HUNDREDS of Australians in southern Texas were among those who battened down to ride out Hurricane Ike, which blew out windows and sent debris flying as it hit Houston.
Packing screaming winds and as large as the Lone Star state at its peak, Ike had earlier pushed a wall of water two storeys high towards the coast. It has now been downgraded to a Category 1 storm.
From their fourth-floor apartment in Houston, Adelaide-born oil and gas engineer Tim Withall and wife Kate were among thousands who decided to ride out the hurricane.
"It`s going to be quite horrific, certainly something different," Mr Withall, 29, told the Sunday Mail before Ike hit.
"I`ve bought a whole lot of water, 40 litres, which will, hopefully, last us five days.
"We`ve got a lot of camping gear, flashlights, a camp stove and things like that. We`ve bought a lot of two-minute noodles, some tinned soup, a supply of beer and wine and a 700g jar of Vegemite, that sort of thing, just getting ready for it.
"We`re going to have between five and 10 inches of rain, so the streets will be flooded.
"We`ll probably be stuck for a couple of days.
"We`ve been speaking with parents back home, they`re all a little bit worried about us. The city is a ghost town at the moment - no one`s out and about."
Mr Withall said there were "a fair few" Australians working in Texas in the oil and gas industry for companies such as BHP Billiton.
Kate, 27, a public relations adviser, said they would be staying up all night watching the storm pass.
"I`ve never experienced anything like this," she said. "I guess there`s a little bit of nervousness of what it will be like."
Mr Withall said they had tried to calm their nerves by attending a party in honour of the hurricane.
"We`ve just come back from a friend`s house where we`ve had a `happy hurricane party`," he said. "A few Aussies were there."
Among them was Dave Murphy who said he "wasn`t really that worried".
"At the moment, it`s a little bit of wind, a little bit of rain," said the 28-year-old pipeline engineer.
"But we`ve got a lot of beer, a couple of Eskys full of beer, a fully-stocked fridge, so we`ll be fine.
"We`re just going to hunker down, have a few quiet ones, and watch what happens."
But the storm, when it arrived, was not as benign as he expected.
Ike lashed downtown Houston`s glass-covered skyscrapers, blowing out windows and sending debris flying through water-clogged city streets.
Buildings were damaged and there were fallen trees and power lines across the Houston area.
Texas officials were waiting for a break in the weather to deploy a search and rescue operation.
"We expected a major storm and our expectations unfortunately came true," said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Texas Governor Rick Perry. "The weather needs to clear up a little bit to see just what the devastation was."
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