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Hurricane slams into Texas coast

Hurricane Ike barreled into the densely populated Texas coast near Houston early yesterday, bringing with it a wall of water and ferocious winds and rain that could cause catastrophic flooding along the Gulf of Mexico and cripple the fourth-largest US city.

Ike, which has idled more than a fifth of US oil production, came ashore at the barrier island city of Galveston as a strong Category 2 storm at 2:10am with 175kph winds, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm was later downgraded to a Category 1.

Ike barreled through the Gulf of Mexico for days and covered a vast area extending hundreds of kilometers when it slammed into the Texas coast.

The hurricane drove a wall of water over Galveston and submerged a 5m sea wall built to protect the city after a 1900 hurricane killed at least 8,000 people. More than half of its 60,000 residents had fled and emergency operations were suspended through the storm.

About 80km inland, Ike lashed downtown Houston’s glass-covered skyscrapers, blowing out windows and sending debris flying through water-clogged city streets.

Buildings were damaged and there were fallen trees and power lines across the Houston area.

Texas officials were waiting for a break in the weather to deploy a search and rescue operation.

“We expected a major storm and our expectations unfortunately came true,” said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Texas Governor Rick Perry. “The weather needs to clear up a little bit to see just what the devastation was.”

The hurricane has shut down 17 oil refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, the heart of the US oil sector where 22 percent of fuel supplies are processed. Energy experts said it would take at least a week for the refineries to get back to normal.

Houston was dark yesterday morning except for downtown and the Texas Medical Center, which are fed by underground power sources, Floyd LeBlanc of CenterPoint Energy said in an e-mail. Nearly all 2 million customers, or 4.5 million people, in the Houston-Galveston area were without power, he said.

“This is a huge storm that is causing a lot of damage, not only in Texas, but also in parts of Louisiana,” US President George W. Bush said yesterday.

He said the government would monitor gas prices to prevent extraordinary price increases.

Bush announced yesterday that restrictions on imported gasoline had been suspended.
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