Certain death?

So, Ike is kind of a big deal right now. Check out this news article via msnbc.com. The National Weather Service actually issued a statement that said the following

"Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family one- or two-story homes may face certain death. Many residences of average construction directly on the coast will be destroyed."

Certain death. Heavy-handed? Frankly, no. I mean, we saw what happened with Katrina back 2005. The NWS issued states warning about massive flooding, storm surges, and breaking levees and there were still over a thousand people killed and many more stranded in New Orleans with, inexplicably, no one coming to their aid for days. Hurricanes as strong as Ike is going to be (potenially a Cat. 3 storm) in the shallow waters along the Gulf coast bearing down on the 4th largest city in the U.S. need to be taken seriously. The current track of the storm is going to take it just to the west of Houston. If you or anyone you know live in the area, urge them to head inland.

Judging from the lines of cars fleeing the coast, I'd say that people are taking it seriously. That's good news.