I hope all the evacuees are staying with family otherwise their in for quite a shock at Houston’s current Hotel Tax.

What is the tax rate for hotels in Houston?

Hurricane Gustav
 

The last news that I heard was that the hurricane went down to a category 1 and experts are optimistic about the levees sustaining in Nawlins! My prayers continue for those families.

18% if I recall correctly; it’s been awhile since I’ve stayed in a hotel here. Luckily most everything else is quite affordable.

We can only hope and at least people left the area and not be in the same situation as saw Katrina!

If you have never been to New Orleans, they are damn lucky!

I have seen some evacuees and their pets this holiday weekend. We also had many people call for boarding which we don't do at the emergency clinic.
I am just gald that the storm was not as severe as anticipated.

I don't like Ike. :(

Me either. Not one little bit.

We had a few calls way up here in TN for boarding, too.

Well all, Ive survived, even though I drove half across texas for nothing it was nice adventure. I stayed in Austin the first night, and didn't like the hotel so I drove over to Fredericksburg and got into a nice Hampton over there. If anyone saw a blue ford with kappa sig plates fly by like a blur, that was probably me.

As for the hotel taxes, we got special rates for being evacuees so it wasn't too too bad. My room was 124 and i ended paying just under 140.

I had a Lambda Chi from Louisiana stop me on the road yesterday and ask for directions to the LXA house at FSU...I wonder if he was just visiting or had evacuated??

I always find it kind of amusing when people in areas that usually don't experience hurricanes get so worked up over a few storms a year (no offense).

I guess it's because I've lived in Miami-Dade County all my life and have experienced Cat. 4 and 5 hurricanes, so it doesn't really mean much to me.

The only problem I have is having to put up hurricane shutters. Other than that, I see it as a few days off of school and an excuse to throw hurricane parties. :p

if only the whole free world knew.

While I am too worried about Ike, we've been pretty lucky down here.

Most of the people I know experience minimal damage. I do know that there was one that we had TONS of blue roofs (tarps due to roofs being destroyed or blown up for the most part) but other than that you just sit tight in the house. We don't have wide scale evacuations or anything. It's only after Katrina that the local government has been getting more uptight. Before that they would mostly open a few shelters and we'd all go home and ride it out. I've never been to a hurricane party though. We just do everything as normal, take a walk before we get shut in, eat, bathe, and go to bed.

We didn't even get a drop of much-needed rain here.

Holy moly, Ike better stay away from Louisiana. New Orleans came out alright from Gustav, but like half of Baton Rouge still has no power! I'm one of the lucky few who got it back pretty quickly-I only had to go about a day and a half without even though I thought it would be much longer. I have friends 2 blocks away going into day 8 without right now and Entergy is saying it may not be back in many areas until Sept. 24 and that's not even taking Ike hitting us into consideration! The preparedness level for this has been disappointingly low. What was more upsetting to me was that restaurants and places like that are getting power back before grocery stores and gas stations which are what people really need right now! So Ike stay away!

Ike is on its way to the Gulf Coast. Aunt and Uncle are packing up again. You would think it's time for them to move.

Yeah, Ike better stay away from NOLA...two of my good friends are getting married there in December. I already paid for the damn tickets! :mad:

Bump for Ike.

I'm pissed, this fucker was supposed to come straight to southern Florida- we got our IFC Rush pushed back 2 weeks because of this.

And now we completely escaped it. -_-

I think that's going to change with Ike. Will you evacuate for this one?

Ike, turn around and come to Tallahassee.....pretty please??

I’ve never understood why they call it mandatory evacuation if it’s not mandatory.

I don't get it. Unless you live way too close to the beach or have a really poorly built house why would you evacuate? Here we don't mass evacuate, we open inland shelters for those who absolutely need to. (Ex. too close to the beach, mobile home, elderly, scared, sick, etc.)

If they say mandatory and you don't evacuate, then they can't be expected to be responsible for your safety or rescue. We can't technically, in the US, force someone out of their home, can we? We can say "This is a mandatory evacuation and if you don't leave, don't expect us to help you"

BabyPINK_FL: They are evacuating low lying regions because the storm surge could be more than 20 feet (one estimate just said 30-35 feet) along with 12+ inches of rain and winds of over 120 MPH. 120 MPH is equivalent to an F2 tornado. Why take chances? ETA: It seems like they evacuate the Keys fairly regularly.

i just got a text message from cnn that reads: "people sheltering at ground level at Galveston Bay when Hurricane Ike hits face 'certain death' the weather service warns." uh oh...

i saw a man say he wasnt leaving because he didnt want to sit in all that traffic!!!! wtf?

Yeah I saw that on the news today, I guess it's a result of our litigious society.

/sidenote: All the ice cream at the corner store is half off. :)

My mom told me that the roads that run next to our beaches were submerged, and our dock is completely underwater from the storm surge =(

Oh yeah. they do. But usually it's mostly the tourists that leave. Some Monroe County (Keys) people take up shelter on one of my uni.'s campuses, but the building is never filled and usually I hear that it's mostly the homeless in there. Plus that is almost a different country so I didn't really think about there. How low lying are those areas? Just wondering.

They're saying that the seawall in this one area is 14 feet at it's highest, 8 at it's lowest and storm surges could be more than 20 feet. Sounds pretty serious to me.http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/flt/t4/avn-l.jpg

Amazing to me how big this thing is. The satellite image shows it's taking up almost the whole Gulf.

They showed a surfer down in Panama City FL on CNN today and the wave was huge behind him.

Ya, my mom told me that some of her friends are staying in Galveston. I have no idea why they are that stupid, but I'm praying nothing happens to them...like, you know, death!!

I wonder which one of my idiots friends that was....:D

Galveston, oh Galveston
 

The waves are already :eek:coming up over the sea wall - and it is low tide.

Please, please Galvestonians - get the hell out. Remember 1900?? (Well, no, you wouldn't PERSONALLY remember the 1900 Storm, but how can you be on the Island and not have that in your mind?) Parts of the Island have started to flood, and it's not even just the water - mud and sand has been pushed up over parts of the road by the waves. It's going to be bad for Galveston.

eta - You may not know that ALL of Galveston is NOT behind the sea wall. A large part of the island is not protected, and the hurricane is scheduled to hit during high tide. Very, very bad.

Here in Houston - it really is the calm before the storm. We feel pretty good about our preparations. Tree limbs were trimmed yesterday, picked up loose debris, we've got water, will go get ice, and we have carbolicious food supplies laid by. At this point, I'm ready for it to be over!

The seawall is 16 feet. The highest point on galveston island...20 feet.

The waves are already cresting over the seawall. I got to admit I'm getting a little nervous about this one.

I don't remember if I saw this commercial in North Carolina or Florida. They played tapes of people calling 911 and asking for help during a hurricane. The dispatchers had to tell them that the police were unable to help them. It was a PSA to let people know, if we tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. We won't be able to help you at the height of the storm.

I think the West End is already starting to flood. :( And the storm still hasn't even hit yet.

I lived in G town for 5 years and survived a few tropical storms but no hurricanes. If I were still living there at this point, I would have gotten the hell out. The island floods so easily-even the parts behind the seawall-and I saw what the flooding was like for tropical storms, and I can't even imagine how bad this is going to be. I am really really worried for them.

Some of my friends in Houston were like-forget the grocery store, I'm headed to Spec's to stock up!! :p
I'm worried about them too.

The FL Panhandle got some flooding behind this storm yesterday, and some of the roads along the Gulf of Mexico were washed over, but not washed out. Keep in mind that the FL Panhandle is 800 or so miles from where landfall is expected. This hurricane is crazy!

I have long hated Walmart.
I hate them even more today.
The Houston area has basically been told that if you are not in an area with a mandatory evacuation, stay put. So thousands of people have to buy supplies. Walmart's response to this time of need? Closing all of their stores a good 18 hours before the storm is to hit.
Booooooo Walmart. Yeaaaaah Target.

It looks eerie out now - all of the car dealerships have pulled in as many cars as they can. Restaurants are closed - those that are open are doing land office business. We are going to try and get ice at a 2:00 delivery - will send hubby wayyyyy ahead of time.

Belle, keep us posted as long as you can. We appreciate the updates since many of us have friends near Houston.