. . . but I don’t see what the fuss is about. It’s “just” a hurricane, after all. After “surviving” Betsy, Camille and about 30 other hurricanes, I can’t help but think that all this fuss is a new thing. We never even considered evacuating. Ever. Not once. I played in the ditches during Camille and had bottle rocket wars during at least one other big time blow. I know you all think I’m being crass, but seriously, what has changed since the 1960’s? Are these storms worse than in the past? Or, has our ability to get through them degraded? I don’t remember LSU or USL ever cancelling games, much less LATech or UT because of floods of “refugees”. I don’t get it. Fill me in, blast me if you want, but I really would like to know.

I really thought that UT canceling was a little overboard. Austin is what 250 miles inland, and the only way for the city to be in any kind of danger is if the storm of the millennium came and hit the Texas Coast.

I really believe that media makes every hurricane now as the end of days. Every since Katrina, the media makes every hurricane the second coming. I am not saying that hurricanes need to be taken lightly, but some of these precautions are overboard. Canceling a football came in central Texas? If that isn’t overboard than I don’t what it is. Now, I have no problem with the Astros and Texans delaying/postponing their games because the hurricane is going to hit Houston.

About Katrina, what most people don’t realize about Katrina is that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen. The city is like 10 feet below sea level and where the Mississippi River enters the Gulf of Mexico. So any kind of hurricane hitting would cause ridiculous damage because of the fact that the city is below sea level. It was inevitable.

A couple of years hurricane Rita was supposed to hit Houston and the Houston media made it seem like the storm of the century and everybody evacuated and it barely caused any damage or loss of life. In fact, more damage and death happened during the evacuation than the hurricane.

If you watch any of the Houston news it is just about hurricanes. FOX, calls itself “Your Gulf Coast Weather Authority” they have something called “the storm seeker”, apparently something better than doppler. The local news stations spend about 15 to 20 minutes of their 30 minutes covering the weather. They go and on. FOX is the worst because they are the only news station in Houston that has news one hour long so they sometime give a half-hour segment on hurricanes and weather weekly.

Also, any hurricane that pops up in the Caribbean, the immediately scare you and talk about that it might be coming to Houston. Even though if you look at the map the Hurricane would have to make a 90 degree left turn to get anywhere near Houston.

Look at the previous two hurricanes this year, Eduard and Gustav and the media made them seem like doomsday even though the damage was only marginal. This is what they do. They scare you so you can live in fear and come back and watch some more news. If they tell this hurricane really isn’t going to hit us, then you wouldn’t come back and watch the news the next night. I personally think that most people don’t watch the local news anymore, just like people don’t really read newspapers anymore. You can just go online and get what you need. So in order to maintain viewership they do this.

And this is coming from a football addict. When the decision to postpone the game was made, there was still a strong chance that Ike could trek inland this way. However, the route it’s taken is even worse as it brought much more immediate harm to a heavier populated area. I’d love for the game to be going today, but in terms of doing what is best for fellow inhabitants of the state, the right choice was made. Hell, how many of the players would’ve had their minds on other things anyway, like family back at home near the coast? I’m sure there are a decent amount of Texas players from H-town and the Golden Triangle.

for the people of the greater Houston area – especially, obviously, nearest the coast. I feel so lucky down here in Corpus to have avoided the storm completely when a couple of days ago we were directly in Ike’s sites; but, I also feel horrible for those who are suffering today from this hurricane (my brother and sister and their families included). Let’s keep them in our thoughts and prayers today. The Longhorns will play again.

This is my first dance with Internet access since Mr. Ike blew through…I’m in Sugar Land (SW of Houston), so thankfully, we didn’t get hit too badly. The brunt of the damage over here are the trees falling over…mostly non-dangerous, but there were a few that knocked over fences, or worse, roofs and cars. I’ve spent some of the past two days working the rake to clean up the messes. Power and water have been intermittent…my mom picked up power Saturday afternoon but lost it again last night. Water has been pretty good in Sugar Land, but has been spotty at best in most of the greater Houston area. I watched a few hours of straight up news last night, and the devastation was ridiculous. I definitely consider Sugar Land/westside Houston extremely fortunate. Probably the biggest concern right now (aside from lack of power in many residential neighborhoods) is trying to find gas. I’m targeting going into work (downtown) starting Tuesday, which doesn’t really bother me, except for the fact that I fill my tank about once a week. RIght now the lines at gas tanks are ridiculous…there’s car lines going 20 deep. And that’s in the GOOD part of the Houston greater area. Anyways, I just wanted to drop my two cents from one part of Houston. I hope any BONers who were in the more direct path of the storm is doing well.

I was lucky enough to watch the Baylor and Kansas games on Friday (my electricity cut out about an hour after the Kansas game ended). Robert Griffin…wow. He really looks like the second coming of Vince. Simply incredible performance. All kidding aside, I won’t be surprised if A&M is the worst team in the Big XII South for the next few years…Griffin is going to turn that program around. As for Kansas, that Todd Reesing is some quarterback. Tough mistake at the end to lose the game. Their running game is seriously struggling, and their secondary looks worse than ours. They looked good, but beatable. Sad to have missed what seemed like a very interesting Saturday in CFB, but sometimes life gets in the way. Just wanted to get some thoughts off…talking football is a nice distraction after this weekend. Everyone in Houston, stay safe. Signing off.