PhotoPro's Fotothing

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My other son and my grandchildren left Houston early Friday to go to my parents house in Corpus Christi. They are safely out of harms way of Hurricane Ike - which slammed into the Texas coast at about 1 am CST Sat. 09/13/08.

As of 4am CST, about 3 million people are without electrical power In the greater Houston - Galveston area. Galveston Island (which is only about 45 minutes from downtown Houston had a storm surge greater than 17 feet (over 5 meters). That means a "wall" of water like a small tsunami washed over most of the Island. Winds over 100 mph (160 kph) already passed Galveston and Houston leaving behind a swath of destruction.

Saturday morning finds that the Houston area water although not yet entirely contaminated, the city is under a "boil" water decree. Health officials have determined that since 3 of the 4 major pumps are running without power the water pressure is low enough to potentially allow backwash to flow into the water supply. The are strongly urging everyone in the greater Houston area boil any water for consumption.

Also in the morning, an assessment of different areas of town finds many downed power lines and in a number of high-rise buildings (skyscrapers) have many floor where the windows were blown out because of the high winds.

The storm is still a Category 1 Hurricane as it moves north towards Dallas Texas.
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The loss of life will far outweigh the loss of property which will be in the billions of $'s.

Our prayers and thoughts are with all those affected by this force of nature - and in an unrelated event -- a passenger train ran head-on into a freight train in California near Los Angeles more than 20 confirmed dead 3 hours ago.

Not a very good start to the weekend for the 2nd and 4th largest cities in the United States.