CORPUS CHRISTI – Evacuations are underway for much of the Texas coast, in anticipation for Hurricane Harvey’s landfall Friday.

The sky and the water are pretty calm on the Corpus Christi bay Thursday afternoon, but the mood is anxious.

People are either hunkering down to weather the storm or packing up and heading out of town.

It’s clear which way most people are heading on Interstate-37, north, to get out of the path of Hurricane Harvey.

“We don’t want to stay and chance it,” said Corpus Christi resident, Jeff Keen.

Keen gathered his family, the furry kind included, “We can rebuild, but we can’t replace out kids.”

Corpus Christi isn’t making evacuation mandatory, but they’re strongly suggesting it.

The city is even bussing families to San Antonio for free, using school buses. Anyone who wants a ride, just needs to show up to a coty gym.

Corpus Christi is running an evacuation station and everyone that is in a neon vest is a city employee. They have trained for emergency situations like this.

They are registering every man, woman and child. All the people get a bracelet, as well as their belongings, so they can track everyone and everything that is being transported to San Antonio.

“The best thing to do was take heed, pack up and get away from here,” said Bill Bixby, a local resident.

Bixby knows neighbors who plan on staying behind and wishes that they change their minds.

“I would strongly, and I can’t say that enough, suggest that everybody make arrangements to be back. You wait, because you just got to keep in mind, you don’t want to get in a situation where you’re saying nobody came to help me. So they are providing a free bus ride to San Antonio, you need to take it and not be here. Stop saying nobody gave me help,” said Bixby.

Some people aren’t sure where they’ll be sleeping tonight in San Antonio. Still, they’ll sleep better knowing they’re safe from the storm.

Several cities and counties surrounding Corpus Christi have mandatory evacuations in place: Port Aransas, Aransas Pass, Port Lavaca, Rockport, Ingleside and Mathis, as well as Victoria, Refugio, Calhoun and San Patricio Counties.

Be sure to follow KRGV and Leslie Aguilar on Twitter for updates from Corpus Christi.