Texas Ports May Stop Some Traffic at 11 A.M., Coast Guard Says

By Robert Tuttle

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Texas ports may close to inbound ship traffic beginning at 11 a.m. today in advance of Hurricane Ike, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The decision would apply to ports in the Houston-Galveston, Corpus Christi and Port Arthur-Beaumont areas, Coast Guard Petty Officer Patrick D. Kelley said in a telephone interview. Ports normally would be closed to all traffic 12 hours before a storm.

The Port of Freeport, south of Galveston, Texas, closed to ship traffic yesterday.

Ike's eye was 620 miles (998 kilometers) east of Brownsville, Texas, and moving west-northwest at 9 miles per hour toward the Texas Coast, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 4 a.m. Houston time today. The storm is a Category 2 hurricane, with sustained winds of 100 mph, and may strengthen further.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Clark in New York at aclark27@bloomberg.net