Gas Prices Jump in Wake of Ike; Death Toll From Ike Now 25 People

HOUSTON (AP) - Gasoline prices are surging again as oil companies, refiners and others begin to sort out the damage from Hurricane Ike. Ike raced through the petroleum-rich Gulf of Mexico and the region's mass of refineries. Fears of supply shortages, and actual fuel-production disruptions, have led to pump price increases. Triple A says prices nationwide rose an average of more than 6 cents for a gallon of regular gasoline overnight. It's now $3.795. That followed another 6-cent jump between Friday and Saturday.

The federal government says 14 Texas refineries have been shut down.

Valero, North America's largest refiner, says assessment crews have found no significant structural damage to production units at its refineries at Houston, Texas City and Port Arthur. The company says crews are working with local utilities to get electricity.

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Rescue crews canvassed neighborhoods
inundated by Ike's storm surge early Sunday morning in a race
against time to rescue those who faced a second harrowing night
trapped amid flattened houses, strewn debris and downed power
lines.
As darkness fell Saturday, a search and rescue squad began
pushing into a neighborhood on a finger of land in Galveston Bay.
Authorities hoped to spare thousands of Texans - 140,000 by some
estimates - who ignored mandates to flee Hurricane Ike from another
night among the destruction.
Paramedics, rescue dogs and structural engineers fanned out
under a full moon, hoping to find the unknown number of people who
remained trapped.
One 5-year-old boy escaped serious injury when he fell through
an attic, weakened when storm surge sent a rush of water that
washed out the first floor of his family's home.
ORANGE, Texas (AP) - Even as they pluck people from rooftops and
wrecked neighborhoods, emergency responders in Texas are grumbling
over how many residents brushed off dire warnings and tried to ride
out Hurricane Ike.
While more than 2 million people did leave ahead of Ike, tens of
thousands more ignored evacuation orders. Rescue crews were swamped
with hundreds of emergency calls Saturday from the flooded lowlands
of East Texas and western Louisiana. There were nearly a thousand
rescues in Texas Saturday. And Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal says
nearly 600 people have been plucked from Ike's floodwaters in his
state.
Ike claimed dozens of lives during its earlier march through the
Caribbean There are two confirmed fatalities in the U.S., but
flooded roads are making it hard to do searches in some areas and
it's feared the number will rise.
THERIOT, La. (AP) - Authorities report Hurricane Ike has killed
two people in Louisiana and likely two in Texas.
Terrebonne Parish coroner senior investigator Gary Alford says a
16-year-old boy drowned in his house on Bayou Dularge, Louisiana, when
he fell through wooden pallets used as flooring and the floodwaters rose.
Alford says 57-year-old Donald Celestine died from a broken neck
after he was blown down by wind.
Texas authorities say a woman was killed in her bed early
Saturday when a tree fell on her house, crushing her. Hers was the
first reported death attributed to Ike.
The Coast Guard says a 19-year-old man has not been found since
being swept from a jetty Friday off the shores of Corpus Christi.

AP-The death toll from Hurricane Ike and its remnants has risen to
25 people in nine states.