Officials in Houston and Galveston warned residents to stay put tonight as Hurricane Ike threatened to become a Category 3 storm, CNN reports. “If someone has not left the island by now, they need to go get inside and stay there,” the mayor of Galveston said. Nearly a quarter million Texas residents have opted to stay despite warnings that Ike may be the worst storm to hit the state in 50 years, MSNBC reports.
(More Hurricane Ike stories.)