Hurricane Ike is causing a million persons to flee coastal Texas on Thursday night.  The storm is less than 400 miles ESE of Galveston and appears to be heading directly to the city.  The 57,000 residents of Galveston have been told to leave or they may not survive the storm.  A wall of water could reach 20 feet high as the storm approaches the coast by early Saturday morning.  Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, is slightly farther inland but also may take a direct hit.  A sense of urgency is now underway in coastal Texas. 

Eastern North Carolina has been lucky so far this season.  Tropical Storm Hanna's track through our area was a track that could have created a lot of damage.  The storm made landfall near the North Carolina and South Carolina border and then up into Eastern North Carolina just west of Wilmington and Goldsboro.  That particular track put our area in the right quadrant of the storm,  which is typically the strongest.  I certainly picked up lots of debris in my yard from this storm.  I just don't want to imagine what could have happened if Hanna would have been a category 3 or 4 storm.  I certainly hope I don't find out anytime soon.