More updates on Hurricane Ike. I know people near the Gulf of Mexico are worried.
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Hurricane Ike Smashes Through Carribean Towards Florida Keys
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Hurricane Kills at Least 4 in Cuba (HEADING TOWARDS TEXAS)By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
The New York Times
Published: September 9, 2008
Hurricane Ike continued its rampage across Cuba on Tuesday, killing four people, prompting more than a million others to flee and sending jitters through those living along the already battered shoreline of the Gulf Coast.
After the storm pummeled Haiti, killing at least 58 people, Ike made landfall in Cuba late Sunday night with Category 3 winds of 111 miles an hour and greater. The storm weakened slightly as it traveled east across the island, but moved so quickly that it claimed its first lives before the government could evacuate about 1.2 million people in its path.
One woman died when her home collapsed, a man was killed by a tree, and two others died while removing equipment from a roof, The Associated Press reported, citing state television. Ike has battered some of the same areas that were walloped in late August by a Hurricane Gustav, which was more powerful. But no one in Cuba was killed by Gustav because hundreds of thousands of people had been safely evacuated.
As of 11 a.m. eastern time on Tuesday, Ike was about 55 miles away from Cuba's capitol, Havana, the largest city in the Caribbean, and dropping as many as 20 inches of rain in some areas while spreading rip tides and hurricane winds over a distance of 35 miles. With Ike flooding streets, downing trees, and flattening several hundred frail, stone buildings - many of them homes - in rural areas, millions fled Havana for government shelters and safer structures. The capital came to a near standstill as schools, businesses and offices closed, and many people across the island were left without power.
According to forecasters at the National Hurricane Center, Ike was generating large swells at sea that have created massive waves and life-threatening conditions in the Florida Keys. They said isolated tornadoes and waterspouts could crop up over the Keys and other parts of south Florida throughout the day.
After heading west over the island at roughly 13 miles per hour throughout the day on Tuesday, Ike was expected to follow a path that could take it straight into the Gulf of Mexico, where it would likely gain strength before battering Texas over the weekend, forecasters said. The Gulf's shallow waters and warm temperatures are notorious for feeding and generating powerful hurricanes capable of causing widespread death and devastation, as happened in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina killed about 1,500 people along the coast.
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas issued a disaster declaration on Monday in preparation for Ike's arrival.
Concern that the hurricane might wreak havoc in the Gulf prompted the evacuation of offshore oil platforms that handle a quarter of the nation's petroleum production. But oil prices continued to fall, in part because of expectations that OPEC would keep production stable ahead of an upcoming meeting in Vienna.
Ike first made landfall on Saturday in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos islands as a monstrous category four hurricane, with winds between 131 and 155 miles an hour. The storm then swept through Haiti, where more than 600 people have been killed by storms this year.
Flooding and rain wiped out homes and inundated cities and agricultural areas. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, is particularly vulnerable to storm-related disasters because much of its forests have been used for fuel, leaving the country with little protection from mudslides and flooding.
Texans get ready as Hurricane Ike heads their way(CNN)
Residents along part of the Texas Gulf Coast have been told to leave Wednesday morning after Hurricane Ike left Cuba and began to gain strength in the warm Gulf of Mexico.
Officials in the Galveston area's Brazoria County ordered mandatory evacuation for one ZIP code and for people with special needs, beginning at 10 a.m. CT (11 a.m. ET), CNN affiliate KTRK-TV in Houston reported.
Perhaps more important to many in Texas, dozens of high school football games in cities and towns along the coast were rescheduled from Friday to Thursday night to avoid playing in the storm, CNN affiliate KGBT-TV reported.
The National Hurricane Center indicated Ike likely would come ashore along the Texas coast between Galveston and Brownsville as a major hurricane. But forecasters stressed the unpredictability of the storm, which could change course at the last minute.
"It's very frustrating for all of us," said Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas. "We're on alert, and we will continue to monitor this storm. I wish we could be clearer about where it's going."
Ike's center left western Cuba on Tuesday afternoon, having hit it with 75-mph winds, high surf and torrential rains in its second Cuban landfall in three days, the hurricane center said.
At 8 a.m. ET Wednesday, Ike, with 85-mph winds, was in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico about 145 miles north of the western tip of Cuba and 435 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to the center. The wind speed of the storm increased by 10 mph overnight.
Forecasters said Ike is likely to make landfall around Port O'Connor, Texas, late Friday or early Saturday as a Category 3 hurricane, with winds of 111 mph to 130 mph.
Tropical storm-force winds extended to the Florida Keys, though a storm warning for Key West was dropped Wednesday morning. iReport.com: Big waves hit Florida Keys
Thomas warned residents to stock up on nonperishable items, including pet food and diapers, and to prepare for going without electricity. Track the storm
Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc issued a warning to residents of the city's West End, citing forecasters' estimates that the area could get tides of 6 feet above normal if the storm arrives there. The West End is the area of Galveston most susceptible to flooding, LeBlanc said.
Thomas said she could call for voluntary evacuations of the West End by Wednesday morning, depending on forecasts.
By Tuesday night, officials in Corpus Christi, Texas, had called for the evacuations of special-needs residents beginning Wednesday morning. They also called for the relocation of high-profile vehicles -- including vans, motor homes, travel trailers and hitched boats -- that could hinder traffic if expanded evacuations become necessary.
The Texas Department of Transportation said it expected to open a shoulder of northbound Interstate 37 to traffic -- from coastal Corpus Christi to U.S. 281 roughly 80 miles inland -- on Wednesday morning to help people trying to leave the city.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry put 7,500 National Guard members on standby Tuesday, his office said. Watch where Ike may be headed along the U.S. coast »
In Cuba, evacuations appeared to have saved lives. Four deaths were reported from the storm, according to the Cuban government. The Cuban Civil Defense brought buses or trucks to take people to shelters. See the damage from the storm »
Cuban state television reported that two people were killed when they tried to remove an antenna, The Associated Press said. One man died when a tree crashed into his home, and a woman died when her home's roof collapsed, according to the AP.
The storm shredded hundreds of homes and caused some dilapidated buildings in Havana's older areas to collapse, the AP reported.
Teresa Tejeda, who is in her 70s, told the AP she joined several hundred other elderly people at a government shelter because she was too scared to stay in her old apartment building.
"My house has really bad walls, and I feel much more secure here," Tejeda said. Watch as winds and waves pound Cuba »
The United States, which provided $100,000 in emergency aid to communist-run Cuba through private aid agencies after Hurricane Gustav hit the island August 30, said Tuesday that it was considering additional emergency aid for Cuba because of Ike.
Also, the United States said it will lift restrictions on cash and humanitarian assistance sent to Cuba for the next 90 days. That will allow nongovernmental organizations to provide assistance and cash donations. Watch what Ike did to Cuba »
Flooding and rains from Ike's outer bands have been blamed for 70 deaths in Haiti, bringing that country's death toll from four recent major storms -- including Fay, Gustav and Hanna -- to 341, said Abel Nazaire, deputy head of Haiti's Civil Protection Service.
If you are in Texas now, stop reading this and leave immediately. If you need help or advice, there are more detailed contact information linked through the comments below.
Some additional information:
10/09/2008: Evacuations begin in Texas
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Hurricane Ike Smashes Through Carribean Towards Florida Keys
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