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WORLD> America
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Cars, trucks stream inland in Texas as Ike nears
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-12 09:05 This time, traffic was bumper-to-bumper on the freeway leading away from Galveston immediately after the evacuation order, but by late afternoon, many evacuees had made it past Houston, to the north. And just in time: Waves were already inundating the beach on one end of Galveston Island. Some gas stations began running out of fuel, but fuel trucks were called in to replenish them. Houston Mayor Bill White said one of the lessons of Rita mess was that too many people fled who didn't need to. Instead, he asked residents to protect their homes. "Think how your barbecue could become a flying object," he said. At 5 p.m. EDT, the storm was centered about 400 miles east of Galveston, moving to the west at 10 mph. The oil and gas industry was closely watching the storm because it was headed straight for the nation's biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants. The upper Texas coast accounts for one-fifth of US refining capacity. Wholesale gasoline prices spiked 30 percent Thursday, or nearly $1 a gallon, out of fear of what Ike might do. That means motorists can expect higher prices at the pump, though how much higher depends largely on how long refineries are shuttered after the storm. Exxon Mobil Corp., Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil Co. began halting operations as Ike closed in. Dow Chemical Co. started closing up its enormous Freeport complex, home to 75 plants producing some 27 billion pounds of chemical products each year. BASF, the world's largest chemical company with 14 manufacturing sites in the Gulf Coast region, also began shutting down some operations. Spokesman Daniel Pepitone said each site has a hurricane plan that outlines detailed steps for securing plants, and precautions such as tying down hoses and taking down scaffolding began days ago. Industry officials said their refineries and chemical plants are designed to withstand high winds. But power outages could still knock them out of service. Ike would be the first major hurricane to hit a US metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago. For Houston, it would be the first major hurricane since Alicia in August 1983 came ashore on Galveston Island, killing 21 people and causing $2 billion in damage. Ike is huge, taking up nearly 40 percent of the Gulf. The National Hurricane Center said tropical storm-force winds of at least 39 mph extended across more than 510 miles, and hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph stretched for 220 miles. A typical storm has tropical storm-force winds stretching only 300 miles. Because of its great size, storm surge and gigantic waves are the biggest risk, said Hugh Willoughby, former director of the federal government's hurricane research division. The larger the storm, the longer it hits and the higher waves can build. And because the water is so shallow along the Texas coast, the waves pile up, creating a big storm surge, he said. "We're not talking about gently rising water," Harris County's Emmett said. "We're talking about a surge that will come into your homes." Authorities put the frail and poor on buses headed for shelters. And thousands of Texas prison inmates were also moved out of the storm's path. Officials worried that after Labor Day's Hurricane Gustav proved to be a dud in Texas, people wouldn't take the warnings seriously. "The most important message I can send is do not take this storm lightly," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. "Do not look back at Gustav and say, `Well, that turned out to be not as bad as some people feared, therefore, I'm going to gamble with this storm.'" Some stayed put anyway. Johnny Tyson, 33, his girlfriend, Martha Jones, 38, and her three children planned to ignore the order to leave. Tyson, loading into his truck plywood he bought at a Home Depot in Beaumont, complained that officials waited too long to call for an evacuation. "We left for Gustav and we didn't have to leave," Jones said. "They cut all the roads and bottleneck everybody into one road and make traffic worse." He added: "Everybody and their momma is trying to leave right now."
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