By Tim Gaynor
GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike closed in on theTexas coast on Friday, pushing a wall of water that weatherofficials warned could bring certain death to those who did notheed mandatory evacuation orders.
Waters rose rapidly along the Texas coast as Ike movedwithin hours of striking low-lying areas near Houston with apossible 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge in what may be the worststorm to hit Texas in nearly 50 years.
The National Weather Service warned that people in coastalareas could face "certain death" from the storm's massive stormsurge.
Ike was a Category 2 storm with 105 mph (165 kph) winds asit moved on a course that pass directly over Houston -- thenation's fourth-largest city.
Ike was expected to come ashore late on Friday or early onSaturday as a dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-stepintensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), theNational Hurricane Centre said.
As high waves pounded mostly evacuated coastal communities,the Coast Guard said a 584-foot freighter with 22 people aboardwas stranded without power 90 miles southeast of Galveston. Seaconditions were too treacherous to attempt rescue.
Hundreds of thousands fled the island city of Galveston andlow-lying counties under mandatory evacuation orders andauthorities urged holdouts to move before Ike's winds startedto make car travel dangerous.
"Leave now," said Ed Emmett, chief administrator for HarrisCounty, which encompasses most Houston and its environs. "Thestorm surge is stronger and it's important that peopleunderstand that this really is a life or a death matter."
U.S. crude oil futures jumped $2 to near $103 a barrel astraders eyed the potential for Ike's massive storm surge toswamp low-lying refineries along the Gulf Coast that processabout 20 percent of the nation's fuel.
Weather forecasters at Planalytics saw "major and long-termdamage likely at the major refining cities."
In Galveston -- site of a 1900 hurricane that was thedeadliest weather disaster in U.S. history -- residentsnervously eyed the seashore as Ike's waters bashed over the seawall and crept into clusters of houses perched on stilts.
"I've never seen it like that before. I'm scared, I'mleaving," said motel manager Roy Patel. He had boarded up theoffice of the Economy Motel on the sea front and was headed tothe mainland by car.
In central Houston, the administrative hub of the nation'soil industry around 50 miles (80 km) inland from Galveston,businesses closed and boarded up windows Thursday night inpreparation for possible hurricane-force winds and flooding.But officials said most residents should "shelter in place"since the city is some 50 feet above sea level.
U.S. President George W. Bush said he was "deeplyconcerned" about the storm and the fate of his fellow Texans.
"It is a major storm headed toward a large populationCentre," Bush told reporters at Tinker Air Force Base inOklahoma City.
"THIS IS SCARY"
Ike comes just 10 days after Hurricane Gustav barrelledinto the Louisiana coast and sent 2 million people fleeing butlargely spared a New Orleans still struggling with thedestruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
But in this active hurricane season that has had theAtlantic and Gulf coasts on high alert, Ike posed its ownchallenges because of its large scope, which was bigger thanKatrina's. Hurricane-force winds could extend out up to 120miles (195 km).
At 11 a.m. EDT (4 p.m. British time) on Friday, thehurricane Centre said in its latest advisory Ike was about 195miles (320 km) southeast of Galveston. It was movingwest-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph).
Much to authorities' frustration, holdouts harked back tothe bad experience of the last large-scale evacuation in Texasin 2005, when 2 million people fled Hurricane Rita, gettingstranded on highways for hours and running out of gasoline.Rita largely skirted the Houston area.
"We have pets, we can't travel," said Monette Baugh,clutching her poodle as she walked the Galveston sea wall. "Westayed for Rita and we are staying this time. You listen to theTV and you are petrified. They have a tendency to exaggerate.But yes, this is scary."
Local television said Ike looked to pose the biggest threatto the Texas coast since Hurricane Carla in 1961, which struckas a Category 4 storm and caused more than $2 billion in damageand 43 deaths.
(Additional reporting by Anna Driver and Bruce Nichols;writing by Chris Baltimore and Mary Milliken; Editing by BillTrott)
