As Global warming melting more ice and raising temperatures of sea.
The energy of Hurricanes is increasing every where.

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Hurricane Ike tripled in size in the central Gulf of Mexico as it
churned on a weekend collision course with the 5.6 million residents
of the Houston area, where coastal communities prepared to evacuate.

The system's strongest winds extend as far as 115 miles (185
kilometers) from the eye, up from 35 miles yesterday, the Miami- based
National Hurricane Center said today. Ike's wind field is now larger
than that of Katrina, the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005,
said Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology at private forecaster
Weather Underground Inc.

``The total amount of energy is more powerful than Katrina, so we
could be seeing a storm surge that could rival Katrina,'' Masters
said. The storm is so large ``the location doesn't matter much; it is
going to inundate a huge part of the Texas coast.''

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 today, local officials said at a press conference. The coast
may see a storm surge of as much as 20 feet (6 meters). Ike is
following a track similar to the 1900 Galveston hurricane that killed
8,000 people.

Felt Before Landfall

Ike was a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph, up
from 80 mph yesterday, the center said in an advisory at 10 a.m.
Houston time. Its central pressure is more like that associated with a
Category 3 or 4 storm, Masters said.

The storm is moving west-northwest at 10 mph, with landfall south of
Galveston on Sept. 13. Because of its size, Ike will be felt along the
Texas coast long before its eye makes landfall.

The center's forecasters said Ike may strengthen to at least a major
hurricane with Category 3 intensity, meaning sustained winds of at
least 111 mph, before landfall. Other forecasters predict Ike may
become a Category 4 storm, the second-strongest on the five-step
Saffir-Simpson scale, packing winds from 131 to 155 mph.

The storm is forecast to sweep through the center of the Gulf, missing
the offshore Louisiana oil and natural gas fields. The Gulf is home to
about a quarter of U.S. oil production. Many rigs and platforms shut
more than a week ago as Hurricane Gustav passed through the Gulf
remained closed.

Oil Production

About 96 percent of all oil production in the Gulf has been shut in
along with 73.1 percent of natural gas facilities, according to the
Minerals Management Service, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the
Interior.

President George W. Bush declared an emergency for Texas, his home
state, and Governor Rick Perry readied 1,350 buses to evacuate
residents in preparation for Ike's landfall. As many as 7,500 Texas
National Guard members are on standby.

Houston's population is 2.2 million, making it the fourth- biggest
U.S. city, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and its metropolitan
area, with a population of 5.6 million, is the sixth-largest in the
U.S.

Jim Rouiller, a meteorologist with Planalytics Inc. in Wayne,
Pennsylvania, said he's particularly worried about storm surge damage
around Galveston Bay, on the coast southeast of Houston, which may be
in the top right quadrant of the storm field where rains and winds are
most powerful. Some parts of the Texas-Louisiana coast may get as much
as 15 inches of rain, the hurricane center said.

Biological Lab

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, home of one of
the most secure biological labs in the U.S., has begun evacuating its
260 patients to Austin and San Antonio, spokeswoman Kristen Hensley
said by telephone.

The school, with about 3,500 students and faculty, will close its 84-
acre campus at noon. Its biological labs include a level-4 bio-safety
facility, which is also in the process of shutting down, Hensley
said.

``It's in the strongest and most heavily reinforced building on
campus; it can withstand severe wind and storm surges,'' Hensley said.
``We have secured all the pathogens and decontaminated all the lab
work surfaces.''

The lab's systems are backed up with emergency generators to provide
electricity in case power goes out, she said.

NASA's Johnson Space Center heeded the evacuation order, preparing to
shut its 1,600-acre facility in Houston that houses Mission Control
and the training ground for astronauts.

New Orleans

Some 15,000 people work at the space center. It sits across the street
from an arm of Galveston Bay.

``Our buildings can withstand a hurricane, but there's some concern
about the expected tidal surge,'' said John Ira Petty, a spokesman at
Johnson.

Flight engineers left for Austin a few days ago. They will manage the
International Space Station from temporary facilities there, Petty
said.

The New Orleans area, including Lake Pontchartrain, was under a
tropical-storm warning for Ike. That means such conditions, with
sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph, are expected within 24 hours. The
warning stretches along the coast from Cameron, Louisiana, east to the
Mississippi-Alabama border.

New Orleans was spared the worst of Hurricane Gustav when it struck
the state last week. Gustav killed 25 people in Louisiana.

A hurricane watch was in place from Cameron, Louisiana, west to Port
Mansfield, Texas. The watch means hurricane conditions, with sustained
winds of at least 74 mph, are possible within 36 hours.

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So US will get more & more people killed by Hurricanes if Global
warming is not stopped.

Bye
Sanny

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