Hurricane Ike Targets Northwestern Gulf Coast

Hurricane Ike continues to grow in size. Hurricane warnings have been issued for Louisiana and Texas. The storm will make landfall on Friday.

Hurricane Ike is growing in size. Forecasters say that the storm has not strengthened yet. Hurricane warnings have been issued for both Louisiana and Texas.

The National Hurricane Center said hurricane conditions could reach the coast within the warning areas by late Friday night.

As of 2:00 PM EST, the center of Ike was located near latitude 25.5 north, longitude 88.4 west. The hurricane is about 450 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas.

Ike has picked up speed from 8 mph to 10 mph. The storm is moving toward the west to northwest. The center of the hurricane should be very near the coast by late Friday.

Forecasters say that Ike will build into a major Category 3 hurricane overnight. The storm is expected to be a dangerous hurricane before landfall. The hurricane is expected to produce rainfall of 5 to 10 inches along the central and upper Texas and Louisiana coast.

Texas officials have issued mandatory evacuations for Corpus Christi and Galveston.