Hurricane Ike is expected to hit south of Galveston Island as a Category 3 storm with up to 125 mph winds - wind gusts may be up to 160.

Evacuation orders are already in place for all of Galveston and portions of Houston. As the worst part of the storm is the south and east, NASA Mission Control and the largest U.S. oil refinery - which is owned by Dallas-based ExxonMobil - are all under threat. 25% of the nation’s oil is refined along the Texas Gulf Coast so there is a chance that if systems go down our gasoline prices will go up. The refineries are built to withstand hurricane force winds; however, it’s the tidal surges that has people concerned.

This morning, medical patients started arriving on military planes at DFW International Airport where they were evaluated by medical teams and sent to area hospitals.

As of now, the southbound lanes of I-45 between Dallas and Houston have not been reversed - but that is a possibility as the storm grows closer to hitting landfall Saturday morning.

The storm is expected to head for Dallas as of Sunday morning and we, at this time, are to expect 40+mph winds, gusts up to 65mph and the possibility of tornadoes to the south and east. We might also expect up to 6″ of rain which could result in flash flooding.