Babysitting Hurricane Ike

We had loose plans to head for Houston Saturday, but had a change of plans due to events in Calif and the coming of Ike in Houston. Jamie called from Houston early Friday evening and said the electricity was already out, and the eye of Ike was still 150+ miles away. Since none of us have had any experience with hurricanes I made a decision to try to be their link to Ike info. Had I been in the same situation I couldn't imagine what it would be like in the dark listening to the wind howl and wondering whether the eye was bearing down me. So I monitored several sites with radar and satellite images, as well as National Weather Service, which gave frequent updates and location. Via text-messaging to her cell phone I tried to keep them informed of eye location and path as well as wind speed measured at various locations they would recognize (Hobby 67 mph, Beaumont 79 mph). Some time in the early morning, maps and charts being correct, their location went from tropical storm wind to hurricane force wind. The eye was huge, perhaps 50 miles across, and the wall of the eye passed within about 30 miles of them (using a Rand-McNally map). I figured from that point the situation could only improve for them as they were on the better "backside" of the counterclockwise rotation. I had trouble keeping my eyes open so my final text to her included "zzzzzz" and I went to bed with cell phone beside me. As the sun was coming up in SoCal I got a wonderful text from her, "We made it." I'm sure she will have a lot to add, but their electricity remains out and they suspect it may be out for several days, so we get to wait for her to blog the experience. (She told me she has a pix of Gracie as Grace looks out the window into the hurricane.)