As I write this, Hurricane Ike is bearing down on the Texas coast, aimed directly at Houston, the state's largest metropolitan area. While people are fleeing the coast ahead of Ike, and others are hunkering down for the storm, many businesses have been forced to close for the interim.

We've been contacted by many of those businesses to answer their phones until the storm passes, and normal business can resume. A service similar to ours in Houston has been forced to close its call center, and we are taking calls for 300 of its most critical clients.

We've staffed up, and have more on standby. We'll be taking and dispatching calls throughout the weekend.

We had made preparations to hunker down ourselves - checked the generator, backed up all critical systems, made sure there was food and water for the staff. But it looks like the worst of the storm will pass to the east of us.

Nevertheless, it's going to be a busy weekend!