Hurricane Ike has reached to Gulf Coast of Texas; mandatory evacuations orders have been made by authorities. Rick Perry, Governor of Texas said that he could not overemphasize the danger but it is going to do some substantial damage; it's going to knock out power; it's going to cause massive flooding. In a similar statement Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security said that storm is not something that can be gambled with.

 

Earlier, hundreds of thousands of Texas Gulf Coast residents complied with the evacuation orders properly. According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) projection, Ike's path would take it directly over Houston after making landfall at Galveston. Accordingly, the storm expectedly will intensify from a Category 2 hurricane to a Category 3. On the other hand, some forecasters predict that Ike could even become a Category 4 hurricane.

 

Deadly hurricanes are not unprecedented in Galveston. In the year 1900, the Galveston was hit with winds estimated at 135 mph. That had killed around 8,000 people. Ken Reeves, forecasting manager of the AccuWeather.com service, commented that Ike will not weaken significantly before landfall. Authorities in Harris County, Tex., and Houston asked people to leave their homes in eight Zip codes, including those that cover NASA's Johnson Space Center.