As Hurricane Ike gained strength over the Gulf of Mexico towards the Texas coast, authorities were preparing on Wednesday to evacuate a million people.
Meteorologists of the National Hurricane Center predicted that Ike force charged over the warm Gulf of Mexico before landfall near Corpus Christi on Saturday morning.
If the Texans authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation, would be the first large-scale in the history of this coastal state. The state and county authorities tended to let the people decide on their own if they left the area until Hurricane Rita swept the coast in 2005. Now the county authorities may order the mandatory evacuation.
The evacuation would affect the impoverished Rio Grande Valley, where many undocumented immigrants feared that traditionally join an evacuation at the possibility of being deported if arrested by the authorities. Some county officials said they will visit the neighborhoods of immigrants and require residents to flee their homes.
After hurricanes Katrina and Gustav "there were many immigrants who refused to leave''said JD Salinas, president of the Hidalgo County in the delta of the Rio Grande." It's going to be difficult.''
Gov. Rick Perry declared 88 counties disaster coastal areas to begin channeling aid, 7500 mobilized National Guard members and began preparations for evacuation "adapting buses instead of bags for corpses.''
Officials of Texas prepared the emergency evacuation of people with special medical needs in the area of Corpus Christi, who on Wednesday were transferred by bus to San Antonio, and reported that the state allocated a lane in the interstate highway heading north to those who want to leave now.
The authorities recommended residents Texans in the direction of Ike possible to do three things: listen to the official notices, pay attention to weather forecasts and fill their fuel tanks.
"We have a team of fuel which is part of the overall operation''in Austin, said the governor's spokeswoman, Allison Castle." They help distribute fuel in the hurricane areas. One of the lessons we learned from past hurricanes is that we must have available all kinds of fuels.''
