Texas Braces for Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike, the second tropical cyclone to batter the southern coast of the US in 10 days, is approaching landfall today heading directly towards heavily populated Houston and threatening winds of up to 115mph and sea level surges of more than 20 feet.

An unknown number of residents of a 400-mile strip of coastline confronted by the monster hurricane decided to stay put and risk what the National Weather Service warned could be "certain death".

Some estimates put the figure as high as 20,000 people, despite mandatory evacuation orders throughout the impacted area.

At midday, the hurricane was classed a grade two storm out of a possible five on the scale, though it could rise to grade three when it makes landfall this evening or early on Saturday morning.

Winds were at 105mph, gusting beyond that.

Extreme weather experts and local and federal authorities regarded Ike as a very serious threat because of a combination factors. The hurricane itself, though not as powerful as others such as Rita, which caused more than $10 billion of damage in 2005, covers a massive area.

Hurricane force winds have been measured 120 miles out from the eye of the cyclone, and tropical storm force winds up to 275 miles out.

The direction of the hurricane is also perilous as it is headed directly towards Galveston, a town of about 60,000 on the Gulf Coast that was scene of the deadliest storm in US history in 1900 in which about 7,000 people died.

The storm has the capability of causing devastating flooding as a result of the shallow waters along the Gulf Coast which lead to sea level surges as the waves are driven on shore by high winds.

Weather experts predict the waves could reach up to 25ft on land around Galveston, hence the warning of possible death.

The National weather Service directed its message particularly at anyone living in one or two story homes. "Residences of average construction directly on the coast will be destroyed. Vehicles left behind will likely be swept away," it said.

Houston, the nation's fourth largest city 50 miles inland from Galveston, is also in the path of the hurricane. The city faces the prospect of being battered by storm force winds for up to 12 hours.

Hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents abided by warnings and have fled their homes. However, the 2 million population of Houston was advised to stay put in an attempt to avoid the chaos and gridlock that occurred three years ago in the event of Hurricane Rita.

The emergency effort was so bungled that 110 people died during it - far more than perished in the actual storm.

President Bush went on the airwaves hours before the storm struck land to express his fears for his fellow Texans. "I'm deeply concerned about Hurricane Ike. It's a large storm headed to a major population center," he said.

The secretary of homeland security urged people not to sit back and relax as a result of having watched Hurricane Gustav veer away from New Orleans at the last minute when it came on land on September 1.

"This is not a storm to gamble with. It's large. It's powerful."Insurers were braced for the storm causing massive damage, partly as a result of its trajectory towards major population centers, and partly because this stretch of coast is home to several oil and petrochemical plants. A fifth of US oil production is sited on the Gulf Coast.

The hurricane has already claimed 70 lives in Haiti and four in Cuba from its earlier sweep through the Caribbean.