Gleich wird der Oilpreis und der Goldpreis fallen.. 
September 11, 2008 07:23pm
THOUSANDS of people have fled the Texas Gulf coast as deadly Hurricane Ike bears down, growing in power after ravaging Cuba and the Caribbean.
Ike, which has left more than 100 dead across the Caribbean, could slam into the Texas coast immediately south of the port of Galveston late tomorrow or early Saturday, the National Hurricane Centre forecast today.
It was listed as a category two storm but predicted to rise to three on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson scale.
"Ike could become a major hurricane today or on Friday," the centre said.
US President George W Bush has declared an emergency in Texas, freeing up federal aid to boost local efforts.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, who ordered special disaster preparations, said state officials had begun evacuating ill, elderly and poor residents.
Officials in the Texas coastal city of Corpus Christi said they were reluctant to order a mandatory evacuation.
"We have a huge oil and gas industry presence here with refineries and oil and gas processing facilities," said city spokeswoman Kim Womack.
"We don't want to issue a mandatory evacuation because that would completely shut down operations and make recovery very difficult."
The bulk of US oil refineries are in the Gulf of Mexico and Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell had said its personnel would be evacuated from offshore installations by late yesterday.
At 0600 GMT today (1600 AEST), Ike's centre was located about 495km southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and was moving northwest at near 15km/h.
Ike packed winds of near 160km/h, with higher gusts, though it is expected to gain strength over the next 24 hours as it travels over the warm open waters of the Gulf.
The centre described Ike as "a large tropical cyclone" with hurricane force winds extending outward up to 185km/h.
Ike earlier left a trail of destruction as it raged over Cuba and killed more than 100 people across the Caribbean.
In Haiti, several hundred were killed by a rapid succession of powerful tropical storms and hurricanes over the past month including Ike.
The United States said it will provide $US10 million ($A12.55 million) in aid to help Haiti recover from deadly tropical storms, while the United Nations has called for some $US107 million ($A134.3 million) in humanitarian aid.
