(September 12, 2008)—For 1.2 million coastal residents who sought refuge in hotels, motels and community shelters and for the estimated 90,000 who decided to try to ride out the storm, there’s nothing left to do but watch and wait.

Hurricane Ike, which, at 600 miles across is almost as big as Texas, will make landfall around Galveston, most likely early Saturday morning, producing a potentially deadly 20-foot storm surge.

Friday evening, Ike showed signs of strengthening and forecasters say it could be a Category 3 storm before it reaches the coast.

Rescuers and emergency resources are positioned to move in as soon as the storm moves out.

Gov. Rick Perry's office says Texas Task Force Ike is ready and waiting in San Antonio to be sent as needed for "search and rescue" after the storm arrives.

The task force includes more than 1,000 personnel and 500 vehicles.

As many as 7,500 Texas National Guard members have been activated to assist as needed.

Areas of concern for flooding are Galveston, West Galveston Bay area, Texas City, Seabrook, NASA Bay, LaPorte, Bolivar Peninsula and Baytown.

Perry's office says petrochemical plants in the Houston area remain a point of concern.

State officials are in contact with industry officials to monitor any damage.

Perry's office says the eye of the storm is expected to cross just west of Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel, which could create a storm surge of more than 16 feet in Galveston Bay, Sabine Lake and Port Arthur.

Forecasters predict coastal storm surge flooding of as much as 20 feet and near 25 feet in some areas.

That doesn’t bode well for the tens of thousands who ignored evacuation orders and stayed behind as Hurricane Ike took aim at the Texas coast, despite a dire National Weather Service warning that those who chose to ride out the storm in low-lying areas could be facing “certain death.”

An Associated Press survey found that in three counties alone, some 90,000 people have chosen not to leave despite dire warnings from forecasters.

The emergency management coordinator for Galveston County estimates that 80 percent of the residents evacuated, which leaves more than 11,000 residents in the county that is expected to take a direct hit from Ike's massive storm surge.

The projected storm surge could take a massive poll on property, as well.

Estimates indicate it could affect nearly 600,000 residents and tens of thousands of homes as well as water plants, wastewater treatment facilities, police and fire stations, electric power substations and nearly 50 generating units.

The hurricane is expected to cause power outages affecting 5.2 million customers.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said Friday Ike could be a catastrophic event that could cause severe flooding and could impact millions of households.

"The storm surge is going to be the single most dangerous element in the near term for public safety and public welfare,' Chertoff said.

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Actions Taken By The State
(Source: Texas Governor’s Office)

Texas Military Forces: Up to 7,500 guardsmen are involved in pre-landfall operations and pre-staging in anticipation of Ike’s landfall. Evacuation missions began today using six C-130s transporting medical special needs residents from Corpus Christi to Bryan College Station. UH-60 helicopters stationed in Austin and San Antonio are on standby for rapid deployment as needed.

Texas Engineering Extension Service: Texas Task Force 1 and Texas Task Force 2 have begun pre-positioning in San Antonio and Houston for potential search and rescue capabilities.

Texas Department of Transportation: Dynamic message signs are being used to urge residents along the coast to fuel up their vehicles. The Evaculane on northbound I-37 is now open. The left shoulder of northbound I-37 in Corpus Christi is available for use from SH 358 (Padre Island Drive) to north of the Nueces River, where traffic is shifted to use the right shoulder. The Evaculane will close at the exit for U.S. 281 in Pleasanton. TxDOT districts have suspended avoidable lane closures along potential evacuation routes.

Texas Department of Public Safety: Commercial Vehicle Enforcement troopers continue to inspect buses that may be needed for evacuations. More than 500 troopers across Texas are pre-staging in Corpus Christi and other locations, and the regional DPS Disaster District operations centers have been activated in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Victoria and McAllen.

Texas Department of State Health Services: DSHS is coordinating air and ground evacuation and tracking of hospital patients and others with medical special needs.

Health and Human Services Commission: The state's 2-1-1 information and referral network responded to more than 10,000 calls Tuesday.

Department of Aging and Disability Services: DADS has begun evacuating the Corpus Christi and Rio Grande State Schools, which provides residential services for Texans with profound development disabilities and other health issues. The agency also is working with nursing homes and other licensed long-term care facilities in areas that may be issuing evacuation orders.

Department of Family and Protective Services: The agency is reminding foster parents and others who care for children in state conservatorship that they must comply with mandatory evacuation orders and report their new location as soon as possible. Caregivers may call 800-252-5400 to report their location.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice: TDCJ is in the process of evacuating a total of 1,336 offenders from the Stevenson Unit in Cuero to the McConnell Unit in Beeville and the Connally Unit in Kenedy. Additionally, 597 offenders assigned to Glossbrenner Unit in San Diego are being transferred to the Briscoe Unit in Dilley. The transfers began around 8:00 a.m. today. On Tuesday TDCJ took the precaution of moving 12 female dialysis patients from the Carole S. Young Medical Facility Complex in Dickinson to the Estelle Unit in Huntsville.

Texas Forest Service: TFS continues to staff the resource staging area in Lufkin, and five incident management teams are pre-positioned in College Station, as well as medical personnel provided by local fire departments.

Texas Department of Agriculture: The Texas Department of Agriculture is prepared to distribute food commodities and will coordinate distribution efforts with the Salvation Army and American Red Cross. Plans are underway to protect livestock in the Texas Department of Agriculture's export pens in the path of Ike, and to assist agricultural producers with impacts from this storm.

Public Utility Commission of Texas: The PUC is asking electric providers and telecommunications companies along the gulf coast to begin emergency preparations, such as reviewing emergency operations plans, updating critical care customer lists, checking inventories, and alerting crews.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality: TCEQ is prepared to respond to impacts from Hurricane Ike. A strike team capable of handling hazardous materials is pre-positioning in Austin today and is prepared to participate in re-entry operations into the impact area. TCEQ will be providing a State Mobile Command Post as well as other strike team assets which will be pre-staged in San Antonio on Thursday. TCEQ is working with local agencies to be prepared to address any environmental impact issues that may result from Ike.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: A Texas Parks and Wildlife strike team is prepared for deployment, including 26 game wardens, two radio technicians, two communications operators, seven airboats and six river boats, a communications trailer, four fuel trailers and a search and rescue trailer. Galveston Island State Park and Lake Texana have begun evacuations of their campers and plan to have their parks closed by 5:00 p.m. today until further notice. Brazos Bend and SFA are currently on standby for evacuations. All other Region 4 parks and Region 4 headquarters are on standby.

Office of Rural Community Affairs: ORCA is prepared to participate in statewide assessment and recovery efforts following landfall of Hurricane Ike.

Texas Education Agency: The Texas Education Agency is locating 500 school buses to be used to for potential evacuations. These buses are in addition to the 100 buses supplied by the Dallas County schools, which are under contract for state emergencies. A list of school closures can be found at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/hurricane/

Texas Department of Insurance: TDI continues to monitor Hurricane Ike and remains in contact with its insurance stakeholder group, the Texas State Disaster Coalition. The department will continue its extended Consumer Help Line hours. TDI is also encouraging Texas consumers to prepare for the storm and offering insurance tips (www.tdi.state.tx.us).

Texas Department of Information Resources: DIR is coordinating with IBM to work with several agencies Thursday and Friday to orderly shut down servers and take additional protective measures. DIR will work with vendor, state and federal partners to identify and map critical telecommunications infrastructure in the anticipated impact region to track for damage assessments. DIR is also contacting state agency customers to determine if they need their data backup tapes secured to a safe location.

Texas Secretary of State: The Secretary of State’s ombudsmen are participating in emergency preparedness meetings with local officials along the southern coastal area, and are offering assistance to county officials and compiling helpful information for both the county and residents in the Colonias before and after the storm makes landfall.

Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs: Hurricane housing resources for communities are on the agency's website (www.tdhca.state.tx.us). TDHCA is reminding all affordable housing rental owners statewide to keep their apartment vacancy information current as they supply information to TDHCA. TDHCA will contact community action agencies in the projected path of the storm and advise them that they may be called upon to serve additional persons based on the events transpiring.

Texas Animal Health Commission: TAHC is coordinating with its member agencies and providing assistance to large animal owners in the projected impact areas. TAHC staff are at the coastal disaster districts in Victoria, McAllen and Corpus Christi to help with any animal issues.

Fuel Team: The Fuel Team is working to ensure adequate fuel supplies along potential evacuation routes and monitoring demand increases.

Individuals who are unable to evacuate themselves can let responders know who and where they are before an emergency or evacuation takes place by calling 2-1-1. Residents are also encouraged to call 2-1-1 for updated shelter information for pets and livestock.

The Emergency Management Council and State Operations Center are fully activated. The State Operations Center is closely monitoring Hurricane Ike, and holding twice-daily conference calls with federal, state and local officials, private industry partners, volunteer organizations, and the National Weather Service.