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There is considerable rising water already on Galveston Island and the winds are just now starting to pick up.  The National Weather Service is issuing Dire Warnings to people in coastal areas and the news continues to interview people who are riding out what they are saying will be a huge storm surge.  UTMB is now updating the 77-ALERT line and the red WEATHER button on the home page every three hours.

This afternoon’s timeline & information:

David, Steve, and I will be attending or calling into a 4:30 p.m. conference call with the State of Texas in the Emergency Operations Center.  A UTMB meeting about storm plans and preparations will follow.

At 5:30 p.m. tonight, we will have another IS meeting in 4.100 Admin to update everyone on what we heard at 4:30 p.m.  We will also open a conference call line for staff outside Galveston to hear what is going on.  Anyone copied is welcome to call in (forward as necessary). The number is 877-226-9790 and the access code is 3060078.  We will be using this for all conference calls during the storm so keep it on hand.

Thank you to everyone who has forwarded contact lists and staff locations to us in the OCC.  First and foremost, make sure your supervisor knows where you are and how to get a hold of you.

With the increasing winds, the IS on-site staff will soon be treated to a delectable menu of MRE choices including BBQ Beef, Chicken Noodle, Chicken & Rice Italia, and Pancakes.  Thankfully these were ordered and they arrived just in time.  If we could only find the white tablecloths.

An IS special forces group (Grimm, Breish, Young, & Ingram) were sent out early today to take pictures of the rising water.  We will be posting the link to these pictures very soon.

As always, if we can do anything for you, call us at the OCC at x23873.  Thanks…Todd.