The enemy below...

not the enemy above. It appears that Ike will be a storm-surge event and a wind event, but not a rain even, at least not in the Houston region. Galveston continues to get punished horribly and the low-lying communities around Galveston Bay will flood, as will Texas and Louisiana coastal areas east of here. However, Dr. Siebert of channel 26 just confirmed what I've been noticing for about an hour: Ike has started to suck wind, dry wind, into the region surrounding his eye, and his structure seems to be loosening. Dr. Siebert mentioned something about the winds being ready to drop to 80 mph or less. This and the continued rapid motion of this storm will bring some somewhat sooner relief from the wind/rain conditions, although we're still facing a long night's vigil over this storm. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this in fact turns out to be the trend. The damage will still be staggering, but let's hope there's a light in this windy tunnel.