By Tim Gaynor
GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) - Massive Hurricane Ike boredown on the Texas coast on Friday with a wall of water thatthreatened a potential catastrophe for the United States.
Waters rose rapidly as Ike moved within hours of strikinglow-lying areas near Houston with a possible 20-foot (6-metre)storm surge in what may be the worst storm to hit Texas innearly 50 years.
"Our nation is facing what is by any means a potentiallycatastrophic hurricane," said U.S. Homeland Security SecretaryMichael Chertoff, warning that Ike's storm surge could presentthe gravest danger.
"This certainly falls in the category of pretty much aworst case scenario."
The National Weather Service warned that people in coastalareas could "face the possibility of death" from a massivestorm surge. Officials said Ike could flood as many as 100,000homes.
Crude oil markets nervously watched to see how thehurricane would affect low-lying coastal refineries in Ike'spath that collectively process 20 percent of U.S. fuelsupplies.
Although Ike is weaker than 2005's Hurricane Katrina, thelast storm to pummel a U.S. urban area and a major disaster,its large scope 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 -- thefourth-largest city in the United States.
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.
At 5 p.m. EDT (10 p.m. British time) on Friday, Ike wasabout 135 miles (220 km) southeast of Galveston, the hurricanecentre said. It was moving west-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph).
WATER LEVELS ALREADY CLIMBING
In Galveston, water levels had already climbed more thannine feet (2.7 metres), forecasters said.
About 13 million people in 132 counties along the Gulfcoast could face hurricane and tropical storm conditions, theU.S. National Census Bureau said.
Millions of coastal residents could be left without power,authorities said.
U.S. crude oil futures rose 31 cents to settle at $101.18 abarrel after dropping below $100 for the first time since earlyApril as concerns over U.S. economic weakness outweighed stormdisruption fears.
Low-lying, flood prone refineries in the region lie inIke's path and weather forecasters at Planalytics saw "majorand long-term damage likely at the major refining cities."
Ports were closed and the Coast Guard said a 584-foot(178-metre) freighter with 22 people aboard was strandedwithout power 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Galveston.Conditions were too treacherous to attempt rescue.
The storm's wide reach means that it will pack an unusuallystrong punch, taking the form of a huge wave of water it ispushing ahead of it.
"This is a Category 5 hurricane," said Jeff Masters,co-founder of meteorological Web site The Weather Underground.
"I don't care what the Category 2 rating says," he said.Category 5 storms are the most dangerous.
Ike's storm surge could push as far inland as NASA'sJohnson Space Centre south of Houston, Masters said.
LAST-MINUTE DASH
About 600,000 Texas residents fled the island city ofGalveston and low-lying counties under mandatory evacuationorders and authorities urged holdouts to move before Ike'swinds started to make car travel dangerous.
The Coast Guard had to rescue 65 people from rising waterson the Bolivar Peninsula, located east of Galveston.
Some who had thought they would stick it out instead made alast-minute exit from Galveston. The city was hit by ahurricane in 1900 that was the deadliest weather disaster inU.S. history, with a death toll of at least 8,000.
"The water got to coming over the sea wall, we werescared," said Charlotte Pines, who was fuelling up an SUVfilled with relatives. "It's going to be bad."
Katrina swiped New Orleans and other parts of the U.S. GulfCoast in August 2005, killing 1,500 people. That storm was thecostliest in U.S. history, causing at least $81 billion indamage.
Katrina also damaged President George W. Bush's standing.He and his administration were strongly criticized for the slowfederal response to the disaster.
(Additional reporting by Anna Driver and Bruce Nichols;writing by Chris Baltimore and Mary Milliken; Editing by DoinaChiacu and Frances Kerry)
