National And World News

McALLEN, Texas (CBS News) ― Hurricane Ike has reached Category 2 status and continues strengthening in the Gulf's warm waters today as it menaces Texas. Officials have begun to move inland the first of millions of coastal residents in the path of the storm. The hurricane is expected to strike the Texas coast early Saturday.

Residents of the Corpus Christi area who have special medical needs were to be put on buses Wednesday morning and taken to San Antonio, and state troopers and local police were to guide traffic along an evacuation route, Interstate 37.

Emergency officials also prepared to evacuate a million people from the impoverished Rio Grande Valley. Almost 1,000 buses were lined up in case the need arose to move out the many poor and elderly people who have no cars.

Texas put 7,500 National Guard members on standby Tuesday and urged coastal residents to stock up on supplies.

Ike has already killed at least 80 people in the Caribbean.

Cuban state television said some 2.6 million people - nearly a fourth of the island's population - sought refuge from Ike, which killed four people and shredded hundreds of homes as it swept across the country.

As it left Cuba, Hurricane Ike delivered a punishing blow to towns such as Los Palacios, which already suffered a direct hit from a Category-4 Hurricane Gustav on Aug. 30.

In a poor neighborhood along the train tracks, the combined fury of Ike and Gustav left nearly two-thirds of the wooden homes without roofs or completely leveled.

"The first one left me something, but this one left me nothing," said Olga Atiaga, a 53-year-old housewife. Gustav obliterated her roof and some walls. Then Ike blew away a mattress and smashed the kitchen sink.

"I don't even have anything to sleep on," she said.

Odalis Cruz, a 45-year-old housing inspector, said she evacuated to a shelter in the town's rice mill when it became clear Ike was following Gustav's path through Pinar del Rio, the westernmost province where Cuba produces tobacco used in its famous cigars.

She surveyed the damage to her home Tuesday.

"We repaired the roof two days ago and this one took the new one," she said. "I'm ready to move to Canada! We have spent eight days drying out things, cleaning everything, sleeping on the floor, and now we are hit again."

Gustav damaged at least 100,000 homes but didn't kill anyone because of massive evacuations. Cubans were ordered to evacuate for Ike as well, with those in low-lying or wooden homes seeking safety with friends or relatives in sturdier structures. Others were taken to government shelters.

State television said two men were killed removing an antenna from a roof, a woman died when her home collapsed and a man was killed by a falling tree.

Evacuations are not mandatory except for pregnant women and small children, but in an authoritarian state, few people ignore the government's advice.

In Havana, towering waves broke over the seaside Malecon promenade as downpours soaked historic but crumbling buildings in the capital's picturesque older areas. Some of the most dilapidated structures collapsed, including four houses on a single block.

While Ike was expected to strengthen before making landfall again, oil prices closed below $104 a barrel for the first time since early April, in part because traders were betting Ike would miss critical Gulf Coast oil installations.

Mexican officials warned that unrelated heavy rains in the northern part of the country had caused more than a dozen dams to reach capacity or spill over. If Ike brings more rain to the area, evacuations may be needed.

Early Wednesday, Ike was located 100 miles north-northeast of Cabo San Antonio on the western tip of Cuba and moving west-northwest at 7 mph. Maximum sustained winds remained near 80 mph, still at Category 1 storm.

Meanwhile Tropical Storm Lowell was off Mexico's Pacific coast, projected to cut across the Baja California Peninsula on Wednesday or Thursday and emerge over the Gulf of California near the town of Loreto, popular with U.S. tourists. It had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, but was expected to weaken before hitting land.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)