By some estimates, as many as 140,000 of the nearly 1 million residents ordered to leave low-lying areas along the coast elected to stay home and brave the storm. Angry officials said their refusal to leave endangered rescue crews now having to use high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters to find and retrieve stranded residents.
"There was a mandatory evacuation, and people didn't leave, and that is very frustrating because now we are having to deal with everybody who did not heed the order," said Steve LeBlanc, Galveston's city manger. "This is why we do it, and they had enough time to get out. It's just unfortunate that they decided to stay."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said, "When you stay behind in the face of a warning, not only do you jeopardize yourself, you put the first responders at risk as well. Now, we're going to see this play out."
Perry said the state had mounted "the largest search-and-rescue capability in the history of Texas." LeBlanc estimated that 40% of Galveston's 57,000 residents ignored the evacuation order.
More than 120 people were rescued by late afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard reported, with search teams continuing to plow through debris-clogged floodwaters looking for others. Most rescues came on Galveston Island and the adjacent Bolivar Peninsula, Lt. Cmdr. Shawn Decker said.
"We will be doing this probably for the next week or more. We hope it doesn't turn into a recovery," said Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Marlow in Orange County, where more than 300 people had to be rescued from flooded homes -- "a drop in the bucket," the deputy said.
Perry's office said 940 people had been rescued statewide. A stranded freighter with 22 crewmen in the Gulf of Mexico made it through the storm safely and was awaiting a tugboat, the Coast Guard reported.
Among the hardest-hit areas was Galveston, where wind-whipped waves topped a protective sea wall. Homes burned unattended during the peak of the storm because firefighters could not reach them. At least 17 buildings collapsed, authorities said.
Fishing boats, pleasure boats, plywood and other debris scattered by the hurricane blocked the southbound lanes of Interstate 45 on the causeway leading in and out of Galveston. Crews worked through the day to clear the roadway.
Ike left downtown Houston a ghost town. Police barricaded streets that glistened with broken glass blasted from office towers by Ike's Category 2 winds. Sidewalks and roadways were crisscrossed by felled trees and power lines, and debris swirled through the streets.
