Hurricane Ike is headed straight for Galveston, TX and is expected to make dangerous landfall as a category 3 storm.

The National Weather Service issued this dire warning to residents of Galveston: “Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family, one- or two-story homes, will face certain death.” Forecasters said the mammoth storm could cause floods of 15 to 22 feet above sea level which is higher than many houses on the island. In 1900, a hurricane killed more than 8,000 people on Galveston Island.

Ike is heading towards Houston and authorities are urging people who do not live in coastal floodplains to remain home. We are still saying: Please shelter in place, or to use the Texas expression, hunker down, said Judge Ed Emmett, the chief administrator for Harris County, which includes Houston.

Twenty-two men aboard a 584-foot freighter that broke down in Ike’s path, about 90 southeast of Galveston  have to ride out Hurricane Ike because the situation remained too dangerous for a rescue attempt by the Coast Guard.

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(photo Associated Press)