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This advice was posted by the Gulf Coast Turtle and Tortoise Society. Seems like good common sense. By the way, tropical storm strength winds are possible as far inland as Dallas and Tyler.

Hello all,

Thought I'd remind everyone in the path of Ike that wood fencing may be blown down - part of ours was in the hurricane that came through in the 80's, and we are 20 miles north of downtown. I'd suggest those of you using your wood fence as part of a turtle pen or those of you whose turtles have free run of a backyard place your turtles in containers in a garage until the storm blows through. Also top heavy potted plants in ponds can fall over, trapping turtles.

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Marlaina Barr Gulf Coast Turtle and Tortoise Society
Barr@gctts.org http://www.gctts.org
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Good suggestion. We have also been warned to bring in any lawn items that might become airborne in high winds. They can become dangerous projectiles.

Good luck Spotsmama!

Yeah, we're cleaning up tonight! Dallas is supposed to get hit at 1PM tomorrow. We are supposed to expect 1-3'' of rain and 20-45 mph winds. But it's constantly changing, so we're watching the news tonight for the final update because this thing hits us. They did say, however, that East Texas is supposed to get the brunt of the inland storm. So bunker down SpotsMama (and all other east Texans), and let us know that you're okay after the storm passes!

Hang in there, guys! Our thoughts are with you (and your pets).

If you want to track the storm (although you probably get enough of it on TV), here's a link to the NOAA site with a national Doppler composite. You can zoom in on the area of interest:

http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/Conus/Lo ... op.gif?sup

Good luck everybody! I hope everyone comes out unscathed. Make sure you keep us posted so we don't worry we've lost someone!

I stay in dallas but i dont think itll hit hard..

We're just worried about tornados around here. We're bringing a lot of our outside stuff, grills, anything that isn't weighed down. It might not even be bad, but don't want to take any chances.

I'm worried about all of those near the eye and in Houston, but specifically for all the people that stayed behind in Galvaston. I hope that whoever stayed behind makes it thru the night. Any pets I pray were evacuated with their owners. Everybody hunker down and get back with us as soon as power is restored to let us know how everything is going.

I'm in Bryan/College Station and we are a bit west of the center of the storm. It seems to be following I45 in its path. Last night was not bad at all, just wind. This morning there is more rain and wind, but not enough to cause damage here. But we are on the weaker side of the storm and about an hour and a half from downtown Houston; further from the coast. We have not had power outages either - which has really surprised me. I did expect to loose power. It is early yet and it is suppose to pick up in the next couple of hours, but I am sure that it will not be too too bad by the time it gets to Dallas.

So we're good so far, but we are not in the worst of its path. Hopefully Bean and the others are fine. They probably have no power. Power outages are supposed to be really widespread down there.

Also like Mel said God bless those Galveston nuts who stayed behind! While I am concerned for them, this wasnt like Katrina or Rita. The evac effort started Thursday and I was surprised at how organized it was. Phone numbers were posted to call if you needed rides, police were going through neighborhoods on the coast trying to get people to leave. There are shelters in Huntsville, here and all along the major routes north. They have shelter signs out on the hi-way pointing folks in the right direction. I am impressed.

Hopefully we will hear from others soon.

It's been raining on and off this morning, but nothing major has hit us yet. They say we have about two more hours until the storm hits. But we are only supposed to get 1-3'' of rain and 20-35 mph winds. It looks like it's weakening faster than they thought it would.

So far, they said they haven't had any deaths in Galveston/Houston. They've had some damage but it's mainly flooding.

It's been raining all day here. Every once in a while a really string gust of wind will hit. There's a chance of tornados right now all over the area.

Hope you northern Texans are safe. The worst is over here and again no real damage or power outages. No tornados either. Hang in there.