Living in Galveston, which is a barrier island about 50 miles south of Houston, during Ike, we learned a few things. First each Hurricane is different, so you can not always know for sure how it will act and the damage it can do unril it hits.
If you are near the coast don't take chances, evacuate. Do you remember seeing Bolivar Pennsula after Ike, very few houses left. The water is worse than the wind. Our neigbor has a natual gas generator that went under water in the middle of Ike, also the natual gas was cut off because of the danger of fires. We also did not have drinkable water for over a month and no water the first week or two. Our electricity was off for only a month, some a lot longer. Phones were a couple of months and internet a little longer, also mail was not delivered for about 2 i/2 months. This is a worse case senario but that is what you should prepare for, It probably won't be that bad, I hope for your sakes, but better prepared than not.
I would never stay here thru a hurricane. Houston had electriciy out all over and some took longer to get theirs on than we did. They also had a lot of trees down but not really the flooding and it had weakened some before getting inland. Please if you are close to the water, get out.
My prayers for all of you is to be safe.
Ps: If you evacuate take your pictures and things you can not replace. Everything else is just stuff.