By Tim Gaynor
GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike closed in on theTexas coast on Friday, pushing a wall of water that weatherofficials warned could be fatal for those who didn't fleeinland.
Waters rose rapidly as Ike moved within hours of strikinglow-lying areas near Houston with a possible 20-foot (6-meter)storm surge in what may be the worst storm to hit Texas innearly 50 years.
The National Weather Service warned that people in coastalareas could "face the possibility of death" from a massivestorm surge. Although Ike is weaker than 2005's HurricaneKatrina, the last storm to pummel a U.S. urban area, its largescope gives it more water-moving power.
Ike was a Category 2 storm with 105 mph (165 kph) winds asit moved on a course to pass directly over Houston -- thenation's fourth-largest city.
Ike was expected to come ashore overnight, possibly as adangerous Category 3 storm on the five-step intensity scalewith winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), the NationalHurricane Centre said.
Ports were closed and the Coast Guard said a 584-foot(178-meter) freighter with 22 people aboard was strandedwithout power 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Galveston.Conditions 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 commissioner for HarrisCounty, which encompasses Houston and its environs. "The stormsurge is stronger and it's important that people understandthat this really is a life or a death matter."
Some who thought they would stick it out instead made alast-minute exit from Galveston -- site of a 1900 hurricanethat was the deadliest weather disaster in U.S. history.
"The water got to coming over the sea wall, we werescared," Charlotte Pines said as she fuelled up a sport utilityvehicle filled with relatives. "It's going to be bad."
U.S. crude oil was trading near $101 a barrel Fridayafternoon after dropping below $100 for the first time sinceearly April as concerns over U.S. economic weakness outweighedstorm disruption fears.
Weather forecasters at Planalytics saw "major and long-termdamage likely at the major refining cities."
"THIS IS SCARY"
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.
But officials said most people 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 his fellow Texans.
"It is a major storm headed toward a large populationcentre," Bush said in Oklahoma City.
Ike comes in the midst of an active storm season and just10 days after Hurricane Gustav barrelled into the Louisianacoast and sent 2 million people fleeing but largely spared aNew Orleans still struggling with the destruction of Katrina.
At 2 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. British time) on Friday, thehurricane centre said Ike was about 165 miles (320 km)southeast of Galveston. It was moving west-northwest at 12 mph(19 kph).
Much to authorities' frustration, holdouts remembered thebad experience of the last large-scale evacuation in Texas in2005, 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 could pose the biggest threat tothe Texas coast since Hurricane Carla in 1961, a Category 4storm that cost more than $2 billion and caused 43 deaths.
(Additional reporting by Anna Driver and Bruce Nichols;writing by Chris Baltimore and Mary Milliken; Editing by DoinaChiacu)
