Hurricane Ike's surge floods Galveston

HOUSTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Galveston Island was in darkness and underwater Friday evening as Hurricane Ike approached the Texas coast.

Authorities told residents of Galveston, Houston and other coastal areas who had not evacuated to stay put and off the streets, the Houston Chronicle reported.

A strong storm surge began flooding downtown Galveston during the afternoon, with Ike's center still hours away. By evening, power was out.

Galveston Mayor Lyda Thomson said about 40 percent of the city's residents ignored the mandatory evacuation order. She set an 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and established a last-chance refuge at Ball HIgh School.

Those who remained on the island and in other coastal communities ignored an unusually strong warning from the National Weather Service that those in one- or two-story houses faced "certain death" from the surge.

By evening power failures had spread from Galveston Island to areas around Houston.

At least two storm-related deaths were reported, a drowning near Corpus Christi and a 10-year-old boy in Montgomery hit by a branch from a tree his parents were cutting down. The parents feared the tree might be dangerous during the storm.

At 11 p.m. EDT, Ike's center was 55 miles south-southeast of Galveston and 95 miles south-southwest of Port Arthur, moving northwest at almost 12 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The eye was expected to be near Galveston early Saturday.

Ike remained a strong Category 2 hurricane with the strongest sustained winds at 110 mph. Hurricane-force winds extended 120 miles from the center and tropical storm winds 275 miles.

A hurricane warning was posted for the western Louisiana and Texas coast west to Corpus Christi, with a tropical storm warning for most of the rest of the Texas coast, eastern Louisiana and Mississippi.