About a million Texans evacuated

With ferocious winds pushing a wall of water 20 feet high ahead of it, Hurricane Ike began its destruction of the Gulf Coast of Texas on Friday night, inundating Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula even before it made landfall. Houston was direct in its line of sight and will be hit towards dawn of Saturday.

In Galveston, 20,000 residents ignored evacuation orders and stood ready to face Hurricane Ike. The advance flooding that occurred completely cut off all routes to people who might have changed their minds. Three hundred people did at the last minute and were forced to wade through the floodwaters, desperately clutching their clothes and other possessions.

Hurricane Ike is huge at 600 miles across, almost as big as Texas itself, with winds of 110 miles per hour or 175 kilometers per hour (Category 2) that could easily increase to a Category 3 hurricane (winds of 111 mph or 178 kph).

Oil companies decided to shut down 17 oil refineries, which together comprise more than one-fifth of U.S. production.

Disaster officials feared that the storm could drive strong water surges as far as the Houston Ship Canal, the second busiest port in the country, and that the ferocious winds could cause heavy damage to the glass windows in Houston’s skyscrapers.

The Houston port handled over 200 million tons of cargo in 2006.

Preliminary estimates of damage to insured property are placed between $10 billion and $20 billion, far exceeding the $2 billion damage from Hurricane Rita in 2005. But some insurers think total damage could even approach the $41 billion insurance losses left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, also in 2005.

Right now the concern is on human lives.

Roughly a million Texans followed evacuation orders and went to inland areas. But many more residents have chosen to stay, despite National Weather Service warnings that those who stayed behind in the coastal areas faced “certain death.”

According to the U.S. National Census Bureau, about 13 million people living in 132 counties along the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail could be affected by hurricane and tropical storm conditions.

Officials are worried about what they will find in the aftermath of the storm.

A spokesman for the Texas Governor said, “The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in tomorrow and put our people in the tough situation to save people who did not choose wisely. We'll probably do the largest search and rescue operation that's ever been conducted in the state of Texas.”

Safety Tips:

* Have enough food and water ready to provide the needs of each person and pet for at least 3-5 days.
* Write a list of important phone numbers (family, healthcare providers, government agencies). These are the numbers you will most likely call after the storm passes.