Hurricane slams into Texas coast

Hurricane Ike barreled into the densely populated Texas coast near Houston early...

Hurricane Ike barreled into the densely populated Texas coast near Houston early on Saturday, bringing with it a wall of water and ferocious winds and rain that could cause catastrophic flooding along the Gulf of Mexico and cripple the fourth-largest US city.

Ike, which has idled more than a fifth of US oil production, came ashore at the barrier island city of Galveston as a strong Category 2 storm at with 175 kph winds, the National Hurricane Center said.

Ike surprised Texans with its fury and size, roughly the size of Texas itself. It is the biggest storm to hit a U.S. city since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

The hurricane drove a wall of water over Galveston and submerged a 5-metre sea wall built to protect the city after a 1900 hurricane killed at least 8,000 people. More than half of its 60,000 residents had fled and emergency operations were suspended through the storm.

About 80 km inland, Ike lashed downtown Houston8217;s glass-covered skyscrapers, blowing out windows and sending debris flying through city streets.

The hurricane has shut down 17 oil refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, the heart of the U.S. oil sector where 22 percent of fuel supplies are processed. Energy experts said it would take at least a week for the refineries to get back to normal.

Houston was dark in the morning except for downtown and the Texas Medical Centre, which are fed by underground power sources, Floyd LeBlanc of CenterPoint Energy said. Nearly all 2 million customers, or 4.5 million people, in the Houston-Galveston area were without power, he said.

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Ike was expected to remain a hurricane through Saturday afternoon and could dump up to 10 inches 25 cm of rain over eastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana. Even though Ike has made landfall, it remains a very large and dangerous hurricane with effects felt at long distances from the center, the hurricane center said.

As the storm surge swelled onto Galveston, 23,000 people stayed behind and an additional 67,000 ignored evacuation orders in Brazoria County, the Houston Chronicle reported.