By Chris Baltimore
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Thousands of people fled coastal areasin the path of Hurricane Ike on Thursday as the storm gatheredstrength on its collision course with the Texas coast, on atrack that would skirt the heart of the U.S. offshore oilpatch.
Ike is a Category 2 storm with 100 mph (160 kph) winds andcould grow to a ferocious Category 4 storm on the five-stepintensity scale with winds of 132 mph (213 kph) before comingashore late on Friday or early on Saturday, the NationalHurricane Centre said.
The latest projections pointed Ike toward the middle of theTexas coast, skirting to the west of the main region foroffshore production in the Gulf of Mexico, which provides aquarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.
Ike's current track would see it hit the Texas coast nearFreeport in Brazoria County, just south of Galveston.
Tens of thousands of residents near Galveston and PortArthur were ordered to evacuate, though the numbers are nowherenear the 2 million people who fled Louisiana coastal cities inthe path of Hurricane Gustav, which hit on September 1.
U.S. crude oil prices were trading just above five-monthlows on Thursday as a strong dollar and weakening energy demandprojections offset worries about back-to-back hurricanes in theGulf of Mexico that have cut deeply into U.S. energy supplies.
The Houston Ship Channel and Port Arthur, both major U.S.refining centres, could see major storm surges that could swamplow-lying refineries.
WARNINGS EXTEND TO MISSISSIPPI-ALABAMA BORDER
At 8 a.m. EDT/1200 GMT (1 p.m. British time) on Thursday,the hurricane Centre said in its latest advisory Ike was 575miles (920 km) east of Brownsville, Texas, and about 270 miles(435 km) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.It was moving west-northwest at 10 mph (16 kph).
New Orleans, still scarred by Hurricane Katrina, whichkilled 1,500 people and caused $80 billion in damage on theU.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, appeared to be out of danger.
However, the Centre early on Thursday extended a tropicalstorm warning as far east as the Mississippi-Alabama border,including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. A hurricane watchremained in effect from Cameron, Louisiana, west to PortMansfield, Texas.
Texas officials ordered some residents in low-lyingMatagorda and Brazoria counties to evacuate. Mandatoryevacuations had been illegal in Texas, but the state changedits laws after Hurricane Rita in 2005.
"We're not talking about gently rising water. We aretalking about a storm surge," Harris County Judge Ed Emmettsaid.
Others were boarding up homes and businesses to prepare forhurricane-force winds that could arrive on Friday.
"Right now, we have people coming in and out," said SteveProbert, who works at a hardware store in the resort communityof Port Aransas, across the Laguna Madre from Corpus Christi."They're buying everything we have under the sun."
President George W. Bush declared a federal emergency forTexas on Wednesday, allowing some federal disaster assistance.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that some people would likelyresist evacuation calls, but said he wants to see "buses, notbody bags." Perry put 1,350 buses on standby to carry evacuees.
"We must have passed 50 or more people taking their boatsand probably every mobile home in the state was on the road,"said Margaret Romero, 67, who left Corpus Christi on Wednesday."Our entire street -- every house on our street was boardedup."
Torrential rains from the storm could be more damaging thanits wind blasts, especially for heavily populated areas in theRio Grande Valley, which was soaked by Hurricane Dolly in July.
Ike could unleash up to 4 inches (10 cm) of rain onsouthern Louisiana, and produce storm surges up to five feet(1.5 metres) above normal tide levels, along with large andbattering waves in parts of the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, theCentre forecast.
(Additional reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio)
