“I Like Ike”

Hurricane Ike is gaining strength as he pulls away from Cuba into the open Gulf of Mexico this Tuesday evening. Ahead of his path are bath water warm conditions and a likely rendezvous with the Texas Gulf coast. Preliminary computer predictions have Ike striking Texas at Cat 3 strength (111-130 mph), which would make him the strongest hurricane to affect American soil since Wilma in 2005.

The region from Padre Island and Brownsville to Corpus Christi seems a bit more likely to feel the wrath of Ike than Galveston Bay-Houston, but that forecast is only a 65-35 probability at this point. Timing is Friday night-Saturday for landfall.

Here’s a link to the National Hurricane Center for the latest and as always, you should start your hurricane tracking with Chris Bailey’s blog here at WSAZ.COM.

www.nhc.noaa.gov/

If all goes just wrong, we may well be saying we don’t like Ike by the weekend in Texas. That brings me to tonight’s historical tidbit on the famous saying “I LIKE IKE”.

He graduated West Point and went on to be the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in World War II. Ike for short, Dwight David Eisenhower made his name and reputation as the D-Day invasion began when he told his troops, “Full Victory, nothing else”.

After assuming the role of president of Columbia University after the war, Ike was drafted as the Republican candidate in 1952. Ike won the election handily and served as the 34th president of the United States of America.

If you are a golfer, then you likely know the story of the Eisenhower Tree. Ike was a member of Augusta National who kept hitting this tale pine tree off the 17th fairway. In 1956, Ike campaigned to have this 65 foot tall tree knocked down. He was ruled to be out of order at the Augusta National Governor’s board meeting at which point the tree became known as the Eisenhower tree.