Hurricane Ike

This is a picture one of my bestest friends, Jessi, and I.

The center of that big nasty hurricane is where Jessi lives.

Please pray for her safety and peace of mind.

She lives Houston, but not one of the zip codes that are facing mandatory evacuations. She's been told to "hunker down" and ride it out. She and her husband, John, stayed for the last hurricane that they thought would hit Houston (Rita a few years back), but now they have a two month old baby and it makes it that much scarier. It's projected that they are going to get hit with the "dirty" end of the hurricane (it kind of makes everything look like a garbage disposal blew up - chunks of anything you can imagine scattered everywhere).

The satellite picture above is actually a picture of Hurricane Alicia from 1983 hitting Houston. I was unfortunately in Houston for that. It was big and scary and the eye passed right over Houston. I have to admit that the eye of the hurricane is SUPER cool ( eery and deathly still with churning clouds). It's just the endless hours of wind, rain, thunder, lightning and tornadoes on either end of it that sucks.

Update as of 10:00 - Jessi, her husband, baby Jamison, their two Golden Retrievers, their cat and all their important papers are heading out. I talked to her while they were driving and they are going to ride the storm out with John's parents. I'm soooo glad that they left. Her younger brother lives about two blocks away from her and is going to stay. Keep him in your thoughts . . . the hurricane looks like its gaining strength and headed directly for Houston.