Ike Update: The State Response

With Hurricane Ike looking Corpus Christi-bound, here's the quick highlights of the state's preparations:

– On Monday Gov. Rick Perry announced a disaster declaration for 88 counties: this has been followed by a presidential disaster declaration for 25 counties.
– A voluntary evacuation order has been issued for Corpus Christi. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, Texas Military Forces, Texas Forest Service, and Texas Parks and Wilfdlife Department staff are already making preparations in the area.
– Mandatory evacuation orders are place in Brazoria County and parts of Matagorda County.
– Voluntary evacuation orders have been issued for Galveston, San Patricio and Victoria counties and parts of Jackson County. The mayor of Galveston has ordered a mandatory evacuation of the island's west end. Buses and wheelchair accessible vans are being inspected by DPS staff for evacuees.
– Medical patients, residents at the Department of Aging and Disability Services' Corpus Christi and Rio Grande State Schools, and nursing home residents are being evacuated.
– The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is moving prisoners. Offenders in the Stevenson Unit in Cuero are heading to the McConnell Unit in Beeville and the Connally Unit in Kenedy: Offenders at the Glossbrenner Unit in San Diego are being transferred to the Briscoe Unit in Dilley. Female dialysis patients from the Carole S. Young Medical Facility Complex in Dickinson have already been moved to the Estelle Unit in Huntsville.