By KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-759299.mp3
Dallas – In the wake of Hurricane Ike, Houston is taking precautions. The city's two commercial airports, Hobby and Intercontinental, will remain closed Sunday. Beginning Sunday, a weeklong curfew goes into effect. People must be off the streets between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless there is an emergency.
Search and rescue crews have been working round-the-clock in Houston and areas where many may still be trapped. Most of that region is without power .
Ike is now being blamed for four deaths, two in Texas and two in Louisiana.
We have reports this morning from KERA reporters who tracked the hurricane from Dallas, Tyler and at the state command center. We begin with Shelley Kofler in Austin.
Search and Rescue is Priority One
Shelley Kofler
State Emergency Command Center, Austin
Before Ike began punishing the coast with 110 mile winds and a 15-foot surge, the state pre-positioned a strike team of more than 1,000: military with Black Hawk helicopters; game wardens with life boats; rescue teams with high water vehicles and supplies.
Early Saturday afternoon the state's emergency director Jack Colley said conditions had improved enough to launch a search and rescue mission in the most battered areas.
Colley: What we're doing is sweeping an area from Orange County to south of Galveston County into Brazoria County. When we see people, we are picking them up. We are transporting them to places where there are medical personnel.
By early Saturday evening crews had rescued 940 stranded people, including hundreds in Orange County who ignored the call to evacuate. Troopers blocked entrance to Galveston Island which was two to four feet underwater. Utility companies began assessing the loss of electricity for some three million and said power might not be fully restored for close to a month.
Governor Rick Perry urged many evacuees to just stay put.
Perry: Stay where you are. Wait until you get official word that you may return to your home.
The search for those trapped by flood waters or debris continued through the night and may take another week.
Ike Leaves East Texas in the Dark
BJ Austin
Tyler
Hurricane Ike roared into Tyler with hard rain and high winds, including fierce gusts that uprooted trees, and downed power lines. Oncor Electric says more than 100,000 people in five East Texas counties are without power in Ike's aftermath. Gary Paul Zeno, an evacuee from Beaumont, stood under the portico of a downtown Tyler church serving as a shelter. He says he's glad he left for higher ground, even though it was Houston that took the big hit.
Zeno: I stayed for Rita, something I never experienced in my life. I'll never experience it again. It's very dangerous.
Inside the shelter, Monica Spradley was staying put in front of a big screen TV.
Spradley: My grandmother made me leave, because we were going to stay, too. But it turned out to be worse than we thought.
Austin: Have you been outside?
Bradley: Ain't goin' outside. Too much wind for me.
Tyler Communications Director Susan Guthrie says 6,000 evacuees hunkered down for Ike in Tyler. She says Ike left a lot of tree limbs down, traffic signals out and two house fires believed to be related to the storm. There were no known injuries. Many in Tyler now wait for repair crews to get the power back on.
Ike Mostly Spares North Texas
Bill Zeeble
Dallas
While city personnel in the emergency operations center coordinated aid to Ike evacuees, officials also readied for the worst in Dallas. They feared fierce gusting winds and potentially deadly floods in some 20 different spots around town. And they were ready. By lunchtime, Ike had rolled over Galveston and Houston, leaving devastation behind. The storm's impact wasn't as horrific as feared, however, and some in Dallas calmed a little. By late afternoon, Dallas Emergency Management Director Kenny Shaw realized Ike wouldn't be that bad in the city.
Shaw: We didn't hardly get anything here in Dallas. I just now walked out to check and it's not even raining now. I know it's pouring in eastern parts of the county. The Rockwall area and all that. I think we'll pretty much escape the storm here in the city. I haven't heard any issues out there in the area either, so probably just a good rain storm, looks like.
The city sent vehicles and crews to Houston to help the clean up and will continue sheltering evacuees as long as necessary.