(image ganked from NOAA.gov. You have no idea how much I love listening to NOAA weather reports during storms.)

It’s time for the TRGAW Hurricane Ike update. Galveston is feeling it. The West End, Kemah, and Surfside are already under water; landfall isn’t expected for another twelve or so hours. If you’d like to see the pictures, KPRC’s Big 2 News can help you see the carnage as it happens. And if you’d like to look at the projected landfall map, it’s here. It’s a little weird to see my hometown there, but the cone diagram has Ike travelling over the Walker and Grimes county line at some point on Saturday, which is totally awesome, considering that’s the exact location of the family rancho. Because the Matagorda Bay area won’t be hit so hard by the dirty side of the storm, extended family has not burned daylight to get to Huntsvegas, and have instead headed west to Gonzales and Kerrville. My parents are not in the official evacuation area, and will be staying put with their generator. They’ve battened down the hatches as best they can. At worst, they’re expecting to lose some trees, maybe a window on the south or east side of the house, and possibly a roof vent.

What I’ve forgotten to share leading up to the hurricane is the following: In the true spirt of Texas high school football (see also Friday Night Lights) most coastal school districts moved their JV games to Tuesday or Wednesday night, and varsity teams played on Wednesday or Thursday, which let the away team get home in time to hit the road with their families. This is quietly awesome, and makes me kind of homesick. Texas knows what’s important.