Mandatory and voluntary Evacuations are in effect for People along the Texas coast who were leaving home or planning to evacuate Thursday as Hurricane Ike churned toward them, slowly intensifying on its march west.

Forecasters say the storm could slam into the Texas coast -- south of Galveston -- as a powerful Category 3 storm possible a the storm could reach a category 4, late Friday or early Saturday.

Aransas County, on the eastern coast of Texas, has ordered a mandatory evacuation of all nonessential government employees, becoming the latest county in the state to urge residents to flee.

In Galveston, city officials ordered mandatory evacuations for part of the island town beginning at 7 a.m. Thursday. The rest of the town will be under a voluntary evacuation order. Only residents will be required to evacuate on the western end of the island.

The last warning from the hurricaine center:

...LARGE HURRICANE IKE HEADING TOWARD THE NORTHWESTERN GULF OF
MEXICO...

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM THE
MISSISSIPPI-ALABAMA BORDER WESTWARD TO EAST OF CAMERON LOUISIANA. A
TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

A HURRICANE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM CAMERON LOUISIANA WESTWARD
TO PORT MANSFIELD TEXAS. HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN
THE WATCH AREA BY LATE FRIDAY.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE
INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 700 AM CDT...1200Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE IKE WAS LOCATED NEAR
LATITUDE 25.3 NORTH...LONGITUDE 88.0 WEST OR ABOUT 575 MILES...920
KM...EAST OF BROWNSVILLE TEXAS AND ABOUT 270 MILES...435 KM...
SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

IKE IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 10 MPH...16 KM/HR.
A GENERAL WEST-NORTHWESTWARD MOTION OVER THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN
GULF OF MEXICO IS EXPECTED TODAY AND FRIDAY. ON THIS TRACK THE
CENTER WILL BE APPROACHING THE NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO COAST
LATE FRIDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 100 MPH...160 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. IKE IS A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON
SCALE...AND IT COULD INTENSIFY INTO A CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE OVER
THE NEXT DAY OR TWO.