We evacuated for Rita, a non-event, but the evacuation was brutal. We stayed for Ike. The wind was intense, and some significant rain. We had limbs and tree tops in the yard. Nothing fell on our house. Our neighbors had a pine tree lay down on their roof. We helped cut it down.

Katrina...we lived east of Jackson 3 hours from the coast wind was still strong enough to uproot trees and snap others. I watched the massive oak tree 15 feet from the house move about 2 inches towards the house never gave thank God. Our trampoline ended up in the front yard. Had family from Chalmette come stay with us for about three weeks (that was more frightening than the storm).

I know a couple of dudes

One of my neighbor's car that parked under a tree during Wilma.

Evacuated from League City in 83 from Alicia.
Moved North in 84 and never looked back...

Three days at sea in the Atlantic on a Tin can in 1970. We were escorting a carrier to Florida and it took water over the flight deck so you can imagine what it was like on my ship. Last cruise I took before I was discharged.

I was working at a a hospital in Punta Gorda Florida in 2004. We were hit with Hurricanes Charley, Francis, Jean , and Ivan over a couple of months. We got very good at managing disasters. At that time, I was a disaster specialist and assisted in prep and running the hospital during the event. We never lost a single life even though our facility was rendered useless and initially, and then continued to take blows in the three following hurricanes.

our ship was homeported in CHarleston when hurricane David came roarin' up from Dominica where it killed a couple thousand, it was still pretty strong & all the ships left Charleston rather than get beat against the pier, mountains of green water for a couple days & 3/4 of the crew seasick, the power mother nature weilds is mighty like no other (not even chuck norris)

I sat it out through Ike. Went outside and walked in the street during the thick of it just to say that I stood in a hurricane. Wind was intense, and you had to lean over into it to stand up. I nearly got hit with a tree limb and decided that was enough. We were very lucky and never lost power. Somehow the houses on my side of the street were okay. Across the street lost all power for 5 or 6 days. We all had long extension cords running across to our neighbors to plug their fridges and freezers into. Lots of friends from all over the area came over for showers or to sit in the AC for a while. Hundreds of trees were down, but not a ton of structural damage where I was. Almost every roof was replaced though due to wind lifted shingles.

My band was scheduled to play an outdoor concert August 20th, 1983. We were many miles from the coast and thought we would still be able to play following the arrival of Alicia. We were wrong.

Rita and Ike, but TS Allison was pretty bad too. Over 30" of rain in Clutch City for that one. When Rita came along on the heals of Katrina, we decided to evacuate Houston and go to the lake house on Rayburn. What normally took us 2 hours to drive took us 12. By the time we all got up there the hurricane had changed directions. Instead of coming ashore over the Houston ship channel, it came ashore at Beaumont, which is due south of Rayburn. The hurricane came right over the top of us. One Hundred mph winds and it took down virtually every power line in the county. No power at the lake house for 6 weeks. We stayed home in Kingwood for Ike. Out of power for 6 days, but we did have a generator to keep the refrigerators going. One of my pines took out the sidewalk by the pool, went throw a fence, and landed on a neighbors roof. I'm glad we have a Generac up here. If this thing turns, it could be just as bad here as Rita was.

Hugo when I lived in SC. I promise you I would not stay to see another one, and I was 100 miles from the coast. You cannot even imagine how bad the damage was with Hugo.

Be safe.

I was on vacation in the Virgin Islands in 79', had one good day on St.Croix then hurricane David hit, then we went to St. Thomas, had one good day then Frederick hit. Lousy vacation.

It gets worse by the hour. New model just came out. Projecting 25-30 inches of rain in Houston through next Thursday. Catastrophic flooding and storm surge along the coast. I hope the powers to be are being overly cautious.

If I were in a mandatory evacuation county, I'd get out tonight. Highways will be a mess tomorrow. Landfall Friday night/Saturday morning somewhere around Rockport. Onshore for about 72 hours, then back into the Gulf around Palacios. Up the Texas coast and back onshore around New Orleans.

Anyone in the path of this storm please heed warnings. Going to be a bad one if current US models are right.

I was on a cruise that got back to Galveston just 3 days before IKE hit. That's as close as I've been.