Hurricane chasing is a story of contrasts. One day it looks like one city will take the brunt. The next it could be another town on the collision course. So it is with Ike. Early Wednesday Corpus Christi seemed to be ground zero. Big C-130 Medivac planes were at the Corpus Christi International Airport preparing to receive ambulances and patients from hospitals for airlift out of the danger zone. The planes moved to Sholes Field in Galveston on Wednesday night. Now it looks like Ike could be the Houston-Galveston area’s worst nightmare. Freeport could receive the eye of the storm. It would track north right through the heart of Houston. And the strongest winds on the east side of the eye would push a surge of up to 15 feet right up Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel. Photographer Mike Heimbuch and I were in Corpus Christi Wednesday night. We’re on the way to Houston now. Corpus Christi is not all clear yet. But Thursday looks much brighter in Corpus. Meanwhile, the Houston area has ordered mandatory evacuation of low lying counties.
September 11, 2008