Coastal Texans Receive Urgent Ike Advisory
Residents living in single-family homes in some parts of coastal Texas face "certain death" if they do not evacuate ahead of Hurricane Ike, the National Weather Service said Thursday night. Ike is forecast to make landfall, possibly near Galveston Island, as early as Saturday morning.
The unusually strong wording came in a weather advisory regarding storm surge along the shoreline of Galveston Bay, which could see maximum water levels of 15 to 22 feet, the agency said.
"All neighborhoods ... and possibly entire coastal communities ... will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide," the advisory said. "Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family one- or two-story homes will face certain death."
The maximum water level forecasts in nearby areas, including the shoreline of Matagorda Bay and the Gulf-facing coastline from Sargent to High Island, ranged from 5 to 8 feet. But authorities warned that tide levels could begin rising Friday morning along the upper Texas coast and along the shorelines of the bays.
The advisory summoned memories of the language used to describe 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which devastated parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast.
"Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks ... if not longer," an advisory issued at the time said. "The vast majority of native trees will be snapped or uprooted. Only the heartiest will remain standing."
The Ike advisory follows comes on the heels of similarly urgent messages earlier Thursday from federal authorities, who warned of a "massive storm" that could affect roughly 40 percent of the U.S. Gulf Coast.
"Do not take this storm lightly," Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Thursday afternoon. "This is not a storm to gamble with. It is large; it is powerful; it carries a lot of water."
Published on September 12, 2008
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