Texans eye Ike, flee to safer areas
Ike moved through the Gulf of Mexico at about 12 mph, and was about 295 miles east of Corpus Christi and about 320 miles southeast of Galveston, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
The center said Ike's eye should be near the upper Texas coast late Friday or early Saturday. However, the NHC said because of Ike's size, weather conditions would deteriorate through the day.
Federal, state and local officials warned residents along the Texas Gulf coast not to take dire warnings about Hurricane Ike lightly.
"The most important message I can send is do not take this storm lightly," said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff during a briefing Thursday. "It is large, it is powerful, it carries a lot of water with it and you're much better served being safe rather than sorry."
Coastal storm surge flooding could be up to 20 feet above normal tide levels, the center said.
Evacuees descended on Austin, Texas, to seek shelter from the storm, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Representatives of the Seton Family of Hospitals and St. David's HealthCare in Austin said their facilities expected to receive about 125 patients evacuated from coastal areas.
Despite mandatory evacuation orders for Galveston and Galveston Island, the city's Daily News reported a number of people intended to hunker down rather than flee.
Katie Devine, 58, told the newspaper she would stay with relatives on the mainland who offered her a place.
"I was on the road for 30 hours during (Hurricane) Rita," Devine said.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
