Hurricane Ike roared towards the Texas coast on Friday, threatening to drive a 6m wall of water into coastal communities and menacing Houston, the fourth-largest United States city.
The enormous hurricane, roughly the size of Texas itself, may be the worst storm to hit the state in nearly 50 years and is likely to make landfall within hours, the National Hurricane Centre said.
High winds and rain from the storm’s outer bands lashed the coast, sending huge waves crashing against a 5m sea wall built to protect Galveston, a barrier island city, after a hurricane there in 1900 killed at least 8 000.
The storm shut down 17 oil refineries, totalling more than a fifth of US production, endangered a freighter at sea, and destroyed a pier in Galveston.
The National Weather Service warned that people in coastal areas could ”face the possibility of death” and officials said the enormous storm could flood as many as 100 000 homes and send a huge wave across 160km of US coastline.
”Our nation is facing what is by any means a potentially catastrophic hurricane,” said US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, warning that the storm surge could present the gravest danger.
Nearly a million Texans heeded evacuation orders and headed inland, but officials said they were worried that many people had stayed in their homes.
”We don’t know what we’re going to find tomorrow [Saturday],” Galveston’s mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas, told the Houston Chronicle. ”We hope we’ll find that the people who didn’t leave here are alive and well.”
Ike was a category-two storm with 175km/h winds, and could easily become a category-three hurricane on the five-step intensity scale with winds of more than 178km/h.
Forecasters warned the storm would send water surging up the Houston Ship Canal, the second busiest US port, and that strong winds could heavily damage the glass-laden skyscrapers that dot Houston’s skyline.
Ike also forced waters inland and up a network of bayous that weave through the city, threatening to inundate neighbourhoods.
Massive power failure
About 13-million people in 132 counties along the Gulf coast could face hurricane and tropical storm conditions, the US National Census Bureau said.
Scattered blackouts were reported in communities near the coast, and utilities warned of a ”massive” power failure affecting millions of homes and businesses.
A dawn-to-dusk curfew was imposed in evacuated areas around Houston as officials acted to prevent looting.
At least 12 house fires burned on Galveston Island, where chest-high floodwaters prevented fire crews from reaching the blazes, a Reuters eyewitness on the island said.
The Coast Guard had to rescue 65 people from rising waters on the Bolivar Peninsula, east of Galveston.
Ports were closed and the Coast Guard said a 178m freighter with 22 people aboard was stranded without power 145km south-east of Galveston.
Houston airports were closed and hotels were jammed with those seeking shelter.
Ike could be the third-most destructive storm in US history behind hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Andrew in 1992, experts said.
Risk Management Solutions pegged the value of insured property in the Houston area at nearly $1-trillion, including the city’s port.
The costliest storm in US history, Katrina, devastated New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast, killing 1 500 people and causing at least $81-billion in damage.
It also damaged President George Bush’s standing and his administration was heavily criticised for its slow response to the disaster. — Reuters