Hurricane Ike slams ashore in Texas
GALVESTON, Texas, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Hurricane Ike, packing winds as strong as 110 mph, slammed ashore in Texas Saturday morning, and was centered over Houston after flooding Galveston Island.
The center of the monster Category 2 hurricane officially made landfall at 2:10 a.m., whipping the barrier island city of Galveston, where some 23,000 residents had ignored pleas and mandatory orders to evacuate the city ahead of what meteorologists say could be deadliest U.S. storm since 2005's Hurricane Katrina.
Rescuers had been pulled off the streets because of Ike's fury and were not expected to return until Sunday.
"We don't know what we're going to find tomorrow," Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas told the Houston Chronicle. "We hope we'll find that the people who didn't leave here are alive and well."
Houston's CenterPoint Energy told CNN that 1.8 million of its 2 million customers in metropolitan Houston were without power Saturday morning as high winds and heavy downpours pelted the 4th-largest U.S. city.
Floods also hit further to the east in Louisiana where at least 1,800 homes and businesses were underwater in Cameron Parish, the broadcaster said.
Officials say three deaths so far had been attributed to Hurricane Ike.
FEMA readies Ike generators, food, water
HOUSTON, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. emergency management officials said Saturday they are planning to move large electrical generators into areas of Texas ravaged by Hurricane Ike.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator David Paulison said the biggest impediment to assisting those affected by the storm will be widespread power outages in the Houston area, so generators will be moved next to hospitals and water plants, CNN reported.
CenterPoint Energy reported 1.8 million of its 2 million Houston-area customers were without power Saturday, the broadcaster said. FEMA estimates Hurricane Ike will affect at least 140 electric power substations, 48 non-nuclear power plants and 10 big chemical and oil industrial facilities.
By Saturday morning, FEMA said it had moved 5 million liters of water, 5 million meals and 270,000 cots into Texas, where an estimated 572,000 people live within the storm surge area.
Typhoon Sinlaku approaches Taiwan, China
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Taiwan and coastal Chinese provinces braced Saturday for the arrival of Typhoon Sinlaku as meteorologists were predicting gale-force winds and heavy rains.
Sinlaku was located 345 miles west-southwest of the Japanese island of Okinawa Saturday afternoon, packing sustained winds of 107 mph. It was moving slowly at 4.3 mph toward the northern sections of Taiwan and the Chinese provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang, CNN reported.
Forecasters said Sinlaku was likely to push into Taiwan late Saturday and make landfall in east China Sunday morning, the Zhejiang Provincial Meteorological Observatory told state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua.
Chinese officials said heavy rains were expected in the northeastern parts of Fujian province and the middle and eastern parts of Zhejiang province Sunday and Monday because of Typhoon Sinlaku.
State of siege declared in Bolivia
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- The Bolivian government said it had declared a state of siege overnight Saturday to counter a rebellion in the eastern part of the country.
The declaration in Pando department was set to last from midnight Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday and came in the wake of an apparent shootout as federal troops landed at rebel-held Santa Cruz airport, CNN reported.
The cargo plane carried troops sent to battle a rebellion against Bolivian President Evo Morales in the wealthier eastern part of the South American country. Pando Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez told CNN there had been shooting at Santa Cruz airport when the plane arrived.
The gun battle left one person dead and three wounded, Carlos Suzuki, a member of the Civic Committee of Pando, told the broadcaster. Eight people died earlier this week when demonstrators seeking autonomy for Pando clashed with forces loyal to Morales.
Pope Benedict says mass in Paris
PARIS, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- French officials estimate as many as 250,000 people attended an open-air mass by Pope Benedict XVI in central Paris Saturday.
Security was tight as Benedict traveled to Les Invalides in Paris where he would make his first public appearance in France as the pontiff of the Catholic Church. Later in the day he was expected to fly to the Catholic shrine in Lourdes, France, where a throng of 200,000 was expected, the BBC reported.
Pope Benedict arrived in Paris Friday and met at the Elysée palace with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, praising him for advocating the role of religion in public life. Sarkozy caused consternation among French secularists last year when on a visit to Rome, suggested France should adopt a more "positive secularism," The Daily Telegraph said.
Benedict also attended a mass at the city's Notre Dame Cathedral and met with leader of France's Jewish and Muslim communities, both the largest in Europe, the BBC reported.
