(September 12, 2008)

ROCKPORT--Aransas and San Patricio County are seeing street flooding from the storm surge caused by Hurricane Ike. We also found some Houston area residents, seeking refuge there.

We spent much of the afternoon touring the northern coastline of the Coastal Bend. While we there, we found some people from Houston, riding out the storm in Aransas County.

Waves were crashing over the banks near Fulton Pier. Many people were out there, documenting what Hurricane Ike was doing to the Coastal Bend.

Up the road in Rockport, more water was going over the embankment near Rockport Beach. Some kids enjoyed checking out the power of Ike.

At both locations, we found hurricane victims from Houston, seeking refuge from the storm.

"We decided to just go ahead and evacuate," said Jason McCormick, a Freeport resident. "I moved all my stuff out of my house. We put it in storage and closer inland, but other than that, we're having a good time. We're just going to call it a vacation."

"That's one of the reasons we came here is just because there is so much wind they're going to be taking in Houston," said Rick Baty, a Houston resident who owns a vacation home in Rockport. "With all the trees and power that's going to be out, Alicia had two weeks of taking power out of Houston before we received power again. So that concerns us."

In San Patricio County, the low-lying area of Ingleside on the Bay was seeing a storm surge of about three feet this afternoon. It caused water to crash on the coast and go over the banks. It made this small beachfront community look like a lake.

Hurricane Ike is expected to make landfall soon. The storm surge will continue until tomorrow.

--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com