Gary,
I'm glad to see you are out roller blading along spreading the news for people to leave. I hope that you take your own advice and get out too before hurricane Ike hits. No matter how safe you think a hotel is you really have no idea how it's going to stand up to that much flooding and force being put on it.

What ever you do PLEASE stay safe!

Cindy..Ga.

Hi Gary!
My son is stuck in Houston and says he will "ride out" the storm. He, like many others remember fleaing Rita and got stuck on the highway with no gas and a car full of family and pets.
He says the highways are too congested from where he lives.
I am really frightened. Even in my town of Nacogdoches, 2 hours north of Houston, we will have hurricane force winds. Yikes IKE'S coming!
Take care Gary and Anderson and all you great reporters from CNN.
(((hugs)))) and prayers to stay safe~
Godspeed~
P.S. Don't forget to "hunker down"

It's good to see people taking the warnings seriously, up in Austin, our school is second in line after the high school to hold evacuees, and at 5:00 AM a message went out that there would be no school for us, meaning the Delco Center, the High School, and then our middle school, would be filled, though our rival middle school isn't.

Excellent photo, my mum says she would have left on Wednesday if she lived down there.

Ummm...Gary, why are you YOU still there? Shouldn't you heed your own advice? Better to leave now and live another day to report the news, than play "Diehard With A Vengeance" now and have us burying (if we can find it) your body tomorrow.

Gary, both you & Anderson are 'crazy' sometimes. Please be safe & be careful. I am glad you told those people to go. Hope Chad & you guys have worked out a 'strategic plan' for later!
At any rate, we need you & Anderson & Susan, & everybody else, back in NYC after this is done.
You all do a great job & we appreciate it–take care...

Anderson:

I have lived through H. Andrew and six other storms in the Ft. Lauderdale area. I'd like to share a tip that may help some people when they run out of water. Before the storm fill add 1 gallon of vinegar to your washing machine and run a full cycle. Next, run another cycle free of any detergents. After that, fill the washer with water. Depending on how long your without water, this can be quite useful. Especially for hand and body washing. You may still want to boil this water for consumption on your outside grill.

I'm praying for all.

Laurie Comrie

Be safe, take shelter if you need to all of you guys and gals over there. I'll be praying for everyone that is left there in Texas. May God Bless Texas.

As a lover of history, I am interested to know about the Texas "White House," Governor Ross Sterling's home in historic Morgan's Point facing Galveston Bay. Any way to see a helicopter video of the home or to get more info about how it is faring through all this?

PPS. I am now through "hunkering down" my home. I am on my way to get a hurricane survival kit. It's at the liquor store!
I'm gonna need it. Hope you have some too!
Cheers!

I live in Tampa Fla. and I chose to live in the hurricane ally, I am getting soooo sick and tired of hearing about all of these people who fail to evacuate when told of certain distruction ... I see these people walk or swim to safty with the help of others who put their life at risk and cost us our tax dollars at work..when there are other things these rescuers can be doing .. I think these ingrateful people should be subject to a fine just as I would be if I called an ambulence or fire rescue....this is uncalled for and should be corrected and not 5 years down the road either...thank you Ken Martin

Gary

Reporters are a different breed – skating while waiting on a gigantic hurricane that the weather people say will mean certain death if you don't leave. I hope that hotel is really as sturdy as you seem to think it is. Be careful...stay safe.....don't get dead. We like hearing your reports.

Annie Kate
Birmingham AL

Hey Gary! Perhaps you should go too! I heard Anderson mention trying to get to the island before tonight, so he could brodcast fron there also. We've all seen reporters and weathermen tied to a railing, blowing in the wind. No story is worth you life! If you decide to stay, please be safe. If Anderson joins you, tie him to something, so he doesn't go flying away! All kidding aside, this storm is dangerous, please be safe.

unbelieveable !!!!!!! what does it take to make people understand that they are putting their lives in danger by not leaving? A lady on drugs once told me that she was commiting premeditated murder. is this the case for the people that want leave?

A 17ft. sea wall facing this storm is about like the Titanic facing an Iceburg 100 times its size, its going under the water big time. I hope common sense and reason move my fellow Americans to leave so that we won't have to commit thier bodies to the sea like those on the Titanic who trusted in a cration of man to keep them safe.

Gary

What happens to the vehicles cruise ship passengers have parked in Galveston? Also, Bennos is a great Cajan seafood restaurant if you get a chance when it opens back up–I'm assuming it is closed now.

Thanks.

Gary, I hope to God you have a really really good life jacket and/or scuba equipment. And lots of play in your lines.

(from Dallas) PLEASE STOP! Please stop interviewing the people you rescue! It's one thing to highlight a great rescue, but people who chose to stay in harms way and then decide they want out are just looking for a spot on the camers! They are ignorant! They were given the command to leave. They chose not to leave. I hate to be ugly, but if they die, they die. Why should rescuers put themselves in harms way to rescue these people who made ignorant choices when they were given the warning? If my spouse were a rescuer, I would want them to come home at night and not hear that they had to rescue someone who refused to leave... but then decided to leave... and when interviewed, they were laughing about it, saying the electricity went out so they decided to leave! That is just nuts!!!! Show the rescues, but please don't interview these people who are out to make the news!!!

Will fines be assessed for those fools who chose to stay and then call for rescue? This is crazy. Those people should HAVE to wait it out rather than put our emergency workers lives' at risk. I am getting really angry just watching the foolish people that do not follow the MANDATORY warnings

I think Sarah Palin is to blame.

Please... be... careful...

People who don't live on the cost don't understand what it is like to wait and see. There's a time to run and a time to sit still, sometimes running creates more problems than ridding it out. The trick is to know when that clock will run out so you can move when ready, before it's too late. You'll have many post below me that that's a crazy way to look at it but it's true. The last storm we ran from was Ivan and the only reason we ran then was becasue my dad coudln't get down to us, if he could have we would have stayed put. We are lukcy in that we are on a hill so flooding is never something we worry about. If our house floods we have more problems than the storm, it's will be time to call Noah. The big deal is to know that if you wait and it's too late you have to accept the fate you have dealt yourself. Which the guy in New Orleans learned during Katrina which he had to deal with during Gustav.

Stay safe and be careful.

Marcy
Mobile, AL

God, can't you just go inland a couple of miles!

Myself and my Mom have been watching the coverage of Ike most of the day. I lived in South TX for 16 year, and still have family and freinds that live in the area. What bothers both of us is that the city of Houston, and the surrounding areas had busses and the such to get people out. But those people that wanted to "ride it out", are now asking for gov't to coming and save them. And who is going to have pay for it? We are! Also these families that have children, should have the book thrown at them, for Reckless Endangerments of a Minor. If you drink and drive with kids in the car then you are arrested for Reckless Endangerments of a Minor, why is this any differnt?

Gary, I hope you get hazard pay for all the hurricanes you cover. Good luck and stay safe.

Gary,

I see things have changed dramatically in Galveston! Your roller blades were probably a good way to get around this afternoon, but not tonight!

I can’t understand how anyone could think that they can ride out a killer storm. It is one thing to make that decision for themselves, but I am shocked that people with kids would be so reckless and take a chance like that.

If this evacuation is mandatory those that have to be rescued should be charged for it. Don’t they realize that they are not just playing with their own lives; they are putting the lives of the rescuers at risk? That isn’t fair.

Take care of yourself!

Jo Ann
North Royalton, Ohio