Thousands Return To Ike-Ravaged Galveston

Many Evacuees Coming Home For First Time Since Hurricane Slammed City 11 Days Ago

(AP)  Thousands of residents streamed back to their storm-battered island city Wednesday, many for the first time since fleeing the wrath of Hurricane Ike nearly two weeks ago.

Huge lines of traffic backed up on the one major highway leading into Galveston, but things appeared to go smoothly once the city of about 57,000 started letting people in about 6 a.m. Many people had been waiting in their cars along Interstate 45 since before dawn.

Police officers were stationed to direct traffic at major intersections where signal lights were ripped away by the hurricane's 110-mile-per-hour wind and 12-foot storm surge on Sept. 13.

Ruben Rosas, 74, one of those who had fled to San Antonio, had joined the line on I-45 at about 3 a.m. Once he reached his first-floor apartment located on a bayou, he found that the walls and nearly all his possessions were gone. He did find a large cross that had been on his father's coffin and a small "King of Dads" statue his kids gave him when they were young.

"This is just sad, but the good thing is, I'm still around," Rosas said. "I can recuperate these things sooner or later."

City officials had prepared residents for such scenes, painting a dreary picture about living conditions on the island since Ike's devastation.

"When you come back it's not going to be the same Galveston Island you left," Mayor Pro Tem Danny Weber said Tuesday. "It's been damaged. It's been broken."

At least 61 deaths, 26 of them in Texas, were blamed on the Category 2 hurricane and its remnants.

Roughly 45,000 of the city's 57,000 residents fled Galveston Island, about 50 miles southeast of Houston, along with hundreds of thousands more along other sections of the Texas coast.

Galveston still only has limited medical, power, water and sewer system capabilities.

Marty Bahamonde, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, advised residents who planned to stay to be self-sufficient and to bring their own food, water and gasoline. There is a nightly curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

"We do want to caution folks. There will be some struggles," Bahamonde said.

Health care services on the island also are limited, warned Mark Guidry, head of the Galveston County Health District.

"There remains significant health and safety concerns on the island," he said.

Residents of the island's severely damaged west end may visit their homes but are not being allowed to stay.

City Manager Steve LeBlanc said more hotels in Galveston are reopening and will be available for residents who return and find that their homes are uninhabitable, but he expects those rooms will be quickly snapped up.

City officials are working on a plan to provide temporary shelters on the mainland for people whose homes are not habitable. But LeBlanc stressed the shelters would be available only for a short time.

City leaders also are looking at setting up a shuttle service to take residents from the temporary shelters to their houses during the day so they can make repairs and clean up.

In spite of the problems, Galveston is slowly coming back to life with some stores and restaurants reopening, and there are other signs of recovery throughout southeast Texas.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. reported on Tuesday that 73 percent of its 2.26 million customers now had electricity. Entergy Texas reported that 89 percent of its nearly 393,000 customers affected by Hurricane Ike had power again.

On Tuesday, Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas and other city leaders went to Washington to ask lawmakers for nearly $2.5 billion in emergency funds.

Galveston leaders are optimistic their city will bounce back.

"This is our island. We are going to rebuild it and we are going to rebuild it bigger and better than it was," Weber said.

[labourboss]

I wonder how fast the money would pour in if New York City was flooded. Remember most of the city''s infrastructure is below sea level.

[mollydtt]

Galveston island is a barrier island. Already much of the other Texas barrier islands have been made into parks and designated wetlands (Matagorda, parts of Padre Island). Let''s stop the heroics and just call it what it is--a barrier island.

[aggiekat2004]

"This is our island. We are going to rebuild it and we are going to rebuild it bigger and better than it was," Weber said.
-----------------

When you say "we," who do you mean? You mean our tax dollars are going to rebuild a city that WILL be devastated again, someday down the line?

Might as well ask for a handout...it''s just a small amount compared to AIG and the big financial companies.

Hey, and I wonder how many people left their big SUVs and pickup trucks, and gas-guzzling boats down there just to get the insurance payment?

[yongamerica]

Galveston is a barrier island like Cape Hatteras and Assateague Islands. It should be transformed into a national seashore park with no or very limited housing.

[erasmus81]

"This is our island. We are going to rebuild it and we are going to rebuild it bigger and better than it was," Weber said.


They need to take their brains in for a major overhaul while they are at it.

[blackyowe]

I don''t think global warming is recent its been going on for a century but then again we have altered the Mississippi so much and taken away all the wetlands we have made all the Cajun Islands go away off the delta. It''s only a matter of time before Galveston is underwater all the time. The sediment coming down the Mississippi is ever grater from bad farming practices as well. Galveston should be a national seashore like Cape Hatteras with no building by the sea.

[ralan40]

Why do people think see level rise and global warming are recent events? The original inhabitants of N America crossed from Asia on a land bridge thousands of years ago when the oceans were lower. Oil is pumped out of the arctic that was the byproduct of tropical jungles. The early settlers in Jamestown had problems surviving the cold winters in Virginia.
We live on a dynamic and constantly changing planet. Only recently have we been stupid enough to build so much next to the ocean.

[ralan40]

This story does not communicate the resiliancy of mankind but the stupidity of people to decide to locate next to the ocean. Nothing wrong with having a place, there but don''t move next to an airport, complain about the noise, and expect any sympathy from anyone.

[blackyowe]

WEll that appalls me beader59 but it also appalls me that they plan to build right back in harms way again. The seas will rise with global warming and soon that island will be only a memory.

[beader59]

I am appalled that these residents left their pets behind to drown. Some were tied to stakes and others left in the houses to die of starvation and wander the streets. The humans disgust me.