This blog post is a departure from what we normally report on -- government transparency and money in politics -- but Texas Watchdog wants to say we're very impressed how Houston has faced Hurricane Ike.

Journalists at newspapers and the television stations gave it their all, covering the beast as it flexed its muscles and roared though the Bayou City. Bloggers have done their part, too. And from what we can see from our rain-soaked view, neighbors have been pitching in to help neighbors. That's a nice sight to see amidst the debris and the flooded roadways.

Some things that got our attention:

The Houston Chronicle has been doing a very good job covering the storm. And as much as I try not to, I've got to say that I really like the Sci Guy.

BlogHouston launched an open topic forum about Ike featuring not just updates, but also way to showcase photos of the storm. The folks there also let those hunkered down that they had drawn attention not just from the local media, but also from the mighty Telegraph of the United Kingdom. (By the way, the photo you see on this post is from the Flickr group set up by BlogHouston ... thanks to aggierunner04 for taking it.)

Off the Kuff cranked out updates like he was his own wire service. (And maybe better than a wire service -- Off the Kuff features links.) And we've got to give him props for this: in between storm posts, he continued to weigh in on political issues.

Houblog was giving a minute-by-minute description of the storm... until he apparently collapsed due to sheer exhaustion.

There were lots of others liveblogging and weighing in, such as Houston Strategies and the Burnt Orange Report. And there was some humor, too, with some hurricane "liveblogging" from Bay Area Houston.

We definitely wanted to show our gratitude to the folks facing Ike and keeping us informed.