Hurricane Ike Enters Gulf, Heads for Coast of Texas

By Brian K. Sullivan and Camilla Hall

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ike started to strengthen as it entered the Gulf of Mexico and headed toward Texas, after leaving more than 170 people dead in Cuba and Haiti.

Ike's eye was 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of the western tip of Cuba and moving west-northwest at 8 miles per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said just before 5 a.m. Miami time today. The system's sustained winds strengthened to 85 mph from 80 mph earlier today.

Ike may become a ``major hurricane,'' the center said, a term it uses when wind speeds reach 111 mph. It is forecast to bypass New Orleans and the offshore Louisiana oil and natural gas fields and make landfall on the central Texas coast Sept. 13.

There's ``a significant chance that Ike will be the worst hurricane to hit Texas in 40 years,'' Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology at private forecaster Weather Underground Inc., said. ``I am giving it a 50 percent chance of being a major hurricane at landfall.''

The hurricane hit eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of between 111 and 130 mph, and crossed the country before moving back into the Caribbean and making landfall in western Cuba yesterday as a Category 1 storm. Coastal storm surge flooding and waves along the Cuban coast should subside today, the center said.

``It won't take much for Hurricane Ike to intensify,'' Thomas Downs, a meteorologist with Weather 2000 Inc. in New York, said. ``There is the distinct possibility Ike will strengthen much more than National Hurricane Center forecasts.''

Tropical-Storm Warnings

A tropical-storm warning remained in effect for the western Cuban provinces of Matanzas, La Habana, Ciudad de Habana, Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth. In Florida, a tropical-storm warning from Key West eastward was discontinued and a tropical- storm warning remained in place from west of Key West to the Dry Tortugas, the center said.

Texas Governor Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration along the coast in preparation for Ike's landfall. As many as 7,500 National Guard members are on standby for rapid deployment and 1,350 buses are available for evacuations, the governor's office said in a statement.

Officials in Corpus Christi, Texas, a city of about 277,000 people near where Ike is forecast to make landfall, are monitoring the storm and reviewing emergency plans, spokesman Ted Nelson said by telephone.

The city last called for an evacuation in 2005, when Hurricane Rita threatened to strike.

Oil Production

Rigs, refineries and platforms shut down by Hurricane Gustav last week are staying closed because of the threat from Ike. The Gulf is home to more than a quarter of U.S. oil production.

Corpus Christi has about 650,000 barrels a day of oil- refining capacity, said Mike Wittner, head of oil research at Societe Generale SA in London.

Crude oil for October delivery climbed as much as $1.56, or 1.5 percent, to $104.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and traded at $103.86 at 10:06 a.m. London time.

Cuban authorities evacuated as many as 2 million people, or almost a fifth of the population, as Ike approached, according to Agence France-Presse. Four people were killed and seven injured, the news agency said.

The U.S. government is providing $100,000 in emergency assistance to agencies working in humanitarian relief operations in Cuba in response to Gustav and is considering additional emergency aid in response to Ike, according to a statement from the State Department.

Ike killed 172 people in Haiti, according to Sophie Boutand de la Combe, spokeswoman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country. The World Food Program said yesterday the city of Gonaives, where 101 people died, was still flooded. The agency has distributed food to 39,000 Haitians.

At least 600 people died in Haiti as Ike, Hurricane Gustav and two tropical storms either hit the country or passed close by in the past month, AFP said. As many as 600,000 people may need assistance, UN humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net; Camilla Hall in London at chall24@bloomberg.net.