Question for people that stayed during hurricane Ike

I guess this goes more for coasters like Galveston and Freeport. I was in Freeport when it hit with my family. I was only 10 at the time so my memory isn’t perfectly clear. I have a vivid memory of police knocking on my door and telling my family to write our social security numbers on our body in sharpie a day before Ike made landfall. At the time I didn’t understand why. My family never spoke about it again and it makes me wonder if I made this all up in my head. Is this something that really happened? I know for sure it didn’t happen for Harvey so that’s what’s making me second guess myself.