Hurricane Ike: Leave or Die
About 200,000 residents have fled low-lying areas of metro Houston as the powerful storm approaches.
Authorities in Harris County, which contains Houston, asked residents in low-lying areas of the county to leave, and about 80 percent to 90 percent have complied, County Executive Ed Emmett said Friday morning.
Residents in safer parts of Houston were instructed to stay inside.
“We’ve asked people to hunker down,” Emmett said.
Most law enforcement and rescue officials will start to leave Friday night, Emmett said, so residents will be on their own after that.
The military has 42 search-and-rescue helicopters on standby, one official said.
Floodwaters surged into Galveston Island neighborhoods Friday morning.
Waves washed for blocks inland, the beginning of a storm surge that forecasters warned could reach up to 22 feet and bring “certain death” to anyone who remained in Galveston Bay homes.
More than half of the community of Surfside Beach was inundated by 8 a.m. Friday, and rescuers drove a dump truck through the streets in a final bid to get people out before the storm hits, the Houston Chronicle reported.