Ike Experts Warn of 'Certain Death'

Refusing to evacuate could be the last mistake residents living in hurricane-vulnerable homes in coastal Texas ever make, the National Weather Service has warned. The dire warning of "certain death" facing some single-family home dwellers came as forecasters predicted a storm surge of up to 22 feet along Galveston Bay, CNN reports. Almost 1 million people have been ordered to evacuate.

Ike is currently a Category 2 hurricane expected to hit landfall as early as tomorrow morning and to tear through Galveston and Houston. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff urged Texans not to succumb to "hurricane fatigue" and underestimate Ike's potential power. "Unless you're fatigued with living, I suggest you want to take seriously a storm of this size and scale," he said. (More Hurricane Ike stories.)