"All neighborhoods ... and possibly entire coastal communities ... will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide. Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family one- or two-story homes may face certain death."
While thousands have already left the ares, many still are determined to ride the storm out.
Ike is currently a Category 2 storm, but forecasters predict that it will strengthen to a Category 3 storm before coming ashore early Saturday morning between Sargent, Texas, and Galveston. The National Hurricane Center reports that at 11 a.m. Eastern Ike's winds were near 105 mph as its center was about 195 miles southeast of Galveston, and moving west-northwest at 12 mph.
MSNBC reports on the rising cost of gas:
Wholesale gasoline prices on the Gulf Coast moved even further into uncharted territory to around $4.85 a gallon, as refineries anticipated that Ike would incur at least a significant pause in their operations, and at worst severe damage to their facilities.
Gulf Coast wholesale gasoline last traded at around $4.75 a gallon, said Ben Brockwell, director of data pricing and information services. That was up substantially from about $3.25 on Wednesday and less than $3 on Tuesday.
Wholesale prices are what refineries charge retailers before they get marked up further for the consumer.
“The path of the storm has put the entire supply chain under stress from the refinery level all the way to the retail station level,” Brockwell said. “Hopefully it’s a temporary phenomenon, but we won’t know until next week.”
October gasoline futures climbed 6.52 cents to $2.8140 a gallon on Nymex, while the average U.S. retail price for gasoline edged up less than a penny to $3.675 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 62 cents to $101.49 a barrel in late morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.71 to settle at $100.87 on Thursday after dropping as low as $100.10 per barrel. The last time Nymex crude traded below the $100 mark was April 2.
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