Hurricane Ike caused the largest blackout in Texas history Saturday, affecting millions of people from Houston to Louisiana. Officials said it could take weeks to restore power, perhaps longer than in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita in 2005.

Over 2.5 million homes and businesses were affected, and the number of people without power is significantly higher. The Houston-Galveston area is home to 5.5 million people and covers an area bigger than New Jersey. The lights were out in most of it, except for downtown Houston, the medical district, and Bush Intercontinental Airport, said Terry Hadley, a spokesman for the Texas Public Utility Commission. The Beaumont-Port Arthur area, which has 300,000 residents, was also largely blacked out.

"In terms of outages, this is as big as we’ve seen," Hadley said.

James Abel, a high-tech worker who lives off Interstate 10 on the west side of Houston, said his power went out between 10 p.m. and midnight Friday. "The wind woke me up — it was a lot stronger than I thought it would be," he said. "I woke up again at 2:30, and it was worse."

His apartment suffered little damage, but his TV and computers sat dark. His only connections to the outside world were a battery-powered radio and a cellphone. "I’ve got tons of books, but I’m going to have to go outside to read," Abel said.

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