Hurricane Ike

I've seen the National Hurricane Center's warning about Hurricane Ike. OMG. They are saying if your are on the affected coast and in a 1 or 2 story building you can count on "certain death".

I've never seen warnings like that before. Up here in Toronto, the certain death is usually kept to late January exposure issues when it's about -30 on the extremely rare day.

All I can say is the folks down there are in my prayers. My wife and I have a place in Cape Canaveral, FL, and we've been hit with our share of hurricanes. Only about 3 weeks ago our area was flooded with something like 29 inches of rain in a few days. (No damage to our place thankfully)

In Texas, Galveston seems to be particularly vulnerable target. In September 1900 it was the location of the deadliest natural disaster in North American history.

Last year, I read the book "Isaac's Storm" by Erik Larson which document the build up and affects of the storm.

Anyway, I'm not turning this into a book review but I recommend the book.

In the mean time thoughts and prayers go out to all those in the area as well as those that have already been hit in Cuba and Haiti. Those countries seem to be forgotten in our North American press and they, particularly Haiti, have been devastated.