Waves from Hurricane Ike lash Texas coast
Hurricane Ike has made landfall on the Gulf coast of Texas, where it is expected to cause "potentially catastrophic" flooding and damage.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm's eye hit Galveston at 0710 GMT with winds of up to 110 mph (175km/h).
Much of the city, which in 1900 was the scene of the country's deadliest hurricane, is already under water after a 12ft (3.7m) storm surge.
There are fears for 23,000 residents who have ignored orders to evacuate.
 | 1900 GALVESTON HURRICANE  Thought to be worst natural disaster in US history 8,000 people killed 130mph (209km/h) winds and 15ft (4.6m) waves swept homes away  |
The authorities in Galveston, which lies on a small island off the coast of Texas, have imposed a curfew until dawn, the city had lost power and a number of houses were on fire.
Residents of low-lying homes were told they risked "certain death" if they stayed. Before it hit land, Ike was unleashing storm force winds over a distance of up to 275 miles (443km) - the length of the Texas coastline - from its centre.
Calls for rescue will be ignored until daybreak because emergency workers have been pulled off the streets, the Houston Chronicle newspaper reported.
"We don't know what we are going to find. We hope we will find the people who are left here alive and well," Galveston mayor Lynda Ann Thomas said.
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Emory Sallie, 44, was one of those who chose to stay behind despite warnings of a 20ft-25ft (6m-7.6m) storm surge.
"If it ain't your time you ain't going anywhere," he told AP news agency, while walking and drinking a beer near his home.
More than 70 buses took residents to the state capital, Austin.
Weak and chronically ill hospital patients were also being moved.
'Very large'
US officials warned as many as 100,000 homes in Texas could be affected by flooding.
More than 1,000 buses have been laid on to facilitate an evacuation order affecting more than a million people.
The massive system is causing flooding along the Louisiana coast, still recovering from Hurricane Gustav earlier this month.
In Houston, where the winds are threatening to shake skyscrapers, people have been told to shelter at home, board up their properties and stockpile supplies.
Authorities are trying to avoid a repeat of 2005, when some 110 people died in Houston during a chaotic evacuation in the face of Hurricane Rita.
The hurricane's predicted path will take it past Galveston and on to Houston, home to America's biggest oil refinery and Nasa's Johnson Space Center.
"Our nation is facing what is by any means a potentially catastrophic hurricane," said US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Latest Hurricane Ike weather forecast
He added: "This storm is so big in fact that its impact is already being felt all along the Gulf Coast."
In the Gulf of Mexico, ports are shut and almost all energy production has been suspended as a precaution, although Ike was expected to miss most of the installations.
The storm would be the first major hurricane to hit a US metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago.
President George W Bush has declared a federal emergency in Texas, allowing funds to be freed to help the state deal with the storm.
Ike has already caused devastation in Cuba and Haiti, where hundreds of people have died in several tropical storms over the last month.
The Haitian prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis, believes one million people may be homeless, and has called for international help.
The UN says more than $100m (£55.8m) is needed.
From BBC NEWS
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