Andy Yiu’s Blog

It’s Friday afternoon and we’re waiting for Ike…

It looks like the winds are starting to pick up around here.  This is really the calm before the storm hits.  Most of the roads outside are pretty clear and it looks like there are a couple of 24-hour pharmacies still open.  Katz’s for those who know of it is still open and it looks like the Chinatown area is still pretty active with people heading into shops to get last minute supplies.  There are some pretty funny “hurricane party” commercials playing on the radio.  They state that they are offering “Hurricanes” at a discounted price.  Good luck to anyone who is crazy enough to drive through hurricane force winds to a club to party when the real hurricane is on the other side of the wall.  Personally, no thanks.

Fifty miles away in Galveston, the story is quite a bit different. There are reports that the storm surge has flooded part of the island already and fortunately most citizens heeded the evacuation order and have left to public evacuation centers outside of the Galveston and Houston city limits.  Many of the roads are now covered with several feet of water and so helicopters are being used to ferry rescuers in and out.

The eye of the storm is expected to pass around the Houston metropolitan area between 1-3am on Saturday but weather conditions will start to deteriorate long before that.  My family is fortunate enough to not be in the evacuation zone and city officials have asked us to stay put.  Thank you to everyone who has sent emails and SMS messages asking if we need a place to stay.  Right now we’re bundled down, but if things change I’ll be calling someone while on the road.