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Hurricane Ike grows as it closes in on Texas

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-13 09:07

HOUSTON -- Hurricane Ike, a colossal storm nearly as big as Texas itself, began battering the coast Friday, threatening to obliterate waterfront towns and give the skyscrapers, refineries and docks of the nation's fourth-largest city their worst pounding in a generation.

Evan Norcom looks at a wave from Hurricane Ike while standing on the sea wall in Galveston, Texas, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008. Ike's eye was forecast to strike somewhere near Galveston late Friday or early Saturday then head inland for Houston. [Agencies]

But even as towering waves started crashing over the 17-foot Galveston seawall and floodwaters rose in low-lying areas, it became clear that many of the 1 million coastal residents who had been ordered to get out refused to do so and were taking their chances.

Authorities in three counties alone said roughly 90,000 stayed behind, despite a warning from forecasters that many of those in one- or two-story homes faced "certain death."

"I believe in the man up there, God," said William Steally, a 75-year-old retiree who planned to ride out the storm in Galveston without his wife or sister-in-law. "I believe he will take care of me."

At about 600 miles across, the hurricane was a monster, taking up almost the entire northern half of the Gulf of Mexico. As it zeroed in on the coast, it trapped 60 people who had to be rescued from the floodwaters near Galveston by helicopter, breached levees in rural Louisiana, and tossed around a disabled 584-foot cargo ship in the Gulf.

Before sunset Friday, power had been knocked out to 70,000 customers along the coast, including 15,000 in Galvaston. That number that was expected to climb quickly throughout the night, according to Centerpoint Energy, the primary electricity provider for the region.

As of 7 p.m. EDT, Ike was centered about 100 miles southeast of Galveston, moving at 13 mph. It was close to a Category 3 storm with winds of 110 mph, and was expected to strengthen by the time the eye hit land. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore somewhere near Galveston late Friday or early Saturday and pass almost directly over Houston.

Because of the hurricane's size, the state's shallow coastal waters and its largely unprotected coastline, forecasters said the biggest threat would be flooding and storm surge, with Ike expected to hurl a wall of water two stories high -- 20 to 25 feet -- at the coast.

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