Hurricane Preparedness

I wish I had my camera with me earlier. I went to Wal-mart to get water (and whatnot) to prep for the impending Ikeness. It was crazy. 10:00 on a Wednesday morning and there were thousands (that's might be a slight exaggeration) of people at Wal-mart. It was like the day before Thanksgiving but a lot less festive and with someone announcing over the PA where certain supplies for the hurricane were in the store.

All of the canned goods were gone except for soup and pineapples.
All of the water (jugs included) was gone except for one pallet of 24-packs of Dasani.
All of the bread and tortillas (this is South Texas) were gone except for Mrs. Baird white bread which they filled the whole aisle with.
There was not a single D battery in the whole store. (the size for flashlights).
Then I went to fill up the tank for the evac and all of the gas, except for super-unleaded, was out. They charged regular unleaded prices for it. Cars were lined up behind (and oddly at one point in front... I guess they thought they'd hurriedly back it in when I finished. They must've thought I was going to back out of there and make all of the cars behind me back out of the way too... maybe they thought the back of the line was the actual gas pump and people were all waiting to back away from it...hmmm) of me while I got gas.
I drove by McCoy's on the way home and it was packed out to the highway with cars.

My neighbors all have their windows boarded up and evidently (evidenced by the many cars on my street) all their relatives in town.

South Texas doesn't mess around when it comes to these things.
My mom said people learned after Celia in 1970. Both of my parents were in Corpus then and my dad's apt. complex's roof blew off. My mom said her apt was the only one standing in her complex. All the rest were taken right off their foundation. She said her dad drove into Corpus from Ingleside and he burst into tears when he saw her because he said when he drove over the High bridge it looked like a war had happened. Mom said she spent the whole thing with one of her neighbors (She said she opened the door and he was screaming because his apt was basically de-walled) in her bathtub.

Before Celia people always stayed in Corpus. They've said Ike might be a Cat 3 (like Celia). They said tt's supposed to hit Victoria. However it's now somewhat south of that and just yesterday morning it was supposed to hit Galveston so it seems to be going more south every few hours.

If we evac we're staying in a hotel. We used to always go to my aunt's but this year we're doing it party style. Me, the folks, and grandma living it up in the Holiday Inn- should be a good time.