[lainie]

the Houston Chronicle spoke with Galveston Fire Department Chief Michael A. Varela, Sr., who says the west end of town will be their first stop for rescues. "For us, one to 10, I'd say it's a 10," Varela says of the potential damage to Galveston.

crossing my fingers..

[TornadoAlley3]

GALVESTON, Texas — A historic Galveston, Texas, nightclub that once attracted some of the world’s top entertainers was washed away by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike.

The 79-year-old Balinese Room was once a popular dance and gambling hall. It hosted performances by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, George Burns and the Marx Brothers in the 1940s and ‘50s. Howard Hughes was a patron.

The structure along Galveston’s sea wall had extended 600 feet out into the Gulf of Mexico. The building was added to the Natoinal Register of Historic Places in 1997.

It had survived Hurricane Carla in 1961 and Hurricane Alicia in 1983, but Ike was too much for it as the storm’s surge ripped the building apart early Saturday.