HURRICANE SEASON 2008

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                                              Rescue crews comb Texas coast for Ike victims






By ALLEN G. BREED and
PAULINE ARRILLAGA,
Associated Press Writers
 
2 minutes ago

Sept. 13, 2008
 
HOUSTON - Rescue crews navigated flooded and debris-strewn streets Saturday to search for those who insisted on staying and riding out a fierce Hurricane Ike, which shattered skyscraper windows, cut power to millions and flooded thousands of homes as it sloshed across the Texas coast.
 
State and local officials began searching for survivors by late morning, just hours after Ike roared ashore at Galveston with 110 mph winds, heavy rains and towering waves. Overnight, dispatchers received thousands of calls from frightened residents who bucked mandatory orders to leave as the storm closed in.

Rescue crews were frustrated, but vowed to get to the more than 140,000 people who stubbornly stayed behind as soon as they could.

"This is a democracy," said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry. "Local officials who can order evacuations put out very strong messages. Gov. Perry put out a very strong warning. But you can't force people to leave their homes. They made a decision to ride out the storm. Our prayers are with them."

Sedonia Owen, 75, and her son, Lindy McKissick, defied evacuation orders in Galveston because they wanted to protect their neighborhood from possible looters. She was watching floodwaters recede from her front porch Saturday morning, armed with a shotgun.

"My neighbors told me, 'You've got my permission. Anybody who goes into my house, you can shot them,'" said Owen.

President Bush declared a major disaster in his home state of Texas and ordered immediate federal aid. Officials were encouraged that the storm surge topped out at only 13.5 feet — far lower than the catastrophic 20-to-25 foot wall of water forecasters had feared, but major roads were washed out near Galveston, and the damage was still immense.

Residents of Houston emerged to take in the damage, even as glass from the JPMorgan Chase Tower — the state's tallest building at 75 stories — continued to rain on streets below. Trees were uprooted in the streets, road signs mangled by wind.

"I think we're like at ground zero," said Mauricio Diaz, 36, as he walked along Texas Avenue across the street from the Chase building. Metal blinds from the tower dotted the street, along with red seat cushions, pieces of a wood desk and office documents marked "highly confidential."

Houston Police officer Joseph Ledet was out patrolling the streets early Saturday, but stopped and simply stared as he approached Chase Tower. "It looks like a bomb went off over there," he said. "Just destruction."

Shortly before noon, Houston police cars prowled downtown, ordering citizens off the streets over bullhorns: "Please clear the area! Go home!"

The storm, which had killed more than 80 in the Caribbean before making landfall in the United States, claimed at least two lives in Texas, but the toll was likely to rise. A woman died early Saturday when a tree fell on her home near Pinehurst in Montgomery County, crushing her as she slept. A 19-year-old man also slipped off a jetty near Corpus Christi and apparently washed away.

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency said search and rescue teams were at the ready in Houston, poised to go to the aid of those stranded by Hurricane Ike. At a sports arena, tractor-trailers and large sport utility vehicles sat idle as the vast storm churned northward across the state.

The storm, nearly as big as Texas itself, blasted a 500-mile stretch of coastline in Louisiana and Texas. It breached levees, flooded roads and led more than 1 million people to evacuate and seek shelter inland.

South of Galveston, authorities said 67-year-old Ray Wilkinson was the only resident who didn't evacuate from Surfside Beach, population 800. He was drunk and waving when authorities reached him on Saturday morning.

"He kinda drank his way through the night," Mayor Larry Davison said.

Some homes were destroyed, but the storm was not as bad for Surfside Beach as Davison had feared. "But it's pretty bad," he said. "It'll take six months to clean it up."

Farther up the coast, much of Bridge City and downtown Orange were under up to 8 feet of water and rescue teams in dump trucks were plowing through in an effort to reach families trapped on roofs and inside attics.

"Right now we're pretty devastated," Orange County Judge Carl Thibodeaux said. "We're still watching the water steadily rise slowly. Hopefully it's going to crest soon."

Thibodeaux said Ike was not causing as much structural damage as Rita, but that rising water was making the effects more devastating. Thibodeaux and other officials were stuck inside an emergency operation center, where he said the water outside was at least 5 feet and rising.

In Louisiana, Ike's storm surge inundated thousands of homes and businesses. In Plaquemines Parish, near New Orleans, a sheriff's spokesman said levees were overtopped and floodwaters were higher than either hurricane Katrina or Rita.

"The storm surge we're experiencing, on both sides of the Mississippi River, is higher than anything we've seen before," Marie said.

As Ike moved north later Saturday morning, the storm dropped to a Category 1 hurricane, then a tropical storm. At 2 p.m. EDT, the storm's center was just southeast of Palestine, Texas, and moving toward the north near 16 mph. Winds were still at 60 mph, and tornadoes were possible.

Because Ike was so huge, hurricane winds pounded the coast for hours before landfall and continued through the morning, with the worst winds and rain after the center came ashore, forecasters said.

"For us, it was a 10," Galveston Fire Chief Mike Varela said. Varela said firefighters responded to dozens of rescue calls before suspending operations Friday night, including from people who changed their minds and fled at the last minute.

Ike landed near the nation's biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants, and already, prices were reacting. Gas prices nationwide rose nearly 6 cents a gallon to $3.733, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Some feared worries about a prolonged shutdown in the Gulf of Mexico could send prices surging back toward all-time highs of $4 per gallon, reached over the summer when oil prices neared $150 a barrel.

More than 3 million customers lost power in southeast Texas, and some 140,000 more in Louisiana. That's in addition to the 60,000 still without power from Labor Day's Hurricane Gustav. Suppliers warned it could be weeks before all service was restored.




But there was 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.

___



Juan A. Lozano reported from Galveston.

Chris Duncan reported from Houston.



Associated Press writers



Jim Vertuno and Jay Root in Austin,

Eileen Sullivan in Washington,

Schuyler Dixon and Paul Weber in Dallas,

John Porretto, Monica Rhor and Pauline Arrillaga in Houston,

Michael Kunzelman in Lake Charles, La.,

Brian Skoloff in West Palm Beach, Fla.,

April Castro and Andre Coe in College Station, and

Allen G. Breed and video journalist Rich Matthews in Surfside Beach also contributed.

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                                            Texas reels from Hurricane Ike's power






     
GALVESTON, Texas (CNN) -- Hurricane Ike landed a powerful punch on the Texas Gulf Coast early Saturday, sparking fires, flooding streets and knocking out power to more than 4 million people.

 
A building's canopy is destroyed Saturday in Baytown, Texas, in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

Ike's storm surge flooded Galveston's historic district and kept firefighters from reaching several blazes that burned out of control.

"The hotel we were in was rocking and windows blowing out," Mark Sudduth, of hurricanetrack.com,
told CNN.

"There was enormous wave action, the wind, the power outages, fires in the distance. It was everything that a Hollywood epic disaster movie would be made of, but for real," he said. 

Ike shattered dozens of windows on Texas' tallest skyscraper, the 75-story JP Morgan Chase Tower in downtown Houston. Nearly every window on one side of the tower's first 30 floors was blown out.

Houston Mayor Bill White advised residents to drink bottled water or boil tap water as a precaution, but he said nothing indicated that the water supply was contaminated.

A power outage at a pumping station caused low water pressure, which raised the risk of contamination, White said.

A chemical plant was reported to be leaking chlorine near Surfside, Texas.






Latest on Ike



Ike was near Trinity, Texas, at 10 a.m. CT (11 a.m. ET)

Sustained wind speed was about 80 mph, Category 1

The storm is moving north at 16 mph, expected to turn toward the northeast

Automated tide gauges along the upper Texas coast are reporting storm surges of 9 to 12 feet above normal tide levels

Rainfall of 5 to 10 inches expected in eastern Texas and parts of Louisiana, with as much as 15 inches in spots






Source:



National Hurricane Center More than 4 million people in the Houston region were without electricity after winds of 100 to 110 mph brought down trees and power lines, said Floyd LeBlanc of CenterPoint Energy Inc. 

"It's going to take several weeks to get all this power restored," he said. "We've been saying two to three weeks."

iReporter Jackie Hensler of Houston said her apartment building's power was restored quickly on Saturday morning after a stormy night.

"There are lots of trees down; they've been uprooted or snapped," she said after venturing outside. "There's lots of debris in the streets, like boards and plywood from homes. It was still raining pretty hard when I went out about 30 minutes ago."

Houston 911 received 1,250 fire and emergency calls over the past 24 hours -- about 60 percent higher than normal.  Watch how the roof peeled off a building »

Brennan's, a popular restaurant in downtown Houston for almost four decades, burned down Friday night as Ike battered the city.

Galveston County's Emergency Management Coordinator John Simsen urged residents to be patient at a morning briefing.

"We have a lot of work to do in terms of damage assessment," he said. "We don't understand yet what we're dealing with ...

"The last thing we want to do is put our citizens back into a situation where they may be in harm's way."  See pictures of the storm's destruction »

The storm flooded Galveston's historic district with 7 feet of water at its peak, said Galveston County official Margaret Bunch.  Watch how a spunky little girl braved the storm »

A foot of water flooded the city's main courthouse, where many people rode out the storm, she said.

When Wanda Collins' garage filled with 5 feet of water, everything in it was ruined: a 2002 pickup truck, two Harley-Davidson motorcycles, a freezer and a washer and dryer.

"I have never in my life seen water like this," the 30-year Galveston resident said.

A fire broke out at a Galveston yacht basin, where boats are stored and fixed, said Galveston Fire Chief Michael Varela Sr., and firefighters were unable to reach it because the area was flooded with about 8 feet of water.

Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said about 40 percent of the city's 57,523 residents chose to stay despite evacuation orders. "It's unfortunate that the warnings that we sent out were not heeded," he said.

iReporter Matteu Erchull was among those who chose to remain on Galveston Island. "We have a lot of faith in the sea wall, and we have boards on the windows. Most people on the island live on second or third stories, so they don't have to worry about the water so much." iReport.com: See Erchull bracing for Ike

Erchull later took shelter on the second floor of a restaurant in Galveston and said late Friday he could see fires burning in the northwest of the island.

Curfews are in place in Galveston until dawn Monday and in Houston's Harris County until 6 a.m. Sunday.

Authorities in Orange County, Texas, on the Louisiana line, were using large dump trucks Saturday to rescue residents trapped on their roofs by massive flooding, a county judge told CNN.

"We're getting to them. It's going to be slow, but we're making all attempts to get to them," Judge Carl Thibodeaux said.

The city of Orange and the town of Bridge City were flooded, Beaumont emergency official Brad Peneffon said.  Watch the storm surge in Beaumont »

Rescuers fanned out in boats Saturday in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, after the storm surge from Hurricane Ike flooded 1,800 homes.

"We have little rescue missions going on for the people who decided to stay. We are trying to get them out and get them some help right now," Cameron Parish Sheriff Theos Dunhon said. iReport.com: Were you in Ike's path? Share your story

Three deaths in Texas have been attributed to the storm.

Gas prices jumped in some regions of the country.

"The Department of Energy, the Federal Trade Commission and, I know, the state authorities will be monitoring the gasoline prices to make sure consumers are not being gouged," President Bush said during brief remarks at the White House Saturday morning.  Watch Bush respond to the storm »

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will travel to Texas Saturday evening to review the federal response to Hurricane Ike, the Department of Homeland Security said.



Hurricane Ike remained a Category 1 storm at 10 a.m. CT Saturday, about eight hours after landfall.

Its maximum sustained winds were near 80 mph, with higher gusts.

It was expected to continue to weaken and move into western Arkansas by Saturday night. 



The Coast Guard said early Saturday that 22 people aboard a freighter that was adrift in the Gulf of Mexico were safe after the storm.


Richard Kotrla in La Marque, Texas, about 8 miles from Galveston Bay, said early Saturday that Ike was "shaking this house pretty good."

"My gazebo is a pretzel," Kotrla said.

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                                      Bush declares Texas a disaster area after Ike






By DEB RIECHMANN,
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 13, 2008
 
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Saturday declared a major disaster in Texas after Hurricane Ike flooded homes, knocked out power and caused a spike in gasoline prices.
 
"This is a huge storm that is causing a lot of damage not only in Texas, but also in parts of Louisiana," Bush said from the South Lawn of the White House after he had a video conference with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and David Paulison, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Later, at a news conference in Washington, Paulison issued warnings to people in the path of the weakening storm.

"It's still a very dangerous time," he said. "It still carries a lot of wind, a lot of rain, the possibility of tornadoes and lightning. ... Just stay home. Just be patient, stay in your house and don't go out too early until it's safe to do so."

Ike ravaged southeast Texas and western Louisiana early Saturday. Thousands of homes and government buildings were flooded, roads were washed out, an estimated 2.6 million people lost power and several fires burned unabated. By afternoon, first responders in helicopters, airboats and vehicles were at work to save lives.

"Some people didn't evacuate when asked," Bush said about the tens of thousands of people in Texas and Louisiana who are the focus of search and rescue workers. "I've been briefed on the rescue teams there in the area. They're prepared to move as soon as weather conditions permit. Obviously, people on the ground there are sensitive to helping people and are fully prepared to do so."

President Bush spoke to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Houston Mayor Bill White on Saturday afternoon about the response to the storm, rescue efforts and plans to remove debris and restore power.

Later in the day, the President received an update from DHS Secretary Chertoff and FEMA Administrator Paulison.

Bush will meet again with Paulison and other officials in the Oval Office on Sunday morning to discuss how the federal government can help in the response to what is now Tropical Storm Ike. Bush will make another public statement following the meeting.

On Wednesday, before the storm hit, the president issued an emergency declaration for parts of Texas and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts.

The president's disaster declaration Saturday meant federal aid would supplement state and local recovery efforts in 29 counties. Assistance includes grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover property that was not insured and other programs to help citizens and business owners recover. Federal money also is available to the state government, eligible local governments and some private nonprofit groups on a cost-sharing basis.

"As this massive storm moves through the Gulf Coast, people in that area can rest assured that the American people will be praying for them and will be ready to help once this storm moves on," Bush said.

Though tens of thousands of people fled coastal communities, an estimated 100,000 ignored mandatory evacuation orders and stayed behind.

The eye of the hurricane missed the center of Houston, as well as the largest concentrations of oil and gas refineries. Still, retail gasoline prices jumped Saturday based on Ike's landfall in the region, which accounts for about one-fifth of the nation's petroleum refining capacity. Refineries, even if they were not damaged, may remain shuttered for days, some because of power outages.

Gas prices nationwide rose nearly 6 cents a gallon to $3.733, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Ike disrupted supply at the wholesale level in the Gulf Coast, where prices struck $4.85 a gallon Friday. The price spike is expected to result in higher prices at gas pumps across broad swaths of the nation as the gasoline makes it way from the wholesale market to retailers.

The Environmental Protection Agency temporarily waived certain gasoline requirements for nearly a dozen states that are dependent on supplies from the Gulf Coast. The action means that the states do not have to use less-polluting blends of gasoline, making it easier for them to use foreign imports on the U.S. market.

"In the meantime, the Department of Energy and state authorities will be monitoring a gasoline crisis so consumers are not being gouged," Bush said.

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                                   In harm's way: Ike floods force rescue of holdouts






By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN,
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 13, 2008
 
ORANGE, Texas - Even as they plucked people from rooftops and wrecked neighborhoods on Saturday, emergency responders grumbled over how many brushed off dire warnings and tried to ride out Hurricane Ike.
 
"When you stay behind in the face of a warning, not only do you jeopardize yourself, you put the firdst responders at risk as well," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. "Now we're going to see this play out."

While more than 2 million people evacuated ahead of Ike, tens of thousands more ignored evacuation orders and swamped rescue crews Saturday with emergency calls from the the flooded lowlands of East Texas and western Louisiana.

"Of course it's frustrating. There was a mandatory evacuation, and people didn't leave," said Steve LeBlanc, Galveston's city manager. "They had enough time to get out. It's just unfortunate that they decided to stay."

Federal, state and local crew ventured out in boats, high-wheeled trucks — even dump trucks to save them. Dozens of helicopters soon joined the effort, along with Coast Guard jets.

"Where we see people, we're picking them up," said Jack Colley, director of the Texas division of emergency management.

There were few reports of fatalities, though authorities stressed that high winds and flooded roads had kept them from reaching some of the hardest-hit areas.

"We've heard some unconfirmed reports of a few deaths," Chertoff said. "We hope it's as small a number as possible, but we're going to have to wait and see."

The enormous size of the storm presented its own set of problems for rescuers.

Ike spanned more than 700 miles and caused damage from south of Houston to the mouth of the Mississippi. In this vast area, rescuers struggled to pinpoint the hardest-hit places — and the most needy — among a patchwork of debris, fallen trees and flooded homes.

A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency said they had received numerous and conflicting reports about where the damage was — and how bad.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry called it the largest search and rescue operation in the state's history.

"If you're in an affected area, we are on our way to help you," Perry said.

On the road to Galveston Island, where Ike struck land early Saturday, crumpled boats, inner tubes, rotting wood and canoes littered Interstate 45 as FEMA teams headed into the impact zone.

One team stopped along the highway to set up a satellite truck and feed images of the destruction to FEMA administrator David Paulison in Washington. Earlier, FEMA personnel spent hours inside the Reliant Center stadium in Houston, some tossing a football while they waited for rescue calls to come in.

"We don't send our teams out blindly," said Mark Stone, a FEMA spokesman.

Meanwhile, Galveston officials reported rescuing more than 100 people on the island. Rescue crews were ferrying storm victims to a staging area where transportation and medical attention were available, he said.

State emergency responders also teamed with the Coast Guard to rescue four critically ill patients from a Galveston hospital.

Elsewhere, Coast Guard crews scoured the choppy waters off Corpus Christi searching for a 19-year-old who was swept out to sea while standing on a jetty on Friday.

Up the coast in Orange and Jefferson counties, some officials said the damage from Ike was even worse than Hurricane Rita, which rampaged through the region in 2005. There was widespread flooding in Orange and Bridge City, where rescuers were pulling people from attics and rooftops, and in Lake Charles, across the Louisiana line.

In Beaumont, officials said wind and not flooding was responsible for most of the damage; downed power lines and a damaged sewer treatment plant were among the problems reported.

The region was evacuated ahead of Hurricane Gustav, which missed southeast Texas, and many were relucant to leave this time, Fire Capt. Brad Penisson said.

"A lot of people felt it was a false alarm," he said. "I think they're realizing this is not a false alarm."

___

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Galveston and Andre Coe in College Station contributed to this report.

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                                           Riding Out Ike: What it Really Felt Like






By MAGGIE SIEGER/HOUSTON
Sat Sep 13, 2008
www.time.com
 
"It's here," I said at 2 a.m., and we immediately moved our 4-year-old to a cot inside the closet. Mercifully, she slept almost the entire night, waking up just once to ask what the "boom-booms" were. The wind - like the continuous blast of a train whistle, interrupted by the occasional roar of a jet engine - didn't seem to bother her.
 
My husband, my daughter and I are back in my hometown for my brother's wedding. It was supposed to be a grand one, with dinner and dancing under a canopy of old oak trees in Brazoria County. But the county's been evacuated, and the bride's parents have fled to Hempstead, a small town northwest of Houston. The three of us decided to ride out the storm in downtown Houston with my parents in their sixth floor apartment.


When Ike first reached downtown Houston, we took our positions in front of the television, where we'd spent a good portion of Friday night watching Ike destroy Galveston. The blue tarps we hung over the windows appeared to be breathing, moving back and forth. We'd pull back the tarps and curtains and peek out at the storm. The streetlights were still on and we could see the trees blowing crazily. We felt relatively safe, until we heard the breaking glass.


The partition that screened my parents' balcony from their neighbor's shattered. Its metal frame was ripped partially out of the wall, and we've listened to pieces of it breaking off and flying away all night. Then the glass partition on the other side shattered as well. Watching that metal frame pound against the wall, knowing it could break free and smash into the windows, forced us to retreat. I'm hiding in the kitchen behind sheets of plywood my father attached to the bar. My parents are sleeping here on the floor. Ian, my husband, is guarding the closet, behind more plywood, which separates us from the floor-to-ceiling windows that run the length of the apartment. It's been a frightening night.


Earlier this morning, around 12:30 a.m., an explosion woke me up. It was one of those sounds you hear and feel, as though the bass were turned up really high on your car stereo. At first I thought it was the hurricane, but I could still hear the hum of the air conditioner and the faint noise of the storm coverage on TV. My mom and I looked out the windows and watched orange flames jump into the dark sky as Brennan's restaurant, a Houston institution, burned down.


It's about 8 a.m. now and the rain is pounding us. The wind is still raging, but the water is falling down, not sideways, and the jet engine sounds are quieter and less frequent. We're nearing the end of hurricane force winds downtown.


I've just discovered those pretty plate glass windows in my parents' apartment leaked like sieves. The rugs are sodden, the curtains are damp up to about four feet, and there's about an inch of water in some places. My cousin owns a rollaway storm shutter company in Florida. He warned us yesterday to be prepared for water infiltration. Dad spent the better part of Friday afternoon taping the window seams and hanging tarps. It didn't work. Plus, there's a leak in the living room ceiling. We're wondering if the apartment upstairs lost windows.


And even six stories up we're worried about the rain. The wind is preventing the water on the balcony from draining, or maybe the drains are full. Whatever the cause, the water is building up. Another inch or so and it will be coming in under the sliding door. Mayor White is on TV, asking everyone to conserve water, as one of the critical pumps is down. We have water in garbage cans, flower pots, all the kitchen pots and pans and anything else that could hold liquid. My dad wanted to make sure we could flush the commodes and have some to drink if our bottled supply ran out.


Family and friends from the Midwest and Australia have been emailing us. Amazingly, we still have electricity and Internet service, so I've been able to let them know we're OK. It seems downtown and the Medical Center were the only places to keep their power. We lost the cable TV a few hours ago. Just before it went, we saw the hotel we were supposed to be staying in last night for my brother's wedding. Part of the facade had been ripped off and the lobby flooded.


It's starting to get light outside and soon we'll be able to see the full extent of the damage. Eventually, my parents will be able to go check on their beach house in Galveston County. From what we saw last night, it's probably under water. Their bulkhead was just six feet high, far too low to stop the storm surge. But it's hard not to feel relieved anyway. We're all safe, and it looks like my brother will get married after all, no tugboat required.




View this article on www.Time.com

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                                               Ike kills 2 in Louisiana, floods homes






By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN,
Associated Press Writer
Sun Sep 14, 200
 
LAKE CHARLES, La. - Hurricane Ike spared Louisiana a direct hit, but its winds and waters killed two people as coastal areas were inundated with a storm surge that crawled some 30 miles inland, flooding tens of thousands of homes and making many roads impassable.
 
Nearly 600 people had been rescued from floodwaters, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Saturday night. That included 116 nursing home residents moved out of Franklin because a nearby levee failed.

Jindal said even in areas of the worst flooding, rescuers were facing resistance.

"Believe it or not, we still have people in some of those communities refusing to leave," he said.

Officials had no statewide count of flooded homes, but 13,000 buildings flooded just in Terrebonne Parish, parish officials said.

Two deaths have been attributed to the storm in Lousiana, both in the parish hit worst by Labor Day's Hurricane Gustav. A 16-year-old boy drowned in his house in Bayou Dularge, when he fell through wooden pallets used as flooring and floodwaters rose, said Terrebonne Parish coroner senior investigator Gary Alford. A 57-year-old man died from a broken neck after he was blown over by wind, he said.

Ike's surge breached levees and soaked areas still recovering from Gustav. Officials said the flooding was worse than 2005's Hurricane Rita, which hit the Louisiana-Texas border.

Between Ike and Gustav, 180,000 homes and businesses around Louisiana were without power, according to the state Public Service Commission.

Ike came ashore in Galveston, Texas, on Saturday morning, with 110 mph winds, killing two people in that state. But its impact was felt 120 miles away in Lake Charles. Water reached as far as the civic center downtown, some 30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico.

To the south, about 1,800 homes and businesses flooded on Friday in coastal Cameron Parish and Jindal said he expected water to eventually inundate all 2,900 homes.

In Terrebonne Parish, crews plugged at least four breaches, but the federal levee system built after Katrina was holding.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Foster and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans contributed to this story.

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                                     Rescuing Ike stalwarts a race against the clock







By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN,
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 14, 2008
 
GALVESTON, Texas - Rescue crews canvassed neighborhoods inundated by Ike's storm surge early Sunday morning, racing against time to save those who spent a second harrowing night trapped amid flattened houses, strewn debris and downed power lines.
 
One team of paramedics, rescue dogs and structural engineers fanned out under a nearly full moon on a finger of land in Galveston Bay. Authorities hoped to spare thousands of Texans — 140,000 by some estimates who ignored orders to flee ahead of Hurricane Ike — from another night among the destruction. Some had been rescued, but unknown thousands remained stranded. Only four deaths had been blamed on Ike so far: two in Texas and two in Louisiana.

But roads blocked by waist-deep water and downed trees kept many rescuers at bay as they struggled through the largest search-and-rescue effort in state history, just a day after the Category 2 storm crashed into Texas with 110 mph winds.

Five-year-old Jack King escaped serious injury when storm surge sent a rush of water that washed out the first floor of his family's Galveston home just two blocks from the bay.

"I falled in the attic," Jack told paramedic Stanley Hempstead of his 10-foot tumble through the attic and onto the garage floor. Jack and his family had taken refuge in the room, loaded with blankets and other supplies. As rescuers arrived, Jack gazed at a TV aglow with "The Simpsons." The only evidence of his fall was a Band-Aid plastered to his closely-cropped hair, covering a gash.

"We just didn't think it was going to come up like this," said the boy's father, Lee King. "I'm from New Orleans, I know better. I just didn't think it was going to happen."

The Kings had hoped that a family member would pick them up, but a paramedic told him the road inland wouldn't be open for days. Lee King thought they could survive another night, but then their generator died. He ultimately decided the family was ready to leave.

Hempstead and other team members sailed through flooded streets Saturday, evoking thoughts of another disastrous storm that kept him working for 31 days.

"This brings back memories of Katrina — a lot of torn up homes and flooded stuff," he said of the hurricane that struck New Orleans three years ago.

On one side of the Galveston peninsula, a couple of barges had broken loose and smashed into homes. Everything from red vinyl barstools to clay roof tiles littered the landscape. Some homes were "pancaked," the second floor sitting where the first had been before Ike's surge washed it out. Only the stud frames remained below the roofs of many houses, opening a clear view from front yard to back.

Gov. Rick Perry's office said 940 people had been saved by nightfall Saturday, but that thousands had made distress calls the night before. Another 600 were rescued from flooding in neighboring Louisiana.

"What's really frustrating is that we can't get to them," Galveston police officer Tommie Mafrei said. "It's jeopardizing our safety when we try to tell them eight hours before to leave. They are naive about it, thinking it's not going to be that bad."

Some coastal residents waded through chest-deep water with their belongings and children in their arms to get to safety Saturday. Military helicopters loaded others carrying plastic bags and pets in their arms and brought them to dry ground.

Big-wheeled dump trucks, boats and helicopters were at the ready to continue searching hard-hit Galveston and Orange County at daybreak Sunday.

The water had reached 3 feet deep in Jeffrey Jordan's Galveston living room by the time police arrived to save him and his family. Like many who were rescued in the hours after the storm, he was escorted to a shelter.

"They sent a dump truck to get us," Jordan said. "We shouldn't have been there because the water was rising something like a foot every five minutes."

In downtown Houston, winds shattered the windows of gleaming skyscrapers, sleeting glass onto the streets below. Police used bullhorns to order people back into their homes. Furniture littered the streets, and business documents stamped "classified" had been carried by the wind through shattered office windows.

The storm weakened to a tropical depression early Sunday morning, but was still packing winds up to 35 mph as it dumped rain over Arkansas and traveled across Missouri. Tornado warning sirens sounded Saturday in parts of Arkansas, and the still-potent storm downed trees and knocked out power to thousands there.

Ike was the first major storm to directly hit a major U.S. metropolitan area since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

More than 3 million were without power in Texas at the height of the storm, and it could be weeks before it is fully restored. Utilities made some progress by late Saturday, and lights returned to parts of Houston. In Louisiana, battered by both Ike and Labor Day's Hurricane Gustav, 180,000 homes and businesses were without power.

Storm surge that crawled some 30 miles inland in Louisiana flooded tens of thousands of homes. A levee broke and some 13,000 buildings flooded in Terrebonne Parish, 200 miles from Texas. More than 160 people had to be saved from floodwaters near Lake Charles.

Though emergency crews were frustrated by those who stayed behind, weary residents of East Texas' swamplands and Big Piney Woods were beginning to feel that whatever decision they make about a Gulf hurricane is wrong.

In 2005, they were battered by Hurricane Rita, a powerful September storm that ripped pine trees from their roots, smashed trailer- and wood-frame homes and left them in what has become a perpetual state of disrepair with the trademark FEMA blue tarps still visible over some.

Wary of another such disaster, they listened when authorities told them to get out of Gustav's way last week. They spent days in north Texas shelters or doled out precious dollars on hotels and gas while their homes received nothing more than a mild shower.

This time around, thousands ignored the mandatory evacuation order and were sucker-punched by the stronger side of Ike.

Those who did leave were glad they heeded orders, despite the inconvenience. Retired nurse Ida Mayfield said that because Gustav hit Louisiana and not Beaumont two weeks ago, many decided not to evacuate ahead of Ike. She was warm and dry at a church-turned shelter in Tyler, along with thousands of her neighbors.

"Two o'clock this morning made a believer out of all of them," said the 52-year-old Mayfield, adding that she spoke to a friend Saturday who was on a roof waiting for help after calling 911. "They're scared now."

___



Associated Press Writers


Pauline Arrillaga in Houston,

Jay Root and Kelley Shannon in Austin,

Doug Simpson in Baton Rouge,

April Castro, Mark Williams and Andre Coe in College Station,

Allen G. Breed in Surfside Beach,

Juan Lozano in Orange,

Elizabeth White in San Antonio and

Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.

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                                 Ike evacuees face long stays in makeshift shelters







By ELIZABETH WHITE,
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 14, 2008
 
SAN ANTONIO - Hurricane Ike's deadly surge has kept thousands of evacuees holed up in some cramped quarters — shelters, RVs, even a warehouse — as they face the prospect of returning to flood-ravaged neighborhoods left dark without electricity.
 
Others huddled in motels in the hopes that they had enough money to stay until it was safe to return — that is, if they had homes to return to.

"We don't know if it's floating through the Sabine Pass right now or not," said Clint Matthews, worried about his house near a canal in a low-lying area of Port Arthur. The ex-Marine and his wife hunkered down in a Tyler motel, and he said they would stay until their money ran out. But that could come sooner rather than later.

"Right now, this is all we've got," Nical said, holding out a cluster of cash.

More than 1.2 million people fled the Texas coast as Ike approached, but officials estimated as many as 140,000 defied evacuation orders and stayed to ride out the enormous Category 2 storm. Rescue crews canvassed neighborhoods through the night to save those who stayed from having to spend another night amid flattened houses, strewn debris and downed power lines.

In San Antonio, about 140 miles inland, shelters held nearly 5,000 evacuees. More than 4,000 people rode out the storm in tents, RVs and campers, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

In Tyler, about 200 miles inland, 3,400 evacuees took temporary refuge and it became clear that some shelters wouldn't suffice for the long term. City spokeswoman Susan Guthrie said officials were trying to figure out what to do with 1,600 people huddled inside what once served as a Wal-Mart warehouse.

Evacuee Terrance Bryant was staying at a church-turned-shelter in Tyler. But Bryant, who also fled Beaumont two weeks ago ahead of Hurricane Gustav, wasn't looking forward to a long stay.

"I can't do this for two weeks," said Bryant, 22, who was at the shelter with three siblings and his mother. "I just can't."

Despite the inconvenience, Bryant and many others found the shelters more desirable than the possibility of being stranded in their own homes without power, food and running water. Nicole Calderon, 23, said she and 10 of her family members would stay until it was safe to return to their La Porte home.

"We don't want to be stranded over there and not have a place to stay," Calderon said as she cradled her 22-month old son, Jiovanie, in her arms. Nearby, fellow evacuees and volunteers at the massive San Antonio shelter munched on hot dogs and canned fruit, their gaze fixed on the latest weather. "Here we have a place to sleep and eat. We're just going to wait and see what they tell us."

_____

Associated Press Writer Danny Robbins in Tyler contributed to this story.

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                                      Authorities: Nearly 2,000 saved post-Hurricane Ike






By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN,
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 14, 2008
 
GALVESTON, Texas - Rescue crews canvassing neighborhoods with dump trucks, helicopters and airboats have saved nearly 2,000 residents who ignored evacuation orders and stayed to face Hurricane Ike, authorities said Sunday.
 
Heavy morning rains hampered rescue efforts in the hardest-hit areas of the Texas and Louisiana coasts, but crews worked around the clock to go door-to-door to find any survivors of the massive storm. Those plucked from flooded homes were being loaded onto a fleet of buses, bound for shelters farther north.

Leaders in communities along the devastated coast warned it would be weeks, even months, before the towns were livable. Two-story homes had been flattened into pancakes, yachts were tossed like toys onto major roads, and utilities were cut off.

"Galveston has been hit hard. We have no power. We have no gas. We have no communications. We're not sure when any of that will be up and running," Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said. "We want our citizens to stay where they are. Do not come back to Galveston. You cannot live here right now."

President Bush planned to travel to Texas on Tuesday to express sympathy and lend support to the storm's victims. He asked people who evacuated before the hurricane to listen to local authorities before trying to return home.

The storm had frozen the nation's fourth-largest city as it moved inland. Houston officials imposed a weeklong curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. because most of the city was still without power. Darkened streetlights and pooled water on highways made it difficult to drive. Schools called off classes Monday, and the downtown business was shuttered until further notice. The airports also were closed to flights.

"In the interest of safety, we're asking people to not be out in the streets in their vehicles or on foot," Chief Harold Hurtt said.

Residents of the tiny community of Seabrook, near Johnson Space Center, were met by a roadblock as they tried to return home, and police officers standing in the rain turned them away. At times the line was six to 12 cars deep.

"It's gonna be a while," an officer shouted to one man as he made a U-turn. "Just listen to the news."

The storm also took a toll in Louisiana, where hundreds of homes were flooded and power outages worsened as the state struggles to recover from Labor Day's Hurricane Gustav. In Hackberry, La., about 15 miles from the coast, workers moved a large shrimp boat out of the highway with a bulldozer, but the team had to stop because of strong currents in the floodwaters and difficulty in seeing the roadway.

"You can't see the sides of the road, and if you left the road, you'd just be swept away," National Guard spokeswoman Sgt. Rebekah Malone said. About 20 people had been evacuated by boat in Hackberry.

Hundreds of residents were wrapped around a high school in Galveston, some carrying pets, overstuffed duffel bags and medication as they waited to board a coach bus to a shelter. Some didn't know where they were going, and even more didn't know when they could return.

Ldyyan Jonjocque, 61, waited to board a bus while holding the leashes of her four Australian shepherd dogs. she said she had to leave two dogs behind in her home. She wept when she recounted officers having to rescue her in a dump truck.

"I have nowhere to go," she said.

On one side of the Galveston peninsula, two barges had broken loose and smashed into homes. Everything from red vinyl barstools to clay roof tiles littered the landscape. The second floor of some homes sat where the first had been before Ike's surge washed it out, and only framed remained below the roofs of others, opening a clear view from front yard to back.

Nine deaths were blamed on the storm — six in Texas, two in Louisiana and one in Arkansas. Authorities said Sunday three people were found dead in Galveston, including one person found in a submerged vehicle near the airport. A 4-year-old Houston boy died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by his family's generator, which was inside his home. Another person died in Arkansas when a tree fell on his mobile home as the remnants swept through.

In Orange, Texas, Mayor Brown Claybar estimated about a third of the city of 19,000 people was flooded, from 6 inches of water to 6 feet. He said about 375 people who stayed behind during the storm had begun to emerge, some needing food, water and medical care.

"These people got out with the wet shirts on their back," said Claybar. He said he did not know how many were still stranded, and didn't know exactly how long it would take to pump water out of the city.

Ike was the first major storm to directly hit a major U.S. metro area since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Ike weakened to a tropical depression early Sunday morning, but was still packing winds up to 35 mph as it dumped rain over Arkansas and traveled across Missouri. Tornado warning sirens sounded Saturday in parts of Arkansas, and the storm downed trees and knocked out power to thousands there.

Rescue crews were still finding it difficult to get into some flooded neighborhoods, and were angered so many defied evacuation orders. Though more than a million people did leave, by some estimates, as many as 140,000 stayed.

SWAT team commander Sgt. Rodney Harrison and five other members of the Port Arthur Police Department drove a 2 1/2-ton truck into the waters to search for victims in Sabine Pass near the Louisiana border Sunday morning. The waters were so intense and the roads so blocked, a gear shift broke off in the driver's hand.

"You have people that have families at home who put their lives on the line to come out here and save somebody that made a bad decision," he said. "I don't think that's right. I don't think that's fair to everybody."

___




Associated Press Writers



Pauline Arrillaga and Chris Duncan in Houston,

Jay Root and Kelley Shannon in Austin,

Doug Simpson in Baton Rouge,

April Castro, Mark Williams and Andre Coe in College Station,

Allen G. Breed in Surfside Beach,

Juan Lozano in Orange,

Elizabeth White in San Antonio and

Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.

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                                          Ike destroys a number of Gulf platforms






By JOHN PORRETTO and
MARK WILLIAMS,
AP Business Writers
Sept. 14, 2008
 
HOUSTON - Federal officials say it appears Hurricane Ike destroyed a number of production platforms and damaged some of the pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.
 
Lars Herbst, regional director for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, said Sunday that flyovers revealed that at least 10 production platforms were destroyed by the storm.

Herbst stressed the assessments were preliminary, but the damage appeared far worse than that caused by Hurricane Gustav two weeks ago.

Specifics about the size and production capacity of the destroyed platforms were not immediately available.

There are about 3,800 production platforms in the Gulf, including 717 with full-time staffs aboard.

The MMS says Hurricane Katrina destroyed 44 platforms three years ago, and soon after Hurricane Rita destroyed 64.

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                                       Hurricane-hit Texas calls for speedier relief






By Anna Driver
Sept. 14, 2008
 
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Search teams picked their way through debris and inundated roadways in Texas on Sunday, rescuing nearly 2,000 residents stranded after Hurricane Ike flooded coastal regions and cut power to millions of people.
 
State and local officials asked the federal government to speed up relief efforts, while warning people not to return home until it was safe to do so. About 2 million people were evacuated before the storm made landfall.

To add to the misery, officials warned of possible gasoline shortages even as the price of fuel was rising at the pump.

Ike cut a swath of destruction after slamming into the Texas coast early on Saturday and moving inland to Houston, the heart of the U.S. oil industry, forcing many refineries to shut down as a precaution.

President George W. Bush, who will visit Texas on Tuesday, said it was too early to determine the extent of the damage to U.S. energy infrastructure. The storm also halted crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, representing a quarter of U.S. output.

Authorities in Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States, ordered a weeklong curfew because of flooding and downed power lines. Widespread outages could last for weeks.

Local officials said rescue crews have located at least three bodies on Galveston, an island city of 60,000 shredded by the storm. Overall, nearly 2,000 people have been rescued from flooded areas, state officials said.

Ice, water and food from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have so far been slow to trickle into the hardest-hit areas, local media has reported.

"We expect FEMA to deliver these supplies, and we will hold them accountable," a visibly frustrated Houston Mayor Bill White told a televised news conference.

The Bush administration came under heavy fire for its slow and botched relief for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Thousands were left stranded for days in homes with flood waters reaching attics and in overcrowded evacuee centers.

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                                                Search widens for survivors of Ike







by Virginie Montet
Sept, 14, 2008
 
GALVESTON, Texas (AFP) - Rescuers Sunday searched Hurricane Ike's trail of destruction and floods for survivors, with fears mounting of a gasoline crunch after the monster storm hammered the US oil hub and left millions without power.
 
Emergency teams backed by dozens of helicopters rescued 940 people along the Texas coast by midday, Houston radio reported, as the search widened for those stranded or missing in flattened homes and on swamped roads.

More than three million people remained without power in Texas and Louisiana. Officials warned it could be weeks before electricity was restored, prompting authorities in Houston to announce a 9 pm to 6 am curfew to prevent accidents on roads strewn with fallen trees, power lines and broken windows.

There was still no official death toll from Ike with officials saying the storm was not as severe as initially feared. The Houston Chronicle reported two deaths were caused by the hurricane.

In Galveston, which took the brunt of the storm, about 400 emergency workers -- including volunteers from as far away as San Francisco -- fanned out in dozens of vehicles across the inundated city to search for survivors and clear debris from roadways.

More than 2.2 million people fled inland but more than 100,000 residents of low-lying areas -- including 20,000 in Galveston alone -- decided to ride out the storm despite dire warnings from the national weather service.

Refineries in the important oil-hub were shut down by the storm and could remain closed for up to nine days, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison told CBS television.

The storm's effects meant that "refined gasoline is going to be in a shortage situation because of the power outages and the flooding," she said.

Crude oil prices fell nearly two dollars on Sunday in New York, dipping below 100 dollars to 99.30 dollars, as traders were reassured that refineries and rigs had been spared the worst.

Gasoline prices at pump stations, however, spiked in the southeastern US and officials warned they would punish firms engaged in price-gouging.

The center of Ike made landfall as a Category Two hurricane early Saturday on Galveston Island, unleashing a wall of water and ferocious winds that ripped through the country's fourth-largest city Houston.

The storm's force spread a swathe of destruction across a 500-mile (800-kilometer) span of the coast, causing at least eight billion dollars in onshore damage.

By Sunday, the storm had weakened to a tropical depression as it hovered over the southern state of Arkansas and was heading to Missouri and other central Mississippi valley states.

"Fortunately, the worst-case scenario that was projected in some areas did not occur, particularly in the Houston ship channel," Texas Governor Rick Perry said on Saturday. "But there is plenty of damage out there."

Heavy rain overnight in Houston aggravated flooding caused by Ike and authorities advised evacuees to hold off on returning home while roads were still blocked and traffic lights out.

"We're asking people just to be patient," Federal Emergency Management Agency director David Paulison told CNN on Sunday. "Don't be in a hurry. If you're in a safe place, whether a shelter or hotel or motel, or staying with friends and family, just stay right there."

Houston Mayor Bill White pleaded with local Centerpoint Energy to restore power as soon as possible and said he had told President George W. Bush's top officials that electricity was an urgent priority.

"We have emphasized to them (power company) the fact that everything humanly possible should be done to get our electrical power grid in this area back up as soon as possible," White told a press conference.

With power still out for most Houston households, local radio reported more than 30 cases of carbon dioxide poisoning after people used generators indoors.

Bush said he would travel to Texas on Tuesday and promised food and water deliveries, after meeting Federal Emergency Management Agency director David Paulison in Washington.

Earlier, the president declared a major disaster in Louisiana after issuing the same declaration for Texas, freeing up federal funds for assistance.

Three US-based risk assessment firms tagged the onshore damage at anywhere between eight and 18 billion dollars (5.6-12.7 billion euros).

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                                         Houston inconvenienced, but not devastated







By CHRISTOPHER DUNCAN,
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 14, 2008
 
HOUSTON - Houston, a fast-paced metropolis that churns on industries like oil, medical research, space technology and law, was dragged to a near halt by Hurricane Ike. But unlike its coastal suburbs, it was more inconvenienced than devastated.
 
The downtown business district of glittering skyscrapers and city offices was shuttered until further notice. Courts, schools, many gas stations and the airports were closed. Interstate 10, the main east-west freeway, was largely inundated with high water and impassable.

Gov. Rick Perry on Sunday called the city of 2 million the heart of the state's economy.

"The future of America depends on a state like Texas and a city like Houston to get back on its feet as soon as it can," Perry said.

Houston was born after the Galveston storm of 1900, the hurricane that caught the then-powerhouse port city unaware and killed 6,000 people. Two men, the Allen brothers, saw an opportunity and within a few years dredged the Houston Ship Channel, stealing Galveston's economic importance and creating the Port of Houston — and the metropolis that followed — out of useless swampland and rice paddies.

Now, the headquarters of America's energy industry, the world's largest medical complex and the rest of America's fourth-largest city are working to brush themselves off.

Long lines formed at hardware stores and gas stations as the city's residents tried to get back on their feet.

Uprooted trees and large limbs blocked driveways and streets, power was out to most residents and high water made getting around town, or out of town, difficult — impossible in some areas. A 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew kept people off the streets after dark.

The downtown and the Texas Medical Center have underground power lines, so the Center's thousands of patients and millions of dollars worth of medical research were not in danger.

Houston is accustomed to high water on streets. It's a flat, lowland city of concrete built on clay soil beribboned with seven bayous that frequently overflow their banks. A strong thunderstorm causes high water on the streets, and the annual tropical storms cause almost as much street flooding as the city saw when Ike crashed ashore early Saturday about 40 miles south of Houston.

Some of the major corporations were keeping their offices closed Monday. Several skyscrapers — including the JPMorgan Chase tower, the state's tallest building — had their windows blown out, scattering glass throughout downtown.

El Paso Corp., the giant natural gas distributor, said its towering office had power but sustained water damage when some of its windows shattered. The building houses most of El Paso's 2,000 employees in Houston.

"We'll be closed Monday, but we hope to be back Tuesday," said company spokesman Richard Wheatley.

But in a city that loves to shop, there was a bright spot. Hurricane Ike largely spared the city's west side so much of The Galleria — the high-price, high-fashion shopping mall, was open and bustling.

___




Associated Press writers Wendy Benjaminson and
John Porretto contributed to this report.

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                                      Remnants of Ike blamed for 15 deaths in Midwest






By DANIEL J. YOVICH,
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 15, 2008
 
CHICAGO - Losing it devastating punch as a major hurricane, Ike nevertheless drubbed the Midwest with powerful winds and floodwaters that are being blamed for at least 15 deaths.
 
More than a million homes and businesses lost electrical power on Sunday and thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes. Authorities were to continue on Monday to assess damage and map recovery.

The death toll from Ike rose to 30 people in eight states extending from the hurricane-pounded Gulf Coast to the storm-battered Midwest.

Illinois officials said they planned to ask Gov. Rod Blagojevich to issue a disaster declaration for both the city of Chicago and Cook County, a move that would make additional funds available to deal with flood-related costs.

Cook County was placed under a state of emergency as thigh-high water prompted dozens of boat rescues in Chicago.

No deaths were reported Sunday in Illinois, but elsewhere in the Midwest the remnants of Ike proved deadly.

Six people died in floodwaters and high winds in Indiana, the state's Department of Homeland Security said Monday. Among them were a teacher and his father, who were sucked into a culvert and drowned Sunday morning while trying to rescue a 10-year-old boy from a flooded ditch in Chesterton in northwest Indiana, the state officials said. Falling trees were blamed for three deaths in southern Indiana. Another death in the southern part of the state was wind-related, officials said.

"We've never had flooding like this," said Tom DeGiulio, town manager in Munster, Ind. About 40 Indiana National Guard troops were activated Sunday to assist with the evacuation of up to 5,000 residents there.

Three people died in Missouri, including a 21-year-old woman who was likely swept away by rising floodwaters while trying to help another man, authorities said. Two died in the St. Louis area — a woman struck by a tree limb and an elderly man found dead in a home's flooded backyard. Authorities suspect the man drowned.

Strongs winds were blamed for three deaths in Ohio. Two motorcyclists were killed when a tree toppled onto them at a state park in southwest Ohio, said state Department of Natural Resources spokesman Jason Fallon, and a woman was killed when a tree crashed into her home in Hamilton County, just north of Cincinnati.

In Tennessee, two men sitting in a golf cart on the 16th hole of a Nashville golf course were killed when a tree fell over on them Sunday morning, fire department spokesman Ricky Taylor said.

One death was reported in Arkansas, where a 29-year-old man was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home as he was preparing to leave, authorities said.

The remnants of Ike dumped as much as 6 to 8 inches of rain in parts of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, spawned a tornado Arkansas that damaged several buildings, and delivered hurricane-force winds to Ohio, forcing Cincinnati's main airport to temporarily shut down. Flooding in Missouri closed the street in front of St. Louis' famed Gateway Arch.

Power outages darkened more than a million homes and businesses in Ohio and Kentucky.

More than 680,000 Duke Energy customers were without power Sunday night in southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky in the biggest outage in the company's history, said Duke Energy spokeswoman Kathy Meinke.

"It's going to be quite extensive," Meinke said. "Over 90 percent of our customers are without service."

More than 354,000 customers were without power in central Ohio, said American Electric Power spokesman Jeff Rennie. About 310,000 Ohio Edison customers were in the dark in northeast Ohio, said spokeswoman Robin Patton.

In Chicago, Saturday's rainfall of 6.64 inches at O'Hare International Airport set a record for a single day. The previous record was 6.49 inches, recorded on Aug. 14, 1987.

In Missouri, winds as high as 60 mph and torrential rains of up to 7 inches raised new concerns about swelling rivers. Major flooding was expected along the Mississippi from Ste. Genevieve to Cape Girardeau by late this week, the National Weather Service said.

Strong winds prompted the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to evacuate its control tower and cancel about 40 flights before resuming air traffic, airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said.

Strong gusts ripped off part of the roof from a Delta Airlines hangar and damaged another airport building, Bushelman said. He said winds were up to 74 mph.

___



Associated Press reporters Tom Coyne in Indiana and

Meghan Barr in Ohio contributed to this report.