Houston and Texas coastal areas were subjected to massive evacuations on Thursday before the arrival Friday of this devastating hurricane Ike, already hit hard the Caribbean, where he left a trail of destruction and death.
The Texas governor, Rick Perry, alerted the population of imminent danger: "My message to Texans (living) in the area of impact is expected this: complete their preparations because Ike is dangerous and is on its way," he warned.
After having caused more than a hundred dead in the Caribbean, the hurricane was at 05H00 of this Friday over the Gulf of Mexico, about 545 km from Galveston, the coastal city nearest to Houston, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Ike should touch the coast in southern Galveston from Friday night, but the weather should worsen before, according to forecasts. The cyclone "could become a hurricane before reaching the higher expense", with winds of 190 kph, the NHC warned.
The agency based in Miami issued a special bulletin in which he warned that "people who do not obey the evacuation orders in houses or double-decker will face certain death" in coastal areas from Texas to receive the blow, mainly Galveston.
"Coastal Communities prone to flooding will be isolated," he said.
Roads and bridges in the area remained congested by tens of thousands of vehicles and the authorities of Harris County, which is part of Houston, announced the evacuation of flooded neighborhoods, where 250,000 people live, starting with the most vulnerable people, elderly, sick or disabled.
"We have sent, and continue sending (military aircraft) C-130 and ambulances", and "we have sent 1,350 buses to the region," elaborated one of the highest executive authorities Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, being interviewed on CNN .
President George W. Bush, who decreed a state of emergency in Texas, met with the secretary of Homeland Security, Chertoff David, and the director of the Federal Agency for Emergency Management (FEM) David Paulison, as well as the governor of Texas.
"He was informed about the route and the strength of the cyclone, which should be very important," said White House spokesman, Dana Perino.
Houston fourth largest city in the United States, has 2.2 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area of 5.6 million.
The city is the control center of NASA, which closed on Thursday. Monitoring activities of flights were secured by teams in Austin (Texas) and Huntsville (Alabama, south), NASA explained in a statement.
For the moment, this is a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale with maximum 5, with winds of 160 mph, but is expected to intensify in the coming hours.
"We did not expect to arrive so close to us," said Joe Steinebaker, responsible for communication of Harris County, who warned that the hurricane could create waves of up to five metres high in Galveston.
Some people, however opposed the evacuation order, as Leslie LeGrand, a resident of Galveston, explaining that "except that you really bad, we are not going anywhere."
His neighbor, Cecilia Padnos, expected to give Ike a turn last minute. During the passage of Rita in 2005, but had to move the hurricane passed on the other hand.
If the directors of the oil port of Corpus Christi, much further south, hesitate to evacuate, the production of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico was almost completely interrupted before the arrival of the hurricane, despite the fact that "current projections show that (Ike) will not affect most of the oil and gas installations in the Gulf ", announced the Department of Energy said in a statement.
Ike moves toward the U.S. coast after leaving a hundred dead in Haiti and great destruction in rural areas, and another five dead in Cuba, where more than 200,000 houses were destroyed.
