Safe

Lots of people have called and emailed today. All my family is thankfully safe. I've contacted several friends in Houston and along the coast and it seems everyone is well enough. We are still waiting to hear from friends in Nacogdoches where I was teaching last year. While not on the coast the eye of the storm did past over.

I waited up last night until the hurricane made landfall. My mom works for the city of Houston and was activated–meaning she was up all night working at the emergency services center for Houston. I heard from her this morning at 8:30am. She was safe and said they had been busy all night and that there were some deaths reported. Not much has made the news other than flooding and power outages.

For images and video go to msn for coverage from Ike.

I'm hoping to volunteer either here in Austin, Houston or Galveston once they let people back in. It could have been so much worse than it was. I am so thankful the storm surge they predicted didn't happen nor did the winds reach over a category 2 hurricane.

Thanks so much for everyone's concerns.