Blogging Ike- National Weather Service says flee or face “certain death”

We’re in the final 24 hours before Hurricane Ike comes storming into the Texas Gulf Coast and a feeling of unnatural quiet hangs in the air outside.  The Gulf of Mexico has already risen to very high levels and the storm is not even here yet.  A statement by the National Weather Service is as forceful as I have ever heard a government agency make:

"All neighborhoods … and possibly entire coastal communities …will be inundated during the peak storm tide," the weather servicewarned. "Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family one- ortwo-story homes will face certain death."

But farther inland, 4million Houston-area residents were told to hunker down and stay home,even as government offices and schools prepared to close Friday inanticipation of the hurricane.

"We are only evacuating areassubject to a storm surge," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, thecounty’s chief executive officer. "Yes, we know you will loseelectricity. But you’re not in danger of losing your life, so stay put."

So on the coast you face certain death, yet those further inland like us should just stay put.  Drives home why we are so uneasy about this storm.  It is not following the rules.

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