Blogging Ike

Here at Casa Cuppacafe Grande in quaint Katy, Texas, I’ll come on every so often and let you in on my survival of Hurricane Ike — now scheduled to come up on my front porch sometime Saturday afternoon. Located some 70 miles north and 120 feet higher than sea level, I’m pretty sure that the only thing that will hurt us here are some nearby tree limbs or zombies.

I’m stocked up on charcoal and bottled water. Had planned on picking up booze and hookers, but then realized that unlike the last hurricane bug-out, the wife decided to brave it out… so no hurricane parties.

I’ll probably be on Twitter, especially if the power goes out.

Tomorrow is the prep day for the hurricane, and most likely Friday will be getaway day. If you’re not out of Houston by Friday at 5pm, expect some gusty winds to push you along.

Down the coast, Galveston will get hit hard. Galveston decided to wait to evacuate, and then by the time they realized they should be evacuating, it was pretty much too late to call for an evacuation. Yeah, go fig. They still have two days, so we’ll see. The west end of Galveston will be under several feet of water in about 72 hours. The further down the coastline you go, the higher the water level when the storm hits. Freeport, where a couple of major refineries sit, is behind a tall berm and some flood gates. Kind of like New Orleans, but not really. If I was a TV news crew, I’d set up one camera dude there. If anyone leaves a TV crew at Surfside, that network or station should have their license revoked. That will be a death trap if that storm really does turn like it might. More on the path later.

Port O’Connor is going to get hit so hard, you might not see much of it again.
Google Maps Link

You can see those thin islands seaward of the spot on the map. Those will serve as a buffer of sorts, but the water will still rise. If I was in an airplane, I’d get some coastal pics in, because the coastline will be changing. The rising water moves so fast, the channel between those barrier islands will get eaten away by the current. Down there, it’s all pretty much natural shoreline; no infrastructure there to worry about. Port O’Connor is a small water related community on a small spit of land that mostly serves the offshore oil industry and some fishing boats. Mostly twenty or thirty dozen doublewide trailers. Prolly fifteen feet of water will shortly arrive there. I’ll bet you’re wondering why I’m mentioning this tiny city. Because Port O’Connor is about eight miles away from a ghost town. Indianola, Texas was once the capital of the county, and 133 years ago this week, a hurricane destroyed it. It was the second biggest port in Texas — Galveston being the biggest. So, the residents rebuilt the town. Eleven years later, another huge hurricane destroyed the town, quickly followed by a fire. Much of where the town was located is part of the bay now, underwater. So, if you’re looking for a real ghost walking the streets of Indianola, don’t forget your snorkel.

My predictions for Galveston in a future post.