Messin’ With Texas

Let’s face it people, Hurricane Ike is one bad mofo. In fact, if Ike had a wallet, it would probably be like the one Samuel L. Jackson carried around in Pulp Fiction that said “Bad Motherf*cker” on it.

With Ike’s max sustained winds strengthening to 120 miles per hour by the time he impacts the Texas coast in the wee hours of tomorrow morning, we’re already dealing with a dangerous storm. But it’s his ridonkulous size that has people in the Lone Star state especially worried.

Ike is, quite simply, the biggest hurricane anybody can remember in quite some time – with hurricane-force winds extending out 120 miles from its center and tropical storm force winds reaching outward up to 275 miles.

In other words, he’s a beast – and he’s drawing comparisons to another near-apocalypse that decimated the Texas coast 108 years ago.

From Reuters:

Hundreds of thousands fled the island city of Galveston and low-lying counties under mandatory evacuation orders and authorities urged holdouts to move before Ike’s winds started to make car travel dangerous.

“If you think you want to ride out the storm, and you’re looking at a 20-foot wall of water coming at you, you better think again,” said Houston Mayor Bill White, whose sprawling city of 2 million encompasses low areas in extreme danger.

In Galveston — site of a 1900 hurricane that was the deadliest weather disaster in U.S. history — residents nervously eyed the surf pounding the sea wall and splashing over the coast road early Friday.

“I’ve never seen it like that before. I’m scared, I’m leaving,” said motel manager Roy Patel. He had boarded up the office of the Economy Motel on the sea front and was headed out to the mainland by car.

The 1900 hurricane killed an estimated 10,000 people and literally wiped the city of Galveston off the map. It remains the deadliest natural disaster to ever strike our country.

For the latest on Ike, check out the hurricane tracking center at BoatUs.com …