Saturday, September 13, 2008

"Peace and Safety"...let us watch and be sober.

1But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.

2For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

3For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

4But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

5Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

6Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

7For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

8But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

11Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

12And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;

13And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves.

14Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

15See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.

16Rejoice evermore.

17Pray without ceasing.

18In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

19Quench not the Spirit.

20Despise not prophesyings.

21Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

22Abstain from all appearance of evil.

23And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

24Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

25Brethren, pray for us.

26Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss.

27I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.

28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

I Thessalonians 5

Ike wreaks havoc on Texas coast

Ike wreaks havoc on Texas coast

By Chris Baltimore and Anna Driver

HOUSTON, Sept 13 - (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike barrelled into the densely populated Texas coast near Houston early on Saturday, bringing with it a wall of water and ferocious winds and rain that flooded large areas along the Gulf of Mexico and paralyzed the fourth-largest U.S. city.

Ike, a massive hurricane that has idled more than a fifth of U.S. oil production, came ashore at the barrier island city of Galveston as a strong Category 2 storm at 2:10 a.m. CDT (8:10 a.m. British time) with sustained 110 mph (175 kph) winds, the National Hurricane Centre said.

The raging storm flooded Galveston and submerged a 17-foot (5-metre) sea wall built to protect the city after a 1900 hurricane killed at least 8,000 people. More than half its 60,000 residents had fled.

Grandmother Sherry Gill spent the night in League City, roughly halfway between Galveston and Houston, despite an evacuation order, huddling with her family and listening to the wind howling over her shuttered home.

"It was a night of sheer terror. I thought the roof was going to lift off," Gill said.

Alicia Cahill, a spokeswoman for the city of Galveston, said there had been no confirmed reports or casualties.

About 50 miles (80 km) inland, Ike lashed downtown Houston's skyscrapers, blowing out windows and sending debris flying through water-logged streets.

Roofs were ripped off houses, and rising waters, downed trees and fallen power lines left many streets impassable. There were "many, many" windows broken in the 75-story Chase Tower, the tallest building in Houston.

Ike was the biggest storm to hit a U.S. city since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Ike was downgraded to a Category 1 on the hurricane intensity scale at 8 a.m. CDT (2 p.m. British time) carrying top sustained winds near 90 mph (145 kph) and moving north, but officials said it was too soon to assess the extent of the damage.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett told reporters the winds had not been "extraordinarily high, certainly for a hurricane." The main concerns were the storm surge zone, the area affected by the wall of water pushed inland, and the fate of coastal residents.

HIGH WINDS CONTINUING

Hurricane force winds were expected to rip through Houston until around mid-day and tropical storm strength winds to continue for hours after that. Houston is home to 2.2 million people, and its metropolitan area has about 5.6 million.

The Centre of Ike was expected to move through eastern Texas into Arkansas on Saturday night. Forecasters warned residents of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan to prepare for extremely heavy rains during the weekend as Ike moved northeast.

"We expected a major storm and our expectations unfortunately came true," said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "The weather needs to clear up a little bit to see just what the devastation was."

In Galveston, emergency officials were sending patrols into the flooded streets to begin assessing damage.

"We do have reports of damage but we're just now to the point where it is safe for our units to get out and start making assessments," Galveston County Emergency Management operations manager Lee Lockwood said.

Twenty-two percent of U.S. fuel production capacity was down, as Ike shut 13 refineries and one remained closed due to Hurricane Gustav, which hit neighbouring Lousiana earlier this month. Energy experts said they expected some refineries would sustain damage from flooding, leaving them shut for several weeks.

Brad Penisson, a spokesman for the joint operations of southeast Texas emergency management agencies, said the area's refineries appeared to have escaped heavy flooding.

The storm cut power to most of Houston and Galveston, with 2 million customers -- or 4.5 million people - without electricity, said Floyd LeBlanc of CenterPoint Energy.

"This is a huge storm that is causing a lot of damage, not only in Texas, but also in parts of Louisiana," President George W. Bush said at the White House.

"The storm has yet to pass and I know there are people concerned about their lives. Some people didn't evacuate when asked," said Bush, a former governor of Texas.

He said the government would monitor gas prices to prevent extraordinary price increases because of Ike.

Gasoline prices across the United States rose more than 5 cents to $3.73 a gallon on average Saturday, according to the American Automobile Association's daily price survey of more than 100,000 service stations.

(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in League City; Eileen O'Grady, Erwin Seba and Bruce Nichols and Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Carey Gillam in Kansas City, Jessica Rinaldi in Galveston and Richard Valdmanis in New York; Writing by Mary Milliken; Editing by Patricia Zengerle)

How surreal?

...................
.......Hurricane Ike left a trail of Destruction......

Meanwhile, CBS embarks on an afternoon of Men's Tennis matches.
How quaint.
If you are one of those that were captivated by the term after Sept. 11, 2001: "Surreal"; How surreal?

Arsenio/

Hurricane Ike Batters Texas, 4.5 Million Lose Power (Update1)

By Brian K. Sullivan and Tom Korosec

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ike plowed into Texas early today, driving the Gulf of Mexico's waters into Galveston Island, blowing out office-building windows and cutting power to at least 4.5 million customers in the Houston area.

The Category 2 storm flooded areas, shut oil refineries and prompted panicked calls from residents who didn't join the 1 million-strong exodus from its path. Winds blew pine trees sideways in Houston, the nation's fourth-biggest city, where electrical transformers sparked and residents waited out the hurricane in their homes under a citywide curfew.

``Virtually every customer who receives electricity on the overhead distribution network is without power,'' said Floyd LeBlanc, spokesman for Houston-based CenterPoint Energy Inc. ``This was a really big hurricane; we looked at a wind field when it was on land of 250 miles.''

Houston's 75-story JPMorgan Chase Tower had windows on its west side smashed out, according to the CBS affiliate KHOU-TV in Houston. The Enron Building and Crown Plaza Hotel were also damaged, the station reported. The city's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby airports remained closed.

Landfall in Galveston

Ike, which made landfall in Galveston at 2:10 a.m. local time today with winds near 110 miles per hour (177 kph) was the first storm to hit a major U.S. metropolitan area since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

With winds decreasing to about 80 mph, making it a Category 1 storm, Ike was moving north at about 16 mph near Trinity, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said in an 10 a.m. local time advisory. It is likely to remain a hurricane through the afternoon as it weakens on its inland path curving toward the northeast toward western Arkansas, the center said.

Anthony Melillo, his wife, two children and their dog spent the night at the Hotel Derek in the Galleria section of Houston listening to a howling wind and crashing debris.

Melillo said he boarded up his house and office in the Clear Lake section of Houston -- ``a potential storm surge area'' -- two days ago and then took his family, three days of clothes, food, water and important documents and left yesterday morning.

``This is a very rough and dangerous hurricane,'' Melillo said in an e-mail. ``Our house is in Clear Lake and I hope its still there without much damage.''

Flooding Reported

Around the region, flooding was reported. White Oak Bayou at Heights Boulevard in Houston rose 6 feet (1.8 meters) above flood stage to 38.45 feet at 6:45 a.m. Houston time, according to the National Weather Service. Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston was rising up to the edge of its banks.

The Coast Guard suspended rescue operations last night when the wind speed got too fast to fly, said Alan Haraf, Coast Guard petty officer first class. Up until that point, the Coast Guard and other agencies had rescued 103 people.

Since then, people have been calling to be rescued, particularly from the Bolivar Peninsula that juts out between Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

Haraf said 65 helicopters were standing by to take to the air as soon as conditions improved. Coast Guard Petty Officer Tom Atkeson said when winds got below about 85 mph the helicopters could fly.

Refineries Shut

The storm has closed 19 percent of the refining capacity in the U.S. At least 13 refineries in Texas shut down including those operated by Exxon Mobil Corp., Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Gulf Coast refineries and ports are the source of half of the fuel and crude used in the eastern U.S.

About 1.2 million people evacuated the area surrounding Houston, Texas Governor Rick Perry told CNN. A dawn-to-dusk curfew was enforced in areas under mandatory evacuation orders to deter looting, Houston Mayor Bill White said at a press conference yesterday.

CenterPoint's LeBlanc said there are about 4.5 million people in the company's Houston service area and ``almost all of them are without power.'' Before the storm hit, CenterPoint estimated it could be weeks to restore power, LeBlanc said.

``We may have to revise that,'' he said. ``We have gotten literally thousands of calls from customers reporting downed power lines.''

Louisiana Flooding

In neighboring Louisiana, Calcasieu Parish, home to three oil refineries, has widespread flooding, parish spokesman Tom Hoefer said by telephone. ConocoPhillips, Citgo Petroleum Corp. and Calcasieu Refining Co. have refineries in Calcasieu.

Ike may cause $8 billion to $18 billion in insured losses on land as it moves from coastal Galveston to Houston and further inland, according to Oakland, California-based Eqecat Inc., which predicts the effects of disasters. Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Ltd., the Bermuda-based insurer, predicted damage of $10 billion to $16 billion industrywide.

About 40 percent of Galveston's 57,400 people decided to stay and ride out the storm, Steve LeBlanc, the city manager, said in a televised press conference yesterday. The storm surge may be 3 feet higher than the city's 17-foot seawall, he said.

Houston's population is 2.2 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and its metropolitan area, with a population of 5.6 million, is the sixth largest in the U.S.

Ike left more than 70 people dead in Haiti and killed four in Cuba as it swept through the Caribbean earlier this week. CNN reported at least three people have been killed so far in Texas.

Before making landfall, Ike's winds covered an area larger than that of Katrina, said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at private forecaster Weather Underground Inc. Hurricane-force winds stretch across 240 miles, equivalent to the distance between New York to Washington.

President George W. Bush said this morning the federal government was ``prepared to move'' quickly to help Texas recover. He has already declared an emergency in Texas. As many as 7,500 Texas National Guard members are on standby.

To contact the reporters on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net; Tom Korosec in Houston, via the New York newsroom at mschoifet@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 13, 2008 11:39 EDT

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFEy_MY61M4o&refer=home

Stranded Galveston residents call in vain for help

Power outage totals across region approaching 1.5 million

By DALE LEZON and LINDSAY WISE Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Sept. 13, 2008, 4:13AM



As Hurricane Ike surged onto Galveston Island this morning, many of the estimated 23,000 residents who ignored a mandatory evacuation order phoned for rescues to no avail because emergency workers were called off the streets, officials said.

Help wasn't expected until after dangerous storm conditions subsided.

The center officially landed at 2:10 a.m. and whipped the barrier island with sustained winds as strong as 110 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm surge was expected to be as high as 14 feet to 17 feet at Galveston and possibly greater in Chambers County to the northeast.

The center was over eastern Houston and Harris County at 4 a.m., heading northwest. It still packed the same 110 mph winds it came ashore with and was doing damage to building exteriors and windows in downtown Houston.

It also continued to whip Galveston as it pulled away, leaving what officials feared would be a grim day ahead even after storm subsides.

"We don't know what we're going to find tomorrow," said the city's mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas. "We hope we'll find that the people who didn't leave here are alive and well."

City Manager Steve LeBlanc went so far as to ask the media not to photograph "certain things" in the aftermath, referring to the possibility of dead bodies.

Officials in Brazoria County said as many as 35 percent of residents in mandatory evacuation zones stayed behind, or about 67,000. That would put about 90,000 Texans in potentially surge-susceptible areas in the two counties.

Power was out all across Galveston Island, much of which already had flooded. Two house fires are burning, as did a boat warehouse that was widely photographed earlier Friday.

Power lines are down, he said, and it may be weeks before it can be restored. Assessment teams will get out this morning after the storm. Fifty people were rescued from high water and about 260 are in a shelter at Ball High School.

LeBlanc said he didn't know how long it would take before evacuated residents could return. The city may briefly allow them back in to check on their homes, but will then ask them to leave again until the city is safe.

"We feel the city of Galveston will have suffered from this storm," she said.

As of 2 a.m., power outages were widespread, heavily concentrated from the northwestern corner of Beltway 8 stretching southward to Galveston and east to Baytown, the edge of CenterPoint Energy's service area, spokesman Floyd LeBlanc said.

About 1.3 million of CenterPoint's approximately 2 million customers were in the dark. Counting additional outages north and east of the area in Entergy Texas' region, the number was approaching or exceeding 1.5 million.

Based on past experience, it could be a week or more before some customers get power back.

Galveston ordered an 8 p.m. curfew which is set to end at 5 a.m. today but will continue along the same overnight schedule for Galveston and Pelican Island through Monday morning.

"We're going to make sure these homes are safe when (evacuees) return," said Thomas, the mayor.

Earlier Friday, Galveston's Steve LeBlanc expressed dismay that so much of the city's population remained behind to ride out the storm.

''It's unfortunate that the warning we sent out the mayor's mandatory evacuation was not heeded,'' he said.

By comparison, nearly 100 percent of Galveston left the island during Hurricane Rita, just three years ago.

Galveston Island was the site of the nation's deadliest natural disaster the hurricane of 1900, which claimed at least 6,000 lives.

In Harris County, a curfew started at 7 p.m. and is in place until 6 a.m. today for the areas covered by the mandatory evacuation. The Harris County curfew will be for Friday and Saturday night, for the nine evacuated ZIP codes only.

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt and Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said they would be strictly enforcing those curfews to protect evacuees' homes.

The anticipated surge prompted Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, to remark: "This is pretty much a worst-case scenario for flooding the Gulf Coast area."

FEMA anticipates about 100,000 homes will be flooded and as many as several million people could be without power.

''It is a potentially catastrophic hurricane,'' Chertoff said. ''We will move as swiftly as possible to relieve suffering.''

The Harris County Flood Control District is tracking surge-related flooding along and around Clear Lake and on low-lying areas on the Houston Ship Channel, the San Jacinto River and San Jacinto River tributaries, meteorologist Jeff Lindner said.

The bank is nearly full on Clear Creek east of Bay Area Boulevard and on Greens Bayou south of Interstate 10, he said. The bank is half full on Brays Bayou at Lawndale and Eastward and one-third full on the lower end of Little Vince Bayou, he said.

The flooding is entirely related to the storm surge, rather than rainfall, Lindner said. The county's natural elevation will allow all rainwater to drain from the upper end of the watersheds to the lower end, he added.

"We really don't want people to be overly concerned about traditional bayou flooding," County Judge Ed Emmett said. "The rain won't necessarily cause those bayous to go out of their banks."

Several hundred people on the Bolivar Peninsula ignored the call to evacuate forcing Coast Guard helicopter crews to rescue 45 people trapped on the peninsula. Others were rescued by other agencies, Chertoff said.

Helicopters were to be grounded when hurricane winds picked up, he said.

And once it hits, thousands of people will be without power and food, said FEMA Administrator David Paulison. Emergency personnel have shipped in 2.5 million MREs (meals ready to eat) in Texas, and another 3 million will be brought in, he said.

The Red Cross expects to feed 500,000 people.

Ike, when its core was still 135 miles at sea, indirectly claimed its first victim Friday when a 10-year-old Montgomery boy was killed by a falling branch as his parents cut down a tree.

Montgomery County authorities, who declined to immediately identify the victim, said the boy was killed about 9 a.m. as his parents cut down the tree, apparently in preparation for the coming storm.

The boy was dead on arrival at Tomball Regional Medical Center.

A 19-year-old Corpus Christi man was presumed drowned after storm surge from Hurricane Ike swept him from a jetty, Corpus Christi Police Chief Bryan Smith said.

Three people were injured in a two-alarm fire at Brennan's restaurant, a Midtown institution on Smith Street. Fire officials said the blaze could threaten adjacent buildings.

By early Friday afternoon, the police chief in the small Brazoria County town of Surfside Beach said the entire island was covered by rushing water, chest-deep in some places.

Also Friday afternoon, the Coast Guard and the Army aborted a rescue mission to save the 22 crew members on a Cypriot freighter that had lost power in towering swells 90 miles off Galveston's coast. The ship, loaded with petroleum coke floated helplessly as Hurricane Ike approached.

New Orleans-based Petty Officer Jaclyn Young said the two helicopters and three other aircraft that had been sent could not safely rescue the crew. The Coast Guard will not be able to approach until the storm has passed.

''We will talk to them hourly and they have electricity and no injuries," Young said. "They have an emergency beacon to put on if they get in distress.''

This report was compiled by Chronicle reporter Mark Babineck from contributions by reporters Eric Berger, Lynn Cook, Carolyn Feibel, Mary Flood, Cindy George, Terri Langford, Jennifer Latson, Jennifer Leahy, Ericka Mellon, Bradley Olson, James Pinkerton and Allan Turner.

dale.lezon@chron.com lindsay.wise@chron.com

Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5998693.html

Ike crashes ashore in Texas as Category 2 storm

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GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A massive Hurricane Ike ravaged southeast Texas early Saturday, battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts as residents who decided too late they should have heeded calls to evacuate made futile calls for rescue.

Though it would be daybreak before the storm's toll was clear, already, the damage was extensive. Thousands of homes had flooded, roads were washed out and several fires burned unabated as crews could not reach them. But the biggest fear was that thousands of people had defied orders to flee would need rescue 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.

The eye of the storm powered ashore at 3:30 a.m. EDT at Galveston with 110 mph winds, a strong Category 2 storm.

More than 1.3 million customers — or 2.9 million people — had lost power, and suppliers warned it could be weeks before all the service was restored. There also was fear winds could shatter the windows of the sparkling skyscrapers that define the skyline of America's fourth-largest city. Forecasters said the worst winds and rain would come after the center came ashore.

Though 1 million people fled coastal communities near where the storm made landfall, authorities in three counties alone said roughly 90,000 stayed behind. As the front of the storm moved into Galveston, fire crews rescued nearly 300 people who changed their minds and fled at the last minute, wading through floodwaters carrying clothes and other possessions.

"We don't know what we are going to find. We hope we will find the people who are left here alive and well," Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said. "We are keeping our fingers crossed all the people who stayed on Galveston Island managed to survive this."

Storm surge was pushing into a neighborhood near Johnson Space Center where Houston Mayor Bill White had made rounds earlier with a bullhorn trying to compel people to leave. Thousands of homes could be damaged, a spokesman for the mayor said, but it was too dangerous to go out and canvass the neighborhood at the height of the storm.

A landmark restaurant, Brennan's of Houston, was destroyed by flames when firefighters were thwarted by high winds. The restaurant had been a downtown institution for more then four decades.

On the far east side of Houston, Claudia Macias was awake with her newborn and was trying unsuccessfully not to think about the trees swaying outside her doors, or the wind vibrating through her windows. She had been through other storms, but this time was different because she was a new mother.

"I don't know who's going to sleep here tonight, maybe the baby," said Macias, 34.

Before it came ashore, the storm was 600 miles across, nearly as big as Texas itself. Because of the hurricane's size, the state's shallow coastal waters and its largely unprotected coastline, forecasters said the biggest threat would be flooding and storm surge, with Ike expected to hurl a wall of water two stories high — 20 to 25 feet — at the coast.

Firefighters left three buildings to burn Galveston because water was too high for fire trucks to reach them. Six feet of water had collected in the Galveston County Courthouse on the island's downtown, according to local storm reports on the National Weather Service's Web site.

But there was some good news: a stranded freighter with 22 men aboard made it through the brunt of the storm safely, and a tugboat was on the way to save them. And an evacuee from Calhoun County gave birth to a baby girl in the restroom of a shelter with the aid of an

expert in geriatric psychiatry who delivered his first baby in two decades.

"It's kind of like riding a bike," Dr. Mark Burns told the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung after he helped Ku Paw welcome her fourth child.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said more than 5.5 million prepackaged meals were being sent to the region, along with more than 230 generators and 5.6 million liters of water. At least 3,500 FEMA officials were stationed in Texas and Louisiana.

If Ike is as bad as feared, the storm could travel up Galveston Bay and send a surge up the Houston Ship Channel and into the port of Houston. The port is the nation's second-busiest, and is an economically vital complex of docks, pipelines, depots and warehouses that receives automobiles, consumer products, industrial equipment and other cargo from around the world and ships out vast amounts of petrochemicals and agricultural products.

The storm also could force water up the seven bayous that thread through Houston, swamping neighborhoods so flood-prone that they get inundated during ordinary rainstorms.

The oil and gas industry was closely watching Ike because it was headed straight for the nation's biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants. Wholesale gasoline prices jumped to around $4.85 a gallon for fear of shortages.

Ike is the first major hurricane to hit a U.S. metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago. For Houston, it would be the first major hurricane since Alicia in August 1983 came ashore on Galveston Island, killing 21 people and causing $2 billion in damage. Houston has since then seen a population explosion, so many of the residents now in the storm's path have never experienced the full wrath of a hurricane.

Though Ike's center was heading for Texas, it spawned thunderstorms, shut down schools and knocked out power throughout southern Louisiana on Friday. An estimated 1,200 people were in state shelters in Monroe and Shreveport, and another 220 in medical needs shelters.

In southeastern Louisiana near Houma, Ike breached levees, and flooded more than 1,800 homes. More than 160 people had to be rescued from sites of severe flooding, and Gov. Bobby Jindal said he expected those numbers to grow. In some extreme instances, residents of low-lying communities where waters continued to rise continued to refuse National Guard assistance to flee their homes, authorities said.

No deaths had been officially reported, but crews expected to resume searching at daybreak near Corpus Christi for a man believed swept out to sea as Ike closed in.

Juan A. Lozano reported from Galveston. Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Eileen Sullivan in Washington, Paul Weber and Regina L. Burns in Dallas, John Porretto, Andre Coe and Pauline Arrillaga in Houston, Diana Heidgerd in Dallas, Michael Kunzelman in Lake Charles, La., Brian Skoloff in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Allen G. Breed and video journalist Rich Matthews in Surfside Beach also contributed.

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jG1m4XT341oCKXPMIZlKffdhP9vwD935N6AO0

The Wrath of God



1O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.

2I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.

3The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

4Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

5Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

6For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

7As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

8Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

9Thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall throughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back thine hand as a grapegatherer into the baskets.

10To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

11Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

12And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.

13For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

14They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

15Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

16Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

17Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

18Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

19Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

20To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.

21Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.

22Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.

23They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.

24We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

25Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.

26O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.

27I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

28They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.

29The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

30Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.

Jeremiah 6.

Texans endure sleepless night as Ike roars ashore

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Tommy Scarborough supports himself on a post while he gets a lift from the strong winds created by the approaching Hurricane Ike in Bacliff, Texas, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Texans endure sleepless night as Ike roars ashore

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A massive Hurricane Ike menaced the darkened Texas coast early Saturday, ensuring a sleepless night for thousands who huddled and waited to find out if a gamble to face the storm head-on could cost them their lives.

Before the eye even crossed land, the first bands were punishing. Wind-whipped waves surged over a 17-foot seawall in Galveston and filled streets with waist-high water. Homes were flooding, utilities said more than 4.5 million people were without power and there was fear hurricane-force winds could shatter the windows of the sparkling skyscrapers that define the skyline of America's fourth-largest city.

Rescue crews worried daybreak would bring a nightmare scenario: Thousands who defied evacuation orders and became trapped in submerged communities. Already, dozens of calls had come into 911 dispatchers begging for help.

"We don't know what we are going to find. We hope we will find the people who are left here alive and well," Galveston Mayor Lynda Ann Thomas said. "We are keeping our fingers crossed all the people who stayed on Galveston Island managed to survive this."

The storm began battering the coast Friday afternoon, and the eye was likely to cross early Saturday morning. As of 1 a.m. EDT, Ike was centered about 35 miles southeast of Galveston, moving at 12 mph. It was close to a Category 3 storm with winds of 110 mph. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore somewhere near Galveston and pass almost directly over Houston.

Though 1 million people fled coastal communities near where the storm was projected to make landfall, authorities in three counties alone said roughly 90,000 stayed behind. As the front of the storm moved into Galveston, fire crews rescued nearly 300 people who changed their minds and fled at the last minute, wading through floodwaters carrying clothes and other posessions.

"The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in tomorrow 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.

In Houston, some low-lying communities that were ordered evacuated flooded, but because the storm struck overnight, officials had no idea how bad the damage was. Storm surge was pushing into a neighborhood near Johnson Space Center where Houston Mayor Bill White had made rounds earlier with a bullhorn trying to compel people to leave. Thousands of homes could be damaged, a spokesman for the mayor said, but it was too dangerous to go out and canvass the neighborhood at the height of the storm.

In a move designed to avoid highway gridlock, most of Houston's 2 million residents heeded orders to hunker down at home. On the far east side of Houston, Claudia Macias was awake with her newborn and was trying unsuccessfully not to think about the trees swaying outside her doors, or the wind vibrating through her windows. She had been through other storms, but this time was different because she was a new mother.

"I don't know who's going to sleep here tonight, maybe the baby," said Macias, 34.

At 600 miles across, the storm was nearly as big as Texas itself, and threatened to give the state its worst pounding in a generation. Because of the hurricane's size, the state's shallow coastal waters and its largely unprotected coastline, forecasters said the biggest threat would be flooding and storm surge, with Ike expected to hurl a wall of water two stories high — 20 to 25 feet — at the coast.

Firefighters left three buildings to burn Galveston because water was too high for fire trucks to reach them. But there was some good news: a stranded freighter with 22 men aboard made it through the brunt of the storm safely, and a tugboat was on the way to save them.

Brennan's of Houston, one of the city's historic restaurants, was destroyed by fire early Saturday morning. Firefighters were thwarted by high winds and could not save the downtown establishment. The fire was reported just after midnight, and by the time trucks arrived, the four-decade-old restaurant was fully engulfed.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said more than 5.5 million prepackaged meals were being sent to the region, along with more than 230 generators and 5.6 million liters of water. At least 3,500 FEMA officials were stationed in Texas and Louisiana.

If Ike is as bad as feared, the storm could travel up Galveston Bay and send a surge up the Houston Ship Channel and into the port of Houston. The port is the nation's second-busiest, and is an economically vital complex of docks, pipelines, depots and warehouses that receives automobiles, consumer products, industrial equipment and other cargo from around the world and ships out vast amounts of petrochemicals and agricultural products.

The storm also could force water up the seven bayous that thread through Houston, swamping neighborhoods so flood-prone that they get inundated during ordinary rainstorms.

The oil and gas industry was closely watching Ike because it was headed straight for the nation's biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants. Wholesale gasoline prices jumped to around $4.85 a gallon for fear of shortages.

Ike would be the first major hurricane to hit a U.S. metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago. For Houston, it would be the first major hurricane since Alicia in August 1983 came ashore on Galveston Island, killing 21 people and causing $2 billion in damage. Houston has since then seen a population explosion, so many of the residents now in the storm's path have never experienced the full wrath of a hurricane.

Though Ike's center was heading for Texas, it spawned thunderstorms, shut down schools and knocked out power throughout southern Louisiana on Friday. An estimated 1,200 people were in state shelters in Monroe and Shreveport, and another 220 in medical needs shelters.

In southeastern Louisiana near Houma, Ike breached levees, and flooded more than 1,800 homes. More than 160 people had to be rescued from sites of severe flooding, and Gov. Bobby Jindal said he expected those numbers to grow. In some extreme instances, residents of low-lying communities where waters continued to rise continued to refuse National Guard assistance to flee their homes, authorities said.

No deaths had been officially reported, but crews expected to resume searching at daybreak near Corpus Christi for a man believed swept out to sea as Ike closed in.

Juan A. Lozano reported from Galveston. Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Eileen Sullivan in Washington, Paul Weber and Regina L. Burns in Dallas, John Porretto, Andre Coe and Pauline Arrillaga in Houston, Diana Heidgerd in Dallas, Michael Kunzelman in Lake Charles, La., Brian Skoloff in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Allen G. Breed and video journalist Rich Matthews in Surfside Beach also contributed.

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jG1m4XT341oCKXPMIZlKffdhP9vwD935LV0G0

Friday, September 12, 2008

US accuses Venezuelans of aiding drug trafficker




Friday, September 12, 2008



WASHINGTON - The United States on Friday accused three members of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's inner circle of aiding Colombian rebels by supplying arms and helping drug traffickers. Washington also expelled Chavez's ambassador as a diplomatic clash intensified.




State Department spokesman Sean McCormack condemned the expulsions this week of the American ambassadors to Venezuela and Bolivia. He said the United States would kick out the Venezuelan even though Chavez had announced Thursday night that he was yanking his ambassador.




"This reflects the weakness and desperation of these leaders," McCormack said of Chavez and the embattled Bolivian president, Evo Morales. He suggested that the expulsion of the U.S. ambassadors was meant to distract attention from the countries' regional and domestic difficulties.




Morales expelled the U.S. envoy to Bolivia on Wednesday, accusing him of inciting violent protests; U.S. officials responded by kicking out Bolivia's ambassador to the United States. Chavez - a close Morales ally - followed suit Thursday, accusing the U.S. of backing a coup plot against him in Venezuela. "Clearly he's worried about his protege," McCormack said of Chavez.




McCormack added: "The charges leveled against our fine ambassadors by the leaders of Bolivia and Venezuela are false - and the leaders of those countries know it."




Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Hugo Carvajal Barrios and Henry Rangel Silva, both chiefs of Venezuelan intelligence agencies. A former government minister, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, was also named. The officials have served as Chavez's most trusted security chiefs.




Treasury said Friday that the three aided drug trafficking by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, describing the leftist rebels as a narco-terrorist organization.




U.S. drug czar John Walters has said Venezuela, which suspended cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2005, is failing to take action against a sharp rise in cocaine smuggling. By U.S. estimates, the flow of Colombian cocaine through Venezuela has quadrupled since 2004, reaching an estimated 282 tons (256 metric tons) last year.




Carvajal helped protect drug shipments passing through Venezuela, Treasury said, and provided the FARC with weapons and official government identification documents to ease travel in and out of Venezuela. Rangel allegedly aided the FARC in its drug trafficking and "pushed for greater cooperation" between the government and the rebels, the U.S. agency said.




It said Rodriguez Chacin was the "main weapons contact for the FARC" within Chavez's government, and that he held "numerous meetings with senior FARC members," including one at Venezuela's presidential palace in late 2007. It said he also tried to "facilitate a $250 million loan from the Venezuelan government to the FARC in late 2007."




Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a statement that the "designation exposes two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official who armed, abetted and funded the FARC, even as it terrorized and kidnapped innocents."




At the State Department, McCormack said the sanctions had been in the works for some time and are unrelated to the diplomatic dispute.




Several rebel deserters have previously told The Associated Press that the Venezuelan military helped them move drugs and provided the FARC with refuge and medical assistance.




Signs of FARC links to Venezuelan military intelligence chief Gen. Carvajal surfaced earlier this year in documents on laptops that Colombia says were seized from a bombed rebel camp.




In one 2007 message, the rebels' main go-between with the Chavez government said Carvajal would help "get us 20 bazookas."




Chavez has questioned the authenticity of the rebel documents, saying they are being manipulated for political purposes. He also disputes U.S. surveillance data showing a rise in drug trafficking.




Rodriguez Chacin stepped down Monday as justice minister, saying he was leaving for personal reasons but continues to be a "revolutionary" and hopes to serve in another capacity. The specific reasons for his departure have not been explained.




A close ally to Chavez, Rodriguez Chacin was the president's primary contact with the FARC in talks on freeing hostages during the past year, and has for years been Chavez's leading go-between with the rebels.




Critics have accused Rodriguez Chacin of being too close to the rebels, and he was recorded in a video during one hostage release telling guerrillas, "we're paying attention to your fight." The loan he is accused of facilitating also appeared in the purported rebel computer files, but U.S. officials say they cannot confirm whether funds were actually provided to the FARC.




Rangel, head of Venezuela's DISIP intelligence agency, generally keeps a low profile, but his name emerged this week in a Miami courtroom where witnesses are testifying in the trial of a man accused of acting as an illegal foreign agent for Venezuela.




One businessman, Moises Maionica, testified that Rangel was designated by Chavez to oversee attempts to cover up the Venezuelan source of US$800,000 in cash flown into Argentina in a suitcase and seized last year.




Prosecutors allege the money was provided by Venezuela's state oil company for the campaign of Argentina's new president, Cristina Fernandez. Argentina denies it, and Chavez calls the accusations "trash."




-------




Ian James reported from Caracas. Associated Press writers Anne Gearan in Washington and Frank Bajak in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.







Source: http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=topstories&id=20080912/48c9e940_3ca6_1552620080912-336029818

WRAPUP 6-Hurricane Ike could be ''potential catastrophe''



Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:04pm EDT



*Ike expected to make landfall late Friday, early Saturday

*Storm could be potential catastrophe

*Ike could flood 100,000 residences, US officials warn

By Tim Gaynor

GALVESTON, Texas, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike closed in on the Texas coast on Friday with a wall of water and U.S. officials warned it could be a potentially catastrophic storm and flood 100,000 homes.

Waters rose rapidly as Ike moved within hours of striking low-lying areas near Houston with a possible 20-foot (6-metre) storm surge in what may be the worst storm to hit Texas in nearly 50 years.

"Our nation is facing what is by any means a potentially catastrophic hurricane," said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, warning that Ike's storm surge could present the gravest danger.

The National Weather Service warned that people in coastal areas could "face the possibility of death" from a massive storm surge. Although Ike is weaker than 2005's Hurricane Katrina, the last storm to pummel a U.S. urban area, its large scope gives it more water-moving power.

Ike was a Category 2 storm with 105 mph (165 kph) winds as it moved on a course to pass directly over Houston -- the fourth-largest city in the United States.

Ike was expected to come ashore overnight, possibly as a dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-step intensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

Millions of coastal residents could be left without power, authorities said.

Ports were closed and the Coast Guard said a 584-foot (178-metre) freighter with 22 people aboard was stranded without power 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Galveston. Conditions were too treacherous to attempt rescue.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled the island city of Galveston and low-lying counties under mandatory evacuation orders and authorities urged holdouts to move before Ike's winds started to make car travel dangerous.

Some who had thought they would stick it out instead made a last-minute exit from Galveston. The city was hit by a hurricane in 1900 that was the deadliest weather disaster in U.S. history.

U.S. crude oil was trading near $101 a barrel Friday afternoon after dropping below $100 for the first time since early April as concerns over U.S. economic weakness outweighed storm disruption fears.

Weather forecasters at Planalytics saw "major and long-term damage likely at the major refining cities." (Additional reporting by Anna Driver and Bruce Nichols; writing by Chris Baltimore and Mary Milliken; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Frances Kerry)







Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1235585020080912?sp=true

Protecting Canada's Fresh Water



Protecting Canada's Fresh Water


By Dana Gabriel http://intelstrike.com/? p=301


The Montreal Economic Institute is calling on the Quebec province and the rest of Canada to start exporting water for financial gain. Many are not buying into the myth that Canada has an abundant supply of fresh water that it can sell. A recent Environment Canada report stated that supplies are declining, and this lays credence to water becoming like the new oil. Under NAFTA, water is not protected, and there is little doubt that the U.S. sees Canada’s water as a solution to their own shortages. There are warnings of future provincial and even cross-border conflicts if water supplies become really low. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to acknowledge water as a human right. His Conservative government has done little to protect Canadian water and continues to deny that the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America poses any threat to it.


The Montreal Economic Institute is recommending water exports, and it is clear that possible environmental and water shortages will not stand in the way when there are huge profits to be made. The report, titled ‘Fresh water exports for the development of Quebec’s blue gold’ was prepared by its vice president and chief economist Marcel Boyer. In the report, it is estimated that Quebec could generate as much as $6.5 billion in gross revenue a year. The report also states that, “Fresh water is a product whose relative economic value has risen substantially and will keep rising in the coming years.” Canada’s water belongs to its people, and it should not be privatized or sold to the highest bidder.


Canada does not have an effective national water policy in place as much of it is administrated by the provinces. There is increased pressure to begin exporting bulk water as well as a legitimate concern that through NAFTA and the SPP, corporate interests could supersede future domestic demand. NDP trade critic Peter Julian said, “Since fresh water was listed in NAFTA as a commercializable product, there’s no going back once bulk water exports start. No matter how our communities’ needs evolve.” There are really no provisions in place to prevent a province from exporting bulk water. If Quebec were to begin, other provinces would soon follow its lead.


Jack Layton and the NDP oppose any measure to privatize water and turn it into a commodity on the open market. They have tabled a motion that calls for a, “comprehensive water policy based on public trust.” They seek to restrict diversions, ban bulk water exports, and recognize water as a fundamental right. These proposals appeal to the NDP’s traditional core base of support and could attract others who care about the environment. The fact that Canadian Green Party Leader Elizabeth May will be participating in the leader debates should also bring water issues to the forefront.


Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has accused Harper of taking the SPP in a different direction, but it was first initiated by the Liberals. In reality, they still very much support the SPP process. To his credit, Dion has recently come out strong, demanding that the Conservatives take immediate action to protect Canada’s fresh water. Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia tabled a private members bill to prevent large-scale transfers of water within Canada and diversions to the United States. A Liberal government would create a water minister portfolio to work with the provinces on federal water legislation. Dion has been plagued by leadership questions, and as a result has appeared weak. If banning bulk water exports becomes a big election issue, it could help to propel his campaign.


NAFTA, the SPP, and deeper North American integration could become key election issues that might spell trouble for the Conservatives. Don’t expect any help along the way from the corporate controlled Canadian press, who for the most part have ignored, censored, and suppressed any mention of plans to create a North American Union. A party that is able take on the mantle of protecting Canadian sovereignty and its resources and excludes the usual anti-Americanism, could boost their fortunes in the upcoming Canadian elections on October 14.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

U.S. Government Helping to Arrange Sale of Lehman Brothers






Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 11, 2008; 7:18 PM



The Federal Reserve and Treasury are actively helping Lehman Brothers put itself up for sale, and officials are hoping a deal will be in place this weekend before Asian markets open on Monday, according to sources familiar with the matter.



The government is looking for an agreement that would not involve public money. A scenario that is emerging includes multiple suitors acquiring different pieces of the venerable investment bank, which has suffered staggering losses from its bets on real estate and mortgages.


Regulators have been in touch with Lehman on almost an hourly basis in recent days. And high-ranking officials including New York Federal Reserve President Timothy F. Geithner, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke have been discussing a broad range of possibilities for Lehman, trying to determine what risks each outcome would pose to the financial system, the sources said on condition of anonymity because the details had not yet been finalized.


Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and Lehman chief executive Richard S. Fuld have also been speaking several times daily.





The effort comes just a few days after the Treasury and other federal regulators announced they were taking control of mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in what was one of the largest government interventions in the private markets in history.


Lehman Brothers, which had been anxious to show it could weather the credit crisis that contributed to the firm's $3.9 billion third-quarter loss, said Wednesday that it would sell a majority stake in its investment-management division, slash its dividend and spin off about $30 billion of real estate assets.


The announcement did little to calm investors' concerns that Lehman, the smallest of the four major Wall Street investment banks, might suffer the same fate as former rival Bear Stearns, which was acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase in a deal regulators brokered in March after a bank run that shook the securities industry.


Lehman's share price fell nearly 40 percent to $4.22 at the end of trading today, continuing a precipitous fall from more than $60 a share as of February.


Goldman Sachs Group reduced its rating on the company, with one analyst saying that the restructuring "fell short of what was necessary," the Bloomberg news service reported, while Moody's Investor Services argued that the firm faced a cut in its credit rating unless it quickly enters a "strategic arrangement" with a stronger partner.


During a conference call with Lehman executives yesterday, analysts pressed for assurances that the $5.6 billion of write-downs that the firm disclosed for the quarter ended Aug. 31 -- primarily for declines in the value of assets tied to residential mortgages -- sufficiently reflected the severity of the troubles in the real estate market. The concern demonstrated the skepticism that remains even after last weekend's federal bailout of government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which play a vital role in supporting the mortgage and housing markets.


"There's still an element of doubt in terms of confidence of the financial players, and that's not going to go away just with the bailing out of Bear Stearns and the bailing out of the GSEs," said Michael Kastner, managing director of fixed income at Sterling Stamos Capital Management in New York. "What we're going to need to see is at least one quarter where the financial institutions don't show write-downs and do show profits and an ability to grow their business."


Staff writer Howard Schneider contributed to this report.



Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091102580.html?referrer=email

Hurricane Ike nears Texas coast, shutting down Houston


By Anahad O'connor and Thayer Evans
Published: September 11, 2008


Hundreds of thousands of people streamed out of Houston and neighboring cities on Thursday as Hurricane Ike continued on a collision course with the central coastline of Texas.
As forecasters issued increasingly dire predictions for Houston, the state's largest city and fourth largest in the country, local authorities shut down all schools, universities and government buildings — including NASA's Johnson Space Center — and ordered mandatory evacuations for thousands of residents. Hundreds of thousands more were evacuated from several counties along the coast, jamming interstate highways with miles of slow but steadily moving bumper t0 bumper traffic.
"Prepare for the worst, pray for the best," Governor Rick Perry of Texas said at a news briefing at an emergency center in Austin. The governor has mobilized about 1,300 buses for evacuees, put 100 ambulances on standby and activated more than 7,500 National Guard troops. Many of the people boarding buses out of town said they had been through this before.
"I'm very terrified," said Aretha May, 39, a homemaker in Galveston who was waiting on a bus Thursday afternoon with her two young daughters and their dachshund. "I don't want to be nowhere around this storm."
May said she arrived in Galveston three years ago after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home in New Orleans. Her sister, Evelyn May, chose to stay behind, she said, and has not been seen since.
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"Nobody can tell me where she's at or if she's alive or dead," she said.
Ike is expected to make landfall early Saturday as a possible Category 3 hurricane with winds exceeding 131 miles an hour. After striking somewhere between Corpus Christi and Galveston with an unusually wide wind-field, it would likely continue on toward Houston, lashing the city on the storm's right, or strongest side, with winds approaching 100 miles an hour, said Chris McKinney, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Houston.
"Unfortunately the greater Houston area is definitely going to be affected by this storm," he said about the city, which was devastated by flooding from Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001. "The effects are going to be spread out over a much larger area than might be with another storm."
On Thursday, Mayor Bill White of Houston urged all businesses to let employees leave and prepare to evacuate, and pleaded with families not to take multiple vehicles. In car-friendly Houston, evacuations during Hurricane Rita in 2005 were slowed tremendously when many families chose to take all of their cars instead of leaving some behind, the mayor said.
As of 1 p.m. Central time, the mayor had ordered people in at least eight Houston zip codes to leave immediately. Ike could drop as much as 6 to 10 inches of rain in some parts of the greater Houston area. Depending on where the storm dump most of its rain, it could inflict serious damage. Northern Houston is generally well protected, but sections closer to the city's numerous bayous are prone to flooding, said McKinney, the forecaster.
In its latest advisory Thursday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said the center of Hurricane Ike, currently a Category 2 hurricane, was located about 440 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi and roughly 470 miles east-southeast of Galveston. It was moving to the west-northwest at a speed of nearly 10 miles per hour. Forecasters can usually determine with high accuracy where a hurricane will make landfall, but they are less adept at pinning down the intensity with which it will strike.
With memories of the $1.2 billion worth of statewide damage wrought by Hurricane Dolly in July still fresh, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas of Galveston ordered a mandatory evacuation Thursday morning for the city's population of approximately 57,000 residents. The city had previously only ordered a mandatory evacuation for the city's flood-prone west end and a voluntary evacuation for the remainder of the city.
"Those who stay, stay at their own risk," she said.
Thomas urged the estimated 4,000 residents who need special assistance evacuating because of age, disability, lack of reliable transportation or other special needs to gather at 2 p.m. local time at a city community center to board 75 buses to go to shelters in Austin.
Galveston's west end, an area of million-dollar beach front homes raised on stilts, was already experiencing flooding Thursday morning from high tides, and officials said they were expecting to lose power and basic services across the entire city when Ike makes landfall.
"We are expecting a pretty brutal event to hit us," said Jim Yarbrough, Galveston's county executive. He said he expected many people in the county to try to ride out the storm, and added "We don't think that's a wise choice."With gasoline in high demand, prices at the pump shot up about 30 percent Thursday at gas stations throughout the Texas gulf coast, even as the cost of crude oil moved in the opposite direction, falling closer and closer to $100 a barrel. Analysts said that had something to do with Ike's projected path, which could take it straight through a large swath of the country's refineries, shutting them down and creating an excess of crude oil. That typically drives the cost of crude downward.


As of Thursday afternoon, oil companies had evacuated workers from 562, or roughly 78 percent, of the 717 manned production platforms in the gulf, the U.S. Minerals Management Services said. Altogether, as much as 96 percent of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, and about 73 percent of its natural gas output, has been shut down, the agency said.
On Thursday afternoon, 75 buses rolled up to the Island Community Center in Galveston to the sound of blaring sirens and megaphones. Thousands of people lined up outside the center waiting for the 200-mile trek to shelters and evacuation centers in Austin.
The scene was dominated by hundreds of families carrying pets and other belongings, scores of people in wheelchairs or leaning on canes, and many of the homeless pushing grocery carts loaded with their possessions.
As city employees used electronic megaphones to urge people to board, many people stood in the shade or huddled on blankets in the grass.
Hurricane Dolly, a Category 2, was the last major storm to pound Texas. It delivered 16 inches of rain to the coast in July, knocked out power to 210,000 homes and businesses, and caused damage totaling at least $1.2 billion.
Hurricane Ike has already claimed about 80 lives in the Caribbean, most of them in Haiti, which had still been recovering from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Gustav in late August. After hitting Haiti, Ike slammed Cuba, where it moved so quickly that it killed four people before the Cuban government, which has a history of responding well to the threat of powerful storms, could evacuate most of those in its path.
Thayer Evans reported from Galveston, Texas, and Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York.


Nineteen



In 1965 Vietnam seemed like just another foreign war but it wasn'tIt was different in many ways, as so were tose that did the fightingIn World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26In Vietnam he was 19In-in-in Vietnam he was 19


The shooting and fighting of the past two weeks continued today25 miles west of SaigonI really wasn't sure what was going on
Ni-ni-ni 19, 19, ni-19 1919, 19, 19, 19


In Vietnam the combat soldier typically servedA twelve month tour of dutyBut was exposed to hostile fire almost everydayNi-ni-ni 19, Ni-ni-ni 19


Hundreds of thousands of men who saw heavy combatIn Vietnam were arrested since dischargeTheir arrest rate is almost twice that of non-veterans of the same ageThere are no accurate figures of how many of these menHave been incarcerated


But a Veterans Administration studyConcludes that the greater of vetsExposure to combat could more likely affect his chancesOf being arrested or convicted
This is one legacy of the Vietnam War


All those who remember the warThey won't forget what they've seenDestruction of men in their primeWhose average was 19


De-de-destructionDe-de-destructionWar, war


De-de-destruction, wa, wa, war, wa, war, warDe-de-destructionWar, war


After World War II the men came home together on troop shipsBut the Vietnam vet often arrived home within 48 hours of jungle combat

Perhaps the most dramatic difference betweenWorld War II and Vietnam was coming homeNone of them received a hero's welcome


None of them received a heroes welcome, none of them, none of themNe-ne-ne, ne-ne-ne, none of them, none of them, none of themNone of them received a hero's welcomeNone of them received a hero's welcome


According to a Veteran's Administration studyHalf of the Vietnam combat veterans suffered from whatPsychiatrists callPost-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder


Many vets complain of alienation, rage or guiltSome succumb to suicidal thoughtsEight to ten years after coming homeAlmost eight hundred thousand men are still fighting the Vietnam War


De-de-destructionNi-ni-ni 19, 19, ni19 1919, 19, 19, 19Ni-ni-ni 19, 19, ni-19 1919, 19, 19, 19


When we came back it was different, everybody wants to know"How'd it happened to those guys over there?There's gotta be something wrong somewhereWe did what we had to do


There's gotta be something wrong somewherePeople wanted us to be ashamed of what it made usDad had no idea what he went to fight and he is nowAll we want to do is come home


All we want to do is come home

What did we do it for?All we want to do is come home

Was it worth it


Song Name: Nineteen
Artist Name: Paul Hardcastle
Album: The Best of Paul Hardcastle
Songwriter(s): J Mccord, M Oldfield, Paul Hardcastle, W Coutourie
Release Date: June 6, 1998 (1998???)
Label: Disky


© EMI VIRGIN SONGS, INC