Be glad you guys are on the other side of the pond...

[Tarasdad]

Right now I'm sitting here watching live web feeds from a local TV station in Houston. Hurricane Ike is lashing the Texas coast and is just a few hours from making landfall on Galveston Island, then making its way inland to Houston. My dad lives just northwest of Houston in a town called Tomball which is in the direct path the storm is expected to take. He's 79, disabled, and a stubborn-as-a-mule West Virginia hillbilly who refused to go elsewhere. I'd dearly love to be there to look after him, but with my back and other health issues I'm not sure how much help I'd be.

Still...even with the hurricanes, tornadoes, massive thunderstorms, heat and humidity I'd rather be living there than here in Southern California. All those things I take in stride, but the earthquakes here scare me spitless!

[Paul K]

I must say, you lot really do get some extraordinary weather, what with hurricanes in the Gulf, tornados in the mid-west, and 200 ft of snow in 30 seconds due to the Great Lakes effect. Hope it all blows over, if you know what I mean.

( Of course, we have Hurricanes, Tornados and Typhoons too, but we pay to go and see them. )

[Chris Trott]

Barry, send me via PM your dad's information. I am going that way with Civil Air Patrol on Sunday or Monday and may get assigned there. If you want I can see about getting him a message as I'm sure phones and power will be out.

[Tarasdad]

Chris, I'm going to try and talk to him in the morning to see how he fared. If I'm unable to contact him or his neighbor I may just take you up on your offer.

[tonymadge]

And we moan about a lousy summer and tons of rain...hope your Dad gets through without any damage Barry, I have a good friend who lives in Houston and he mailed me last night saying he expects to be hit hard and not to expect any contact for a while as they are expecting power outages as you US guys say.
hoping it turns out better than forecasted... if you want to borrow some of our British Forcasters we can send them to you, they always get it wrong over here!

[DelP]

I hope your dad is OK Tarasdad...

I lived in Central America for a few years and still keep an eye on what's happening in that part of the world. I remember too well the panic when Hurricane Mitch, a category 5, was heading straight for Belize City. At the last moment it turned and devastated Honduras...

We in the UK have no cause to complain about the weather...

ATB,

Derek

[DaveB]

We in the UK have no cause to complain about the weather...

That's a bit over generous me thinks :o OK.. we don't have the extremes of weather issued forth as in some areas of the world but I see no good reason for us to go around with a smile on our combined faces either

Regardless.. let's hope the worst that happens is a new hair-do ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[DispatchDragon]

Dave more than a new hairdo --- I have say and watched it all night (at work) It isnt a Camille or a Hugo or even a Katrina
but very impressive none the less - anything with a 75Nm diameter eye has my attention - however I think the media is making slightly larger out of it than it deserves.


Leif

[Tarasdad]

Heard from my dad this morning. He's okay, no damage to his house that he could find. Lots of downed tree limbs and torn up shrubbery (Ni!) but otherwise fine. No power, and probably won't be for a while, so his biggest concern right now is finding enough ice to keep his frozen/refrigerated food from spoiling. If it's like Alicia in '83 it could be a month or more before all power in the affected area is restored. Been there, done that, not a heck of a lot of fun.

[hobby]

Good news about your Pa.

I understand that citizens of the US would be unwilling perhaps to eat 'Meals Ready To Eat' as issued to US forces unless the food situation became dire!

Amazon might start doing big business now in oil/petrol powered electricity generators.