Houston Update: JP Morgan Windows Blown Out; 4 Million Without Power

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Houston's 75-story JPMorgan Chase Tower had windows on its west side smashed out, according to the local CBS affiliate, KHOU-TV. The Enron Building and Crown Plaza Hotel were also damaged, the station reported. The city's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby airports remained closed.

Bartosik said Doppler radar showed winds were blowing as high as 130 mph above the 10th floor of buildings in downtown Houston.

``That accounts for a lot of the blown-out windows that have occurred,'' Bartosik said by telephone. ``Houston was in the western eye wall for a good hour-and-a-half.''

Hurricane Ike rakes Texas coast, Houston
09.13.08, 12:57 PM ET

United States - * Ike floods Galveston, pummels Houston

* Bush says much damage, says will monitor gas prices

* Over 4 million people lose electricity

* No reports of casualties yet

By Chris Baltimore and Anna Driver

HOUSTON - (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike powered across the densely populated Texas coast and through Houston Saturday, bringing ferocious winds and a wall of water that flooded hundreds of miles of coastline and paralyzed the fourth-largest U.S. city.

Ike, a massive hurricane that has idled more than a fifth of U.S. oil production, came ashore at the barrier island city of Galveston as a strong Category 2 storm at 2:10 a.m. CDT with heavy rains and sustained 110 mph winds, the National Hurricane Center said.

The raging storm flooded Galveston and submerged a 17-foot sea wall built to protect the city after a 1900 hurricane killed at least 8,000 people. More than half its 60,000 residents fled, but the fate of those who stayed to ride out the storm remained unclear.

Oil refineries along the western shore of Galveston Bay as well as NASA's Johnson Space Center may have been spared the worst of the flooding. But the storm's huge size meant that it flooded parts of Louisiana, prompting a flurry of overnight rescues far from its center, authorities said.

Grandmother Sherry Gill spent the night in League City, Texas, roughly halfway between Galveston and Houston, despite an evacuation order, huddling with her family and listening to the wind howling over her shuttered home.

"It was a night of sheer terror. I thought the roof was going to lift off," Gill said.

Alicia Cahill, a spokeswoman for the city of Galveston, said there had been no confirmed reports of casualties. Local officials said that while Ike was formidable, it did not bring the 20-foot tidal surge over Galveston they had feared.

About 50 miles inland, Ike lashed downtown Houston's skyscrapers, blowing out windows and sending debris flying through water-logged streets. About 4.5 million people around Houston and Beaumont could be without electricity for weeks, Floyd LeBlanc of CenterPoint Energy (nyse: CNP - news - people ) said.

Roofs were ripped off houses, and rising waters, downed trees and fallen power lines left many streets impassable. There were many windows broken in the 75-story Chase Tower, the tallest building in Houston.

Ike was the biggest storm to hit a U.S. city since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

LOUISIANA ALSO HIT

Ike also hammered central and western Louisiana, flooding whole coastal communities and sparking a flurry of overnight rescues of stranded residents.

An estimated 10,000 homes in Terrebonne Parish were flooded or expected to be flooded as water levels continue to rise into Sunday, officials there said. About 100 elderly residents were evacuated overnight when flooding overwhelmed a nursing home in Franklin, Louisiana, state emergency operations spokesman Chris Macaluso said.

Ike was downgraded to a Category 1 on the hurricane intensity scale at 8 a.m. CDT as it moved inland with top sustained winds near 90 mph and moving north.

Strong winds ripped for hours through Houston, a city that is home to 2.2 million people and with a metropolitan area of 5.6 million residents.

Ike's center was expected to move through eastern Texas into Arkansas Saturday night. Forecasters warned residents of a vast area -- Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan -- stretching all the way to the border with Canada, to prepare for heavy rains as Ike stormed northeast.

"We expected a major storm and our expectations unfortunately came true," said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "The weather needs to clear up a little bit to see just what the devastation was."

In Galveston, emergency officials were sending patrols into the flooded streets to begin assessing damage.

"We do have reports of damage, but we're just now to the point where it is safe for our units to get out and start making assessments," Galveston County Emergency Management operations manager Lee Lockwood said.