Eye Of Hurricane Ike Slams Texas Shore

Hurricane Ike battered the upper Texas coast early Saturday as the monster storm's eye came ashore on Galveston Island, Houston television station KPRC reported.

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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, hundreds of thousands were without power and there was fear hurricane-force winds could shatter the sparkling skyscrapers that define the skyline of America's fourth-largest city.

The storm threatens to shut down the heart of the U.S oil industry for days and obliterate waterfront towns already flooded with waist-high water.

At 12 a.m. Saturday, the center of Category 2 Hurricane Ike was located at 28.9 north and 94.5 west, or about 35 miles south-southeast of Galveston. Its maximum sustained winds remained at 110 mph, and Ike was moving northwest near 12 mph.

"The eye began coming ashore at 12:30 a.m. on Galveston Island. A large part of this system is still over water, so it's still going to be a long night getting all this in here. I know we've been waiting and waiting and waiting. We still have a lot of this hurricane to get through before it's really onshore and the winds start to diminish. It's moving pretty fast. That's the good part," KPRC chief meteorologist Frank Billingsley said.

The colossal storm is nearly as big as Texas itself, at about 600 miles across.

Towering waves have already been crashing over the 17-foot-high Galveston seawall, and floodwaters are rising in low-lying areas.

Hurricane Ike has also breached levees in coastal Louisiana and flooded homes in areas still recovering from Gustav.

Officials said about 1,000 homes and business have flooded in coastal Cameron Parish as the storm churns toward its expected landfall in Texas. Flooded homes are reported in other parishes, though the numbers were sketchy at nightfall.

The storm is threatening to give Houston its worst pounding in a generation.

But even as Ike bears down, it's become clear that many of the 1 million coastal residents who had been ordered to get out refused to do so and are taking their chances.

Before sunset, power had been knocked out to hundreds of thousands of customers in Louisiana and along the Texas coast. That number is expected to climb.

Forecasters said Ike's storm surge -- not high winds -- will be the deadliest aspect of the storm. The National Hurricane Center is forecasting a 20-foot surge for a large swath of Texas and the Louisiana coasts. Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said some waves could be 50 feet tall.

Experts said Ike is about 70 percent larger than the average hurricane, and a 15- to 22-foot storm surge is expected wherever Ike makes landfall.

Official: Nuclear Reactor To Say On Line

The South Texas Project twin-reactor nuclear power plant is expected to stay on line and not be threatened by Hurricane Ike.

The facility produces more than 7 percent of the electricity used in Texas and is built to withstand a major hurricane and tornadoes. It was expected to see winds of about 55 mph from Ike.

The buildings that house STP's reactors, vital equipment and spent fuel have steel-reinforced concrete walls, four to seven feet thick. The plant is 10 miles inland at an elevation of 29 feet to avoid a large hurricane storm surge.

The facility should stay online as long as the state's electric grid can handle the power, said Edward Conaway, spokesman for the STP Nuclear Operating Company.

"We're online and staying online," Conaway said, adding the company is staying in touch with state grid operators.

Parts Of Houston Under Curfew As Ike Nears

Parts of Houston and surrounding areas have been put under a curfew order as Hurricane Ike approaches.

Houston Mayor Bill White and city councilman Mike Sullivan message for residents of the Clear Lake neighborhood was straight forward: Get out, and get out now.

The two went door-to-door Friday afternoon with a bullhorn in an apartment complex in a last-ditch effort to get residents to leave.

White and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett enacted the curfew Friday evening in areas that are already under a mandatory evacuation.

Officials said police would punish violators who are on the streets between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Evacuations Ordered But Some Stay Behind

Nearly 1 million people have been ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm.

However, authorities said tens of thousands have ignored evacuation orders and are staying behind.

An Associated Press survey shows that in three counties alone, some 90,000 people have chosen not to leave despite dire warnings from forecasters.

The emergency management coordinator for Galveston County estimated that 80 percent of the residents evacuated. That leaves more than 11,000 residents in the county that is expected to take a direct hit from Ike's massive storm surge.

Farther up the coast, officials said half the residents of Beaumont stayed put less than two weeks after many evacuated for Hurricane Gustav, only to see the storm miss the city entirely.

In Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, officials are telling people who decide to stay to hunker down.

Residents who decide to stay are being told to board up windows and stock up on drinking water and nonperishable food.

Hardware stores have put limits on the number of gas containers that people can buy. Batteries, drinking water and other storm supplies are running low, and grocery stores are getting set to close.

Perry Asks For Emergency Aid

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is asking Bush for a "wide-reaching emergency declaration" in all 88 counties in the line of fire from Hurricane Ike.

Perry said a declaration would ensure 100 percent reimbursement for all storm-related costs.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency already has teams ready to respond in Texas and has water and food ready to distribute after the storm.

Chertoff said more than 100,000 homes will be affected by flooding and millions of people will be without power after the storm. Already, some homes are in the dark in Galveston, where the storm is set to come ashore.