 hours.

Winds look to be picking up here... its hot and the barometric pressure is giving me a nasty headache.

Weather in scenic Plano is mild, light breeze, partly cloudy, and very warm. Very nice evening to grill out some steaks and have some red wine.

You meant $3.45 to $3.55, right?

??? I live on the other side of the world and have been hearing warnings for residents of Galveston to evacuate for at least 24 hours.