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Millions have fled areas near gulf NY Times As the sun rose over the Texas Gulf Coast, Hurricane Ike continued to whipsaw its way through Houston after lashing Galveston, leaving at least three million customers without power, streets under water and authorities poised to evaluate the extent of the damage once the storm made its way through. At 6 a.m. Central Time, the National Hurricane Center put the storm's center at 15 miles east-northeast of Houston's Intercontinental Airport and said it was heading north, roughly following the path of Interstate 45 toward the Dallas area.
The sprawling storm officially made landfall at Galveston at 2:10 a.m. Central Time, keeping residents in the area nervous and on watch throughout the night as they wondered whether their homes would withstand the battering winds that increased in velocity by the hour. The storm, which was classified as a strong Category 2 with winds that reached 110 miles per hour in the last few hours, is now being classified as a Category 1 with winds of 90 m.p.h.
In Washington, President Bush said Hurricane Ike had caused extensive damage in Texas and parts of Louisiana.
"The storm has yet to pass and I know there are people concerned about their lives," Mr. Bush said in remarks from the South Lawn of the White House after he participated in video conference with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and David Paulison, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"Some people didn't evacuate when asked," Mr. Bush said about the tens of thousands of people who may have to be rescued. "I've been briefed on the rescue teams there in the area. They're prepared to move as soon as weather conditions permit. Obviously, people on the ground there are sensitive to helping people and are fully prepared to do so."
Galveston officials said they would be sending crews of emergency responders out into communities at about 9 a.m. local time, city spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said. They will begin responding to emergency calls in order of priority, she said.
People called and told city that they were moving into their attics to escape rising water in their homes, Ms. Cahill said. That means some areas could have endured as much as 15 feet of flooding, she said. "We're telling them to be as safe as possible," Ms. Cahill said. Roadblocks will be set up to prohibit entry into the city, Cahill said. No estimates of death yet, she said.
The storm caused 50-foot waves as it swept over shallow gulf waters.
Officials estimated that 40 percent of Galveston's residents ignored an order to evacuate, but more people in the metropolitan area chose to stay in their homes.
It is affecting a wide swath of the Texas Gulf Coast, especially the 10-county metropolitan area that includes Houston, Galveston and Baytown with its combined population of 5.7 million. Residents, used to living in a hurricane area, boarded windows or taped them to keep shattered glass from hurting anyone, stocked up on extra supplies like drinking water, batteries and propane in case they couldn't cook indoors. They charged cellphones, bought generators if they were not too late, and prayed that their satellite or cable television service would hold even as they monitored the weather reports on the Internet.
As Hurricane Ike's winds could be heard whistling outside about 5:45 a.m. Saturday, Galveston Fire Chief Mike Varela said the city had received more than 100 calls for help during the storm.
A majority of those calls were from people seeking help to get out of their homes, he said.
"We'll prioritize once the weather permits and we'll start going out and seeing what we can do for those people wanting assistance," Chief Varela said.
After responding to those calls, the city will conduct a search-and-rescue effort of all damaged homes, Chief Varela said.
"We'll be checking to make sure that nobody's in there and that everybody's been pretty much evacuated," he said.
Chief Varela said flooding in the city was from 8 to 10 feet deep in some areas. On the way to a fire that his department couldn't reach, he said he saw a pickup truck that had water over its roof.
"The low-lying neighborhoods are extremely flooded right now," he said.
Chief Varela said he did not know if fires were still burning in the city. He said firefighters began evacuating the upper floors of the San Luis hotel, where Galveston's city officials and emergency services personnel had been staying, and moved those people to lower floors.
"The upper floors were in trouble as far as windows breaking and stuff like that," Chief Varela said.
Asked to describe the city's damage, Chief Varela assessed it as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
"The water was a big factor," he said.
The hurricane is also expected to bring a rise in gasoline prices across the country because Gulf of Mexico refineries had to shut down because of the turbulent weather.
President Bush said Saturday morning that the government had suspended Environmental Protection Agency waivers on some reformulated gasoline to make it easier for foreign imports to reach the United States market.
"In the meantime, the Department of Energy and state authorities will be monitoring a gasoline crisis so consumers are not being gouged," he said.
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