Texas weighs moving 1 million as Ike looms
Several thousand people have already been urged to flee coast


MSNBC News Services
updated 1 hour, 15 minutes ago
McALLEN, Texas - Thousands of Texans in one county were urged to evacuate Wednesday as Hurricane Ike built up strength in the Gulf of Mexico, while officials weighed ordering a mandatory evacuation of one million people in a second county.

In Washington, President Bush on Wednesday took pre-emptive action by declaring an emergency in Texas and ordering federal officials to assist state and local agencies in preparing for Ike.

If Texas officials order a mandatory exodus, it would be the first large-scale evacuation in South Texas history. State and county officials let people decide for themselves whether to leave a hurricane area until just before Hurricane Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. Now county officials can order people out of harm's way.

The mandatory evacuation would affect the impoverished Rio Grande Valley, home to many immigrants who have traditionally been fearful of evacuating out of concern they could be deported if stopped by authorities. Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said if an evacuation is ordered, county officials will visit immigrant neighborhoods and forcefully urge people to clear out.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav, "there were a lot of immigrants who said, 'I'm not going to go,'" said Salinas, the county's top elected official. "It's going to be hard."

Federal authorities gave assurances they would not check people's immigration status at evacuation loading zones or inland checkpoints. But residents were skeptical, and there were worries that many illegal immigrants would refuse to board buses and go to shelters for fear of getting arrested and deported.

"People are nervous," said the Rev. Michael Seifert, a Roman Catholic priest and immigrant advocate. "The message that was given to me was that it's going to be a real problem."

One reason for the skepticism: Back in May, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Border Patrol would do nothing to impede an evacuation in the event of a hurricane. But when Hurricane Dolly struck the Rio Grande Valley in late July, no mandatory evacuation was ordered, and as a result the Border Patrol kept its checkpoints open. Agents soon caught a van load of illegal immigrants.

Parts of Brazoria clear out
Earlier Wednesday, mandatory evacuation orders were issued for several small coastal communities in Brazoria County, including Hideaway Gulf, Turtle Cove, Surfside, Quintana, Treasure Island and Rivers End.

Officials were keeping a close eye on Ike's path and warned that the rest of the county could be evacuated later on Wednesday.

Medically fragile Corpus Christi residents were urged to get out of harm's way with buses arranged to transport them to San Antonio.

Forecasters said Ike could hit on Saturday morning just about anywhere along the Texas coast, with the most likely spot close to the Corpus Christi area.

Now a Category 1 hurricane with 90 mph winds, Ike is expected to regain power in the Gulf's warm waters and become a major storm again, revving up to a Category 3 on the five-step hurricane intensity scale with a minimum of 115 mph winds.

The latest projections show Ike skirting to the west of the main region for offshore production in the Gulf, which provides a quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.

Texas officials were encouraging residents in the path of Hurricane Ike to do three things — listen to what local officials say, monitor weather reports and gas up, now.

"We have a fuel team that is part of the state operation system in Austin," said Allison Castle, spokeswoman for Perry. "They are helping to push fuel to hurricane areas. One of the lessons we learned from past hurricanes is we need to have fuel ready."

On Tuesday, Ike roared across Cuba, ravaging hundreds of homes, killing at least four people and forcing 1.2 million to evacuate.

'Buses rather than body bags'
At 11 a.m., Ike was centered about 430 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving west-northwest near 8 mph. It had grown from sustained 85 mph winds earlier to 90 mph winds.

On Monday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared 88 coastal counties disaster areas to start the flow of state aid, and began preparing for an evacuation, lining up "buses rather than body bags."

Authorities lined up nearly 1,000 buses in case they are needed to move out the many poor and elderly people who have no cars.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area sheltered about 3,000 Hurricane Gustav evacuees last week and is prepared for up to about 20,000 people this time, said Steve Griggs, a county official. The downtown convention center would again serve as the main shelter.