UPDATE: By this afternoon, the local commercial stations were back to their regularly scheduled programming. Local Ike relief info can be found on the City of Austin's municipal TV cable Channel 6. Also KLBJ-AM and Spanish language 107.7 FM will have updates. ****************************** Huge hugs and media colleague backslaps to KVUE-TV and KXAN-TV: KVUE is carrying the live feed from Houston's KHOU-TV, and KXAN is carrying KPRC-TV from Houston. The Houston stations are running straight through with coverage – very little in the way of commercial interruption. Thank you, KXAN. Thank you, KVUE.

So much devastation on my favorite island. I am in shock. I am in mourning. I am relieved at the first reports of small numbers regarding loss of life or injuries. But the physical mayhem wreaked on the island nation is heartbreaking. Please indulge me. Here is my feature on the historic Balinese Room from 2004, part of a Galveston Summer Fun section. Here is their main website. This darling landmark has apparently been totally destroyed. More. Much more on this and other Galveston/Houston news soon.

Harris County Homeland Security & Emergency Management director Harris County Judge Ed Emmett issued these statements at a press conference from Houston just a few minutes ago:

"I have to urge everyone do not go out sightseeing. We have flooding of bayous. Memorial is impassable. Areas of I-10, impassible. With Buffalo Bayou in the condition it's in, it is very important for people to stay home. We've got more rain bands coming in. Channels may begin to subside once the rain passes, but for now, stay home. There are tree limbs down powerlines down. Please, I can't urge you strongly enough to not take a risk."

The power is out for much of the area, there is a water boiling order in Houston, and we are awaiting statements from both FEMA and preparing to attend a 2pm news conference held by Austin OEM. We'll keep you updated as we can. Until then, please, just stay put!

KVUE's morning forecast with Meghan Danahey puts Austin in the clear.

The Weather Channel's Jorma Duran reporting live from Beaumont last night. It's a funny clip with some pretty accurate forecasting... Back in Clearlake, TWC's Mike Bettes wrestles a bush.

They really had no intention of coming to Austin, but here they are. Vincent and a group of his family and friends from Texas City decided to hit the road after days of unclear advice from their area agencies and from foreboding rumors around town that many employers would not pay (or might even terminate) employees leaving town. The family got to the fork in the road with the choice of either College Station or Austin, they decided to call 211. "At that point, we heard that College Station may be evacuated, too, so we decided to come to Austin," he said. Austin, he was told had plenty of shelter and the sign said 111 miles.

While we've overheard from some evacuees rumors of outrageous prices reminiscent of the Rita evac, the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management kindly remind us that:

The Texas Civil Rights Project has issued a press release making what could be one of the most serious allegations as Hurricane Ike heads towards the coast: "Galveston County Sherriff Gean Leonard is reportedly refusing to evacuate 300 guards and 1,000 inmates in the county jail." The group then goes on to demand immediate evacuation, since the area is under an emergency evacuation order anyway, As the press release notes, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice started evacuating prisoners from its facilities in Ike's path on Tuesday. But if, as the National Weather Service predicts, the storm surge could bring "certain death," this could raise the specter of the prisoners left in Orleans Parish Prison during Hurricane Katrina. UPDATE 9/13/2008, 3.10pm: The fabulous Grits for Breakfast blog is keeping a stellar eye on this evolving story, which seems to have boiled down to two basic facts. One, that the inmates (most of whom were on remand, not convicted, not that it should really matter in this context) and a skeleton staff of sherriff's deputies were left there; and two, that their health and well-being still seems unclear.

After countless episodes of NBC's "To Catch a Predator," and the constant (and overbearing) public crusading against online predators by our own Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, is there anyone still out there that actually believes that 13-year-old online is actually a 13-year-old and not a cyber cop? Apparently, yes – and the most recent to fall prey in Texas is someone you'd think would know better: Former Westlake Hills cop Paul Kirksey. (Insert inappropriate joke here.) According to Abbott's office, a Llano Co. grand jury on Sept. 9 indicted Kirksey on five felony counts of online solicitation of a minor. The AG's Cyber Crimes Unit arrested Kirksey in January after he allegedly distributed "sexually explicit images" to someone he thought was – wait for it – a 13-year-old girl. According to the AG's office, Abbott's cyber squad has nabbed more than 700 "sex predators" since 2003.