President George W. Bush says Hurricane Ike is a huge storm that has caused a lot of damage in Texas and parts of Louisiana. Bush said Saturday morning at the White House that he just had a video conference with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and disaster relief agency chief David Paulison. He says Chertoff will go to Texas when weather permits to help coordinate state, local and federal recovery efforts. The president noted that some people did not evacuate ahead of the storm even when authorities recommended it. He says rescue teams are prepared to get started once conditions are better. Bush also says officials are keeping tabs on a gasoline crisis so consumers are not gouged at the pump. Ike ravaged southeast Texas early Saturday, battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts as residents who had not heeded evacuation calls made futile calls for rescue. Thousands of homes and government buildings were flooded, roads were washed out and several fires burned unabated as crews could not reach them. The biggest fear, however, was for the tens of thousands of people who defied orders to flee and would need to be rescued from submerged homes and neighborhoods. “The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in ... and put our people in the tough situation to save people who did not choose wisely. We'll probably do the largest search and rescue operation that's ever been conducted in the state of Texas,” said Andrew Barlow, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry. Several fires were burning untended across Houston, and 911 operators received about 1,250 calls in 24 hours, said Frank Michel, spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White. Streets around the city's theater district became rushing streams, and shards of glass were falling from the skyscrapers that define the skyline of America's fourth-largest city. Winds were estimated to be 32-48 kph faster at the top of the steel and glass towers than at ground level. The storm remained a Category 2 hurricane with winds topping 161 kph, and started moving away from Houston on Saturday morning. It was about 24 kilometers east-northeast of Houston Intercontinental Airport, and was expected to turn toward Arkansas later in the day. The eye of the storm powered ashore at 3:10 a.m. EDT (0710GMT) at Galveston with 177 kph winds, just shy of a Category 3 storm. Before it came ashore, the storm was 966 kilometers across – nearly as big as Texas itself. “For us, it was a 10,” Galveston Fire Chief Mike Varela said when asked to compare Ike to earlier hurricanes like 2005's Rita. Varela said firefighters responded to about 60 rescue calls before suspending operations around 8 p.m. Friday (0000GMT Saturday). Because of the size of the storm and the state's shallow coastal waters, forecasters said the biggest threat would be flooding and storm surge, with Ike expected to hurl a wall of water two stories high – 6 to 8 meters – at the coast. More than 1.3 million customers – or 2.9 million people – lost power, and suppliers warned it could be weeks before service was fully restored. Though 1 million people fled coastal communities, authorities in four counties alone said roughly 140,000 ignored mandatory evacuation orders. Other counties were unable to provide numbers. As the storm front moved into Galveston, fire crews rescued nearly 300 people who fled at the last minute, wading through floodwaters carrying clothes and other possessions.
