If thousands of stupid people living on a low-lying barrier island decide to ride out the storm on their own, how is it the mayor's fault? He just opened himself up to being called a doofus...and from the sound of things, probably is one.

The weather service stated very clearly - if you stay on the island, you're going to die. How much more clear do they need to be? Are those people really that dumb?

I'm assuming the state or county provided adequate transportation services for those who could not evacuate on their own - so there would be no excuse that anyone should stay home and ride this out. This storm could push a 50' wall of water right over the island....are these people planning on treading water until they beach on the shoreline?

They've been talking about evacuation for two days.

The mayor is trying to avoid looking like Mayor Nagin, because two days ago she told everyone to stay because there wasn't time to evacuate.

To make matters worse, the mayor opened a high school as a shelter of last resort. The high school in question sits in a low-lying area and has no provisions for survival. Sound familiar? Like the Superdome, but deadly.

Yup....my bad.

Interesting pics. Crazy to see so few cars on an interstate. I hope folks are faring okay. This certainly doesn't look or sound good.

Great cams. ^ The IH 45 Gulf at 61 W shows 2 of the 6 lanes already under water, and solid water on both sides of the road. You all got 12 more hours to go? It scares me to look at this shot.

add: amazing. I am watching cam and a car just showed up at IH 45 Gulf at 61 W heading EAST! Someone notify the Darwin Awards Committee.

add2: Oh well, nice while it lasted, watching in real time. 5:30 CDT. All nine cams south of TCT Railroad just went dead. Must be the weather.

From the picture on Wikipedia, he school seems to be 3 stories high, with lots of windows. On top of the surge, there will be heavy waves. It's likely better to be there than in a one story wood frame house down the block, but maybe not by too much. This is worrisome.

It will get a lot worse. The wholesale price of gas in the Gulf Coast has increased in the past few days by about $1 as seen in this article. The increased prices have not yet reached the retail level, but they will if the refineries are shut down for an extended time.

Speaking of news reporters broadcasting live from the beach, I saw a screen capture a few hours ago that had... someone walking around in a bear costume.

The prices have increased here in South Florida...some of the more crooked station owners raised pump prices by as much as 30c/g on fuel already in their tanks. Others raised prices by 10-15c/g - also on fuel already in their tanks.

Then then wonder why everyone hates them.

One station here in Jupiter dropped them yesterday from $3.79 to $3.73, now is up to $3.99.

Why the gas prices are very expensive for that. I think this is reasonable gas price will be dropped in between $3.00 or $2.95 per-gallons. Its should be getting better in the future. I won't worry about the Hurricanes in Texas or Florida. I didn't like it in Florida at all.

I knows your folks will be alright during Hurricanes Ike in Texas. Its will be coming tonight around 11pm in Central Standard Time. I knows my cousin who lives in Houston for few years before she moving to Georgia but, she has been accepted new job at ER. She becoming the doctor at Emergency Room. She will have her schedules are very hectic at work.

Guys,

I hope everyone in the affected area is safe and well. I will remind people that we are no longer in OMNI in this thread, but in Cbuzz, so conversation has to live by the Cbuzz rules now, not the OMNI rules. Please stay on topic - and if you are in the area affected, please let us know that you are safe when you can

Jenbel
Co-moderator, Communitybuzz!

Any reports from Galveston area? Media is still "data sparse".

Hot, humid and dark in North Texas. We still have power, but I just got an email from TXU saying that outages are expected.