At first, even the threat of "certain death" was not enough to persuade Bobby Taylor to flee Surfside Beach, Texas, a small town directly in the path of Hurricane Ike.

His wife, Elizabeth, had already decided to leave before police drove a dump truck through flooded streets, urging people to get out.

Elizabeth came back to persuade her husband to leave and was waiting for him when he waded in waist-deep water up the main street, towing a blue kayak. She greeted him joyously. "Now I'll pray for our neighbors," she said.

More than a million people evacuated southeast Texas ahead of Ike. But citing faith and fate, tens of thousands more ignored calls to clear out, coastal authorities said. The National Weather Service warned that people in smaller structures in some areas "may face certain death."

An Associated Press survey shows that in three counties alone, some 90,000 people have chosen not to leave.

The choice to stay -- always questionable, sometimes fatal -- was an especially curious one to make so close to Galveston, site of a 1900 storm that killed at least 6,000 people, more than any other natural disaster in U.S. history.

By afternoon, Mayor Larry Davison said only one person was believed to be left in Surfside Beach, a Gulf Coast town of about 800 people 30 miles southwest of Galveston.

The police chief asked one stubborn Surfside Beach couple, David and Dondi Fields, to write their names and Social Security numbers on their forearms with a black marker in case something bad happened to them.

The couple finally decided to leave. Police used an aluminum boat to reach them, and a National Guard truck carried them to safety.

A mandatory evacuation order was in place, but there were no signs anyone was being forcibly removed.

"We're not going to drag them out of there and handcuff them," Davison said. "They've made their decision."

Some who stayed behind in Galveston relied on faith. Retiree William Steally, 75, said he was planning to ride it out, but his wife and sister-in-law left Thursday.

"She got scared and they left. I told them I believe in the man up there, God," Steally said as he pointed to the sky. "I believe he will take care of me."

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Ike could cost insurers as much as $25 billion, making it the second-most expensive storm in U.S. history, according to an estimate from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Ike could be the most damaging hurricane since Hurricane Katrina cost insurers $41 billion in 2005, Deloitte said yesterday in a statement. This year may rival 2005 as the most costly hurricane season, Deloitte partner Lis Gibson said.

Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005 caused more than $60 billion in insured losses and pushed reinsurance prices to new highs. Conversely, hurricanes caused little damage in 2006 and 2007 and set off a two-year, 20 percent drop.