By Tim Gaynor
GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) - Thousands of people fledcoastal areas in the path of Hurricane Ike on Thursday as thestorm gathered strength on a collision course with the TexasGulf Coast but on a track that would skirt the heart of theU.S. offshore oil patch.
Ike was a Category 2 storm with 100 mph (160 kph) winds andlikely will come ashore as a dangerous Category 3 storm on thefive-step intensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph (178kph) 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. Floodingfrom Ike could put coastal refineries in jeopardy.
The hurricane's current track would see it hit the Texascoast near Freeport in Brazoria County, just south ofGalveston. It could be the worst storm to hit the Texas coastsince Hurricane Carla came ashore near Corpus Christi in 1961.
Tens of thousands of residents near Galveston and PortArthur were ordered to evacuate. The 2 million-plus residentsof Houston, about 50 miles inland from Galveston, could seehurricane-force winds as Ike moves inland but officials haveordered no widespread evacuations.
About 2 million people fled Louisiana coastal cities in thepath of Hurricane Gustav, which hit on September 1.
"We're not talking about gently rising water. We aretalking about a storm surge," Harris County Judge Ed Emmettsaid, ordering the evacuation of Galveston.
Ike could push a 20-foot surge of water ahead of it alongwith "dangerous battering waves," U.S. forecasters said.
U.S. crude oil prices hit five-month lows near $100 abarrel on Thursday as a strong dollar and weakening energydemand forecasts offset worries about back-to-back hurricanesin the Gulf of Mexico that have cut deeply into U.S. energysupplies.
The Texas coast from Corpus Christi up into Beaumont isknown as "refinery row" with nearly 25 percent of the country'srefining capacity in 16 refineries, built mostly on low-lyingareas that are susceptible to flooding and storm surge.
"WE'RE GETTING UP OUT OF HERE"
At 2 p.m. EDT /1800 GMT on Thursday, the hurricane centresaid in its latest advisory Ike was 440 miles (710 km)east-southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, and about 470 miles(760 km) east-southeast of Galveston. It was movingwest-northwest at 10 mph (17 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. A hurricane watch remained in effectfrom south of Baffin Bay west to Port Mansfield, 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.
In Galveston -- site of the deadliest weather disaster inU.S. history in a devastating 1900 hurricane -- lines of cars,buses and trucks crowded onto a bridge to leave the island.Others without transportation waited for buses to carry them tohurricane shelters inland after a mandatory evacuation order.
"We're getting up out of here," said Nykera Allen, astudent who was loading bags into her car to drive to SanAntonio. "They're going to shut the lights and the water offand that's not a good situation."
Others hunkered down to weather the storm.
"I'm just going to batten down and not worry about it,"said Keith Andrews, a shipyard worker. "If the Lord wants you,he's going to take you anyway."
U.S. President George W. Bush declared a federal emergencyfor Texas on Wednesday, allowing some federal disasterassistance.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has said that some people wouldlikely resist evacuation calls, but said he wants to see"buses, not body bags." Perry put 1,350 buses on standby tocarry evacuees.
(Additional reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio;Editing by Bill Trott)
