Hurricane Ike strengthens in Gulf, bears down on Texas

Hurricane Ike has moved away from Cuba and is picking up steam as it heads through the Central Gulf of Mexico towards Texas.The National Hurricane Center reported on Sept. 10 that Ike, with sustained wind speeds of 155 km-h, is now a Category 2 hurricane. Ike is expected to become a “major” (Category 3-5) storm prior to making U.S. landfall sometime around Sept. 13.Citing the National Hurricane Center, AIR Worldwide issued an update noting: “Ike’s cloud pattern is becoming better organized. Gradual re-intensification is expected as the center moves over warm eddies of the Loop Current, but the degree of strengthening remains highly uncertain.”Risk Management Solutions (RMS) predicted Ike would make U.S. landfall as anywhere between a weak Category 1 hurricane and a weak Category 4 storm. The storm’s actual intensity would depend upon its track, RMS noted. The National Hurricane Center forecasts a Category 3 landfall.In its update, AIR Worldwide says “a high pressure ridge over the northern Gulf should keep Ike on a generally west-northwest track toward the central coast of Texas, where it is currently forecast to arrive sometime on (Sept. 13).”AIR estimates the insured value of residential and commercial properties in costal areas of Texas exceeds US$890 billion, although the distribution of these exposures is “far from uniform.” The largest concentration of exposure is along the northern parts of the coast, near Houston.Texas is now instigating evacuation preparations for approximately 250 miles of coastline. Offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico are now beginning to evacuate their workers in the path of Hurricane Ike.