According to the City of Houston official website for Forecasted Maximum Sustained Wind Data for the City of Houston by Zip Code the max sustained winds for our area has risen from 82 mph to 87 mph.

The windows are taped, the patio furniture is in the garage. The margaritas are mixed and the burgers are on the grill. Just a few more hours before gametime.

And as always, the “live team coverage” of the impending storm has the “storm centers” at all the media outlets as excited as Oprah at an Obama speech.

We were laughing this morning as the anchors on KHOU almost seemed disappointed when reporting the latest NHC advisory said Ike may be weakening… Hmmm, bad news for Americans is good news for them. A familiar theme in the media.

Hard to believe what’s coming towards us this evening as it is a perfectly beautiful day this morning in Houston. It’s starting to get a little breezy and the news is reporting that the storm surge is hitting Galveston (already splashing over the 17 foot high seawall and it’s currently low tide).

He’s really going to ruin my weekend. (My home is located at the star)

For those of you in the Houston metro area, here’s a cool site that will show you the predicted sustained wind speeds by zip code. Ours is currently showing 82 mph.

Just 2 weeks shy of the 3rd anniversary of our 20 hour trek from Houston to Dallas as we ran from Hurricane Rita. We vowed we wouldn’t do that again. So pray for us as we say hello to Ike this weekend.

Forecasters expect the storm to make landfall this weekend somewhere between Corpus Christi and Houston, creating the potential for heavy punishment for Houston even if it’s not hit directly.

Some forecasts say Ike could strengthen to a fearsome Category 4 hurricane with winds of at least 131 mph over the Gulf of Mexico, and emergency officials warned it could drive a storm surge as high as 18 feet.

If current projections of the storm’s path hold up, the area surrounding Houston — home to about 4 million people — would be lashed by the eastern or “dirty” side of the storm, said meteorologist Jeff Masters, co-founder of San Francisco-based Weather Underground. This stronger side of the storm often packs heavy rains, walloping storm surge and tornadoes.

“I expect a lot of damage in Houston from this storm,” said Masters, adding that Ike could cause a “huge storm surge” affecting at least 100 miles of the Texas coast.

If we have power, I’ll try to post updates throughout…

UPDATE: Evacuations have begun. Lines at gas stations are already 10 cars deep at every pump.

Starting to feel like deja vu.