How We Survived IKE

written by Jon...
There has been too much going on in our lives recently to not make a mention in our blog. We awoke Thursday the 11^th to find the storm projection of Hurricane Ike was aimed at Galveston. Later that day, we were faced with a difficult decision on whether to evacuate to Dallas or The Woodlands. We had originally planned to visit Dallas the same weekend, but were now concerned about the possibility of a long, miserable drive on a gridlocked I-45. On top of that, three people I talked to that day acted like we were crazy for considering driving to Dallas. Well, we took off for the Big D Thursday night and got there in a ridiculously awesome time of 4 hours, 40 minutes. I don’t really want to make a big deal about our route – but it was a plan of genius. We took farm roads up to Madisonville, hopped on I-45 there and avoided the almost-certain traffic jams in and around Conroe and Huntsville. Friday through Monday proved to be a great weekend with my ‘rents, mainly spent eating, working out, and watching hurricane coverage on television in high definition. For those interested, Steph and I settled in on Fox News and The Weather Channel as our primary sources of hurricane coverage, with CNN coming in a distant third. There’s nothing like the heroic live reporting from Geraldo Rivera of Fox News at the Galveston Seawall as the storm came ashore. Also wanted to give a shout out to the Fox News guy, whose lone job was to hold up the wind meter in the background behind Geraldo. Finally, speaking of dramatic reporting, what would a hurricane be without the clutch reporting of The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore? The guy is a consummate professional with a passion for the weather that is second to none. Thanks to these guys who gave us comic relief during a devastating storm.

Below is some awesome Gerardo Rivera Footage... enjoy!