Ike's message to Texas: GET OUT OF MY WAY

NVDL: Hundreds of thousands n Texas are prudently getting out ahead of Ike's imminent arrival. Can anyone blame them?

Yahoo: In Houston, gleaming skyscrapers, the nation's biggest refinery and NASA's Johnson Space Center lie in areas that could be vulnerable to wind and floodwaters if Ike crashes ashore as a major hurricane.

Ike is expected to become at least a Category 3 storm, with winds upward of 111 mph, before it comes ashore, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Some forecasts indicate Ike could grow to a Category 4, with winds of at least 131 mph. Emergency officials warned it could drive a storm surge as high as 18 feet.

If current projections of the storm's path hold up, the area surrounding Houston — home to about 4 million people — would be lashed by the eastern or "dirty" side of the storm, said meteorologist Jeff Masters, co-founder of San Francisco-based Weather Underground. This stronger side often has punishing rains, walloping storm surge and tornadoes.

clipped from news.yahoo.com "It's a big storm. I cannot overemphasize the danger that is facing us," Gov. Rick Perry said at a news conference. "It's going to do some substantial damage. It's going to knock out power. It's going to cause massive flooding." Forecasters issued a hurricane warning for the Texas Gulf Coast from the Louisiana state line to near Corpus Christi. The warning, which also extended east along much of the Louisiana coast to Morgan City, means hurricane conditions could reach the coast by late Friday with the front edge of the storm before its powerful center hits land over the weekend.