Left In The Wake Of Hurricane Ike

Mark Davidson of Crystal Beach, Texas, was in his home when Hurricane Ike struck. The storm surge tore his house off its foundation and flung Mark, a 20-year veteran of the Coast Guard, out into the raging water, CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan reports.

"I went about 14 miles - all the way over to Smith Point," Davidson said. "Drifting."

In all, Davidson estimates he spent nearly 17 hours in the water before being rescued the next day.

The storm surge from Hurricane Ike swept Davidson's house, and almost everything else, off Bolivar Peninsula, clear across a section of Galveston Bay and several miles inland to Chambers County.

Today, there are at lease 54 debris fields, spread out across 80 square miles. Authorities are still using cadaver dogs to search for the 137 people still missing.

"The biggest frustration is the not knowing; it's like we're looking for a needle in a haystack out here," said Sheriff Joe LaRive of Chambers County, Texas.

Dolores Brookshire, 71, is among those still missing. She made one last phone call to her cousin Joann Meir on the day of the storm, fearing that she would not make it out alive.

"I called to tell you goodbye, and I love you, and I'm going to drown," Meir recalled her cousin saying during their last conversation.

In addition to the missing, thousands more are still suffering. Almost 8,000 households are still in temporary FEMA housing, and more than 400 people are still living in a tent city in Galveston.

While the beaches may be open, there is hardly anyone on them - and that's taking a financial toll as well.

"Our beaches are gone; they've been eroded. Our hotels are damaged. Restaurants [and] entertainment venues are out of commission," said Galveston County Judge James Yarbrough.

Meanwhile, people like Davidson feel like the nation no longer cares what happens to them.

"They forgot about us and moved on to the stock market."