Effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas

Hurricane Ike

Category 2 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Satellite image of Hurricane Ike on September 12 as it approached Texas
Winds	1-minute sustained: 110 mph (175 km/h) Gusts: 130 mph (215 km/h)
Fatalities	84 (direct and indirect)
Damage	$37.6 billion (2008 USD)
Areas affected	East Texas (especially Galveston, Bolivar Peninsula, Gilchrist)
Part of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season

The effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas were crippling and long-lasting. Ike's effects included deaths, widespread damage, and impacts to the price and availability of oil and gas. Hurricane Ike also had a long-term impact on the U.S. economy. Making landfall over Galveston, at 2:10 a.m. CDT on September 13, 2008, "giant" Hurricane Ike caused extensive damage in Texas, with sustained winds of 110 mph (175 km/h), a 22 ft (6.8 m) storm surge, and widespread coastal flooding.

More than 140,000 residents in the Texas Gulf Coast danger zones in Ike's path had failed to evacuate, partly due to fears of multi-hour traffic jams as during Hurricane Rita, but over 940 were rescued from rising waters, and nearly 2,000 rescued afterward. As of December 27, 2008, 37 people are known to have lost their lives in Texas due to Ike while hundreds are still missing.

The storm had come ashore hours before daybreak with 110-mph (175 km/h) winds and towering waves, pushing boats ashore, smashing many houses, flooding thousands of homes, knocking out windows in Houston's skyscrapers, uprooting trees, and cutting electric power to millions of customers (estimates range from 2.8 million to 4.5 million customers) for weeks or months.

Some people survived by punching holes in attics, climbing to rooftops or trees, using nearby boats, or floating on debris until reaching solid ground.

Afterward, an estimated 100,000 homes had been flooded in Texas, and numerous boats washed ashore. Galveston was declared uninhabitable, and Houston imposed a week-long nighttime curfew due to limited electric power.

On September 8, Texas State Governor Rick Perry declared 88 Texas state counties a disaster area in preparation for Hurricane Ike, expected to hit the Texas coast as early as Saturday morning, which included placing 7,500 Texas Military Forces troops on standby. The Texas County of Brazoria called for voluntary evacuation and Matagorda County called for mandatory evacuation as did the County of Brazoria for zip code 77541 and the city of Lake Jackson. Galveston, parts of southern Houston and areas south of the city and near the Texas coast were under a mandatory evacuation order starting at noon September 11.