Hurricane Ike threatens Texas with wall of water

GALVESTON, Texas-Hurricane Ike moved on Friday within 24 hours of striking the densely populated Texas coast near Houston with a possible 20-foot (6-meter) wall of water in what may be the worst storm to hit Texas in nearly 50 years.Ike was a Category 2 storm with 105 mph (168 kph) winds and likely will come ashore late on Friday or early on Saturday as a dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-step intensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.The National Weather Service warned that persons not heeding evacuation orders "may face certain death" and many homes of average construction on the coast will be destroyed.Hundreds of thousands fled the island city of Galveston and low-lying counties under mandatory evacuation orders and authorities urged holdouts to move before Ike's winds started to make car travel dangerous."If you think you want to ride out the storm, and you're looking at a 20-foot wall of water coming at you, you better think again," said Houston Mayor Bill White, whose sprawling city of 2 million encompasses low areas in extreme danger.In Galveston-site of a 1900 hurricane that was the deadliest weather disaster in U.S. history-residents nervously eyed the surf pounding the sea wall and splashing over the coast road early Friday."I've never seen it like that before. I'm scared, I'm leaving," said motel manager Roy Patel. He had boarded up the office of the Economy Motel on the sea front and was headed out to the mainland by car.In central Houston, the administrative hub of the nation's oil industry around 50 miles inland from Galveston, businesses closed and boarded up windows Thursday night in preparation for possible hurricane-force winds and flooding. But officials said most residents should "shelter in place" since the city is some 50 feet above sea level.
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As in the days of Noah...