Fri Sep 12, 2008 12:47pm EDT
By Tim Gaynor
GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike closed in on the Texas coast on Friday, pushing a wall of water that weather officials warned could bring certain death to those who did not heed mandatory evacuation orders.
Waters rose rapidly along the Texas coast as Ike moved within hours of striking low-lying areas near Houston with a possible 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge in what may be the worst storm to hit Texas in nearly 50 years.
The National Weather Service warned that people in coastal areas could face "certain death" from the storm's massive storm surge.
Ike was a Category 2 storm with 105 mph (165 kph) winds as it moved on a course that pass directly over Houston -- the nation's fourth-largest city.
Ike was expected to come ashore late on Friday or early on Saturday as a dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-step intensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.
As high waves pounded mostly evacuated coastal communities, the Coast Guard said a 584-foot freighter with 22 people aboard was stranded without power 90 miles southeast of Galveston. Sea conditions were too treacherous to attempt rescue.
Hundreds of thousands fled the island city of Galveston and low-lying counties under mandatory evacuation orders and authorities urged holdouts to move before Ike's winds started to make car travel dangerous.
"Leave now," said Ed Emmett, chief administrator for Harris County, which encompasses most Houston and its environs. "The storm surge is stronger and it's important that people understand that this really is a life or a death matter."
U.S. crude oil futures jumped $2 to near $103 a barrel as traders eyed the potential for Ike's massive storm surge to swamp low-lying refineries along the Gulf Coast that process about 20 percent of the nation's fuel.
Weather forecasters at Planalytics saw "major and long-term damage likely at the major refining cities."
In Galveston -- site of a 1900 hurricane that was the deadliest weather disaster in U.S. history -- residents nervously eyed the seashore as Ike's waters bashed over the sea wall and crept into clusters of houses perched on stilts.
"I've never seen it like that before. I'm scared, I'm leaving," said motel manager Roy Patel. He had boarded up the office of the Economy Motel on the sea front and was headed to the mainland by car.
In central Houston, the administrative hub of the nation's oil industry around 50 miles inland from Galveston, businesses closed and boarded up windows Thursday night in preparation for possible hurricane-force winds and flooding. But officials said most residents should "shelter in place" since the city is some 50 feet above sea level.
U.S. President George W. Bush said he was "deeply concerned" about the storm and the fate of his fellow Texans.
"It is a major storm headed toward a large population center," Bush told reporters at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.
'THIS IS SCARY'
Ike comes just 10 days after Hurricane Gustav barreled into the Louisiana coast and sent 2 million people fleeing but largely spared a New Orleans still struggling with the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
But in this active hurricane season that has had the Atlantic and Gulf coasts on high alert, Ike posed its own challenges because of its large scope, which was bigger than Katrina's. Hurricane-force winds could extend out up to 120 miles.
At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Friday, the hurricane center said in its latest advisory Ike was about 195 miles southeast of Galveston. It was moving west-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph).
Much to authorities' frustration, holdouts harked back to the bad experience of the last large-scale evacuation in Texas in 2005, when 2 million people fled Hurricane Rita, getting stranded on highways for hours and running out of gasoline. Rita largely skirted the Houston area.
"We have pets, we can't travel," said Monette Baugh, clutching her poodle as she walked the Galveston sea wall. "We stayed for Rita and we are staying this time. You listen to the TV and you are petrified. They have a tendency to exaggerate. But yes, this is scary."
Local television said Ike looked to pose the biggest threat to the Texas coast since Hurricane Carla in 1961, which struck as a Category 4 storm and caused more than $2 billion in damage and 43 deaths.
(Additional reporting by Anna Driver and Bruce Nichols; writing by Chris Baltimore and Mary Milliken; Editing by Bill Trott)
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2 comments:
The LORD has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm....(Nahum 1:3)
Prayers for the people of the Gulf Coast....and all of us. I heard this morning that half of Galveston has not evacuated. Destructive flooding is already occurring far ahead of landfall.
Dr: Jeff Masters at wunderground.com/blog:
Hurricane Ike is closing in on Texas, and stands poised to become one of the most damaging hurricanes of all time. Despite Ike's rated Category 2 strength, the hurricane is much larger and more powerful than Category 5 Katrina or Category 5 Rita. The storm surge from Ike could rival Katrina's, inundating a 200-mile stretch of coast from Galveston to Cameron, Louisiana with waters over 15 feet high. This massive storm surge is due to the exceptional size of Ike......
September 13, 2008
Galveston family finds refuge at 11th hour
Steven Rushing heard the warnings, but it all sounded so familiar.
When Rita came three years ago, everyone was warned to leave or face a likely death, and when the storm turned away, people rode bicycles on the streets of Galveston.
Even as Ike bore down on the island where he has lived all his life and worked as a commercial fisherman, he felt assured, whipping up a bowl of chili for himself and six family members and cozying up in his living room to watch TV.
``I thought this was going to be like that. I was very wrong. It’s bad, real bad. We barely made it out.’’
At about 11 p.m., he took a look outside and saw the water. Before he knew it, the surge flooded through the door and the electrical sockets, up to his feet, his knees and his waist. His mattress and couch began to float, his 12 year-old son threw up in the bathroom and his 19 year-old son wrote down his social security number on his arm, assuring his father that he wasn’t scared, but wanted to make sure he could be identified.
``We were staring down death,’’ he said.
Rushing decided to try tying himself and his family members to a tree outside in hopes they would be rescued.
Just as he broke a window in the living room, though, something very unexpected happened: the eye passed over.
``It’s like somebody pushed a button and turned off everything,’’ said Rushing, 37. ``It was eerie.’’
So he loaded up his wife, pregnant daughter, two sons, nephew, cousin and two dogs on a ski boat made for five people and navigated the streets, which were flooded with six to eight feet of water.
They were 20 blocks from the San Luis Hotel, where the city’s leaders and emergency operations personnel were staying. The boat ran aground about four blocks from the hotel, and the whole crowd ran straightaway from there, making it before the fierce winds picked up again.
Once he arrived, he spoke wide-eyed to reporters and firefighters, almost in shock, while his family slept.
``I’m beat up, I’m traumatized,’’ he said, wondering if the shrimp boat he depends on for his livelihood had been destroyed. ``My wife’s mad at me. She wanted to evacuate. Next time, we’ll leave a week early.’’
LINDSAY WISE
Houston Chronicle blog
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