So true; weather people around here are reminding everyone of Hurricane Ike...8 years ago already!

That's one etched in our memory; we were scheduled to leave for DW from Houston the day Ike was to come onshore in the Galveston area. Around noon the day before the authorities were already announcing times the Bush Airport would "cease operations"...only about an hour AFTER our scheduled flight.

We didn't want to take the chance so we began a frantic search for a flight to get us out earlier...problem was...we needed 8 seats.

Four of us on different phones begging airline representatives to find something! Finally SIL managed to "sweet talk" a young lady into overbooking a flight into Tampa. We knew we'd be risking 2 of us being left behind but grabbed it. Slight problem...departed 6:45 AM, meaning we needed to be at the airport at 4:45. Not willing to risk the chance of the highways INTO Houston being closed for evacuation, we went into "full panic mode" getting ourselves packed and leaving for Houston by 9 PM...DD managed to find vacant rooms at an airport hotel so we'd have a place to stay. DH had to stay behind (he was needed for emergency management) so I was able to leave the house in disarray (literally with dinner dishes on the table yet

) and get to Houston with DD's family and friends. Our flight left on time the next morning with seats for all 8 of us; 1 hour later they shut the airport down...5 hours before they'd originally said it would be necessary! We would not have made it out had we stayed with our original flight!

DH had to wait until they reopened on Monday to get to DW but had one of the best vacations EVER (especially for me 'cause I had a room at the Polynesian ALL TO MYSELF for 3 days!

). But, like you said, not everyone remembers the storms and a LOT of new people have moved to the area since 2008. Looks like it should clear out by tomorrow so "all is good". I haven't talked to my friend in Lakeland yet but looked like she had some pretty good rains too today. Hope things continue "on course" for the rest of the week!