Galveston Texas is a Ghost Town

The best key to understanding any issue is to become as informed as possible. This can be in many forms, depending on what is needed to understand.

So, all those that are providing opinions based on whatever their mind pulls out of their a**, I highly reccommend for you to truly understand the devastation caused by hurricane Ike to get off of your lazy butts and go down there yourself to help.

Your eyes will be opened in ways you never imagined from the comfy surroundings of your own home, with the same routine, day after day.

It is NOT a rumor that there are refridgerator morgues AND mobile incenerators. NOR is it a rumor that there are dead bodies, including floating. These are facts. PERIOD.

The accurate number of deaths will NEVER be known.

You know the picture they let out of the dead cow, all swollen? THAT is the same swelling a dead human body in those conditions will look like. Did you also know that it doesn't matter if WHAT the pigment of the skin is..white, yellow, pink, black ...whatever...it all turns BLACK in those conditions.

It will make the strongest buckle at the kneess and puke. You will be physically and emotionally drained every way possible. AND did you know the stench of death that seeps into your skin, hair, nose, clothes, etc takes a LONG time to go away. Doesn't matter what you use, how hard you scrub, how often you scrub, nothing. (Most don't save the clothes...just throw them away)

So, if it is your first time, warn your family and others that when you come back to give you some time, for you will be withdrawn as your mind works through the whole puzzle of life and you rearrange your priorities.

[link to www.foxnews.com]

Some of Ike's Missing May Have Been Swept Out to Sea
Thursday, September 18, 2008

GALVESTON, Texas — The death toll from Hurricane Ike is remarkably low so far, considering that legions of people stayed behind as the storm obliterated row after row of homes along the Texas coast. But officials suspect there are more victims out there and say some might simply have been swept out to sea.

Exactly how many is anybody's guess, because authorities had no sure way to track those who defied evacuation orders. And the number of people reported missing after the storm, whose death toll stands at 16 in Texas, is fluctuating.

Search-and-rescue crews cleared out Wednesday after plucking survivors from Galveston and the devastated Bolivar Peninsula, and authorities are relying on Red Cross workers and beach patrols to run welfare checks on people named by anxious relatives.


"We don't know what's out there in the wilds," said Galveston County medical examiner Stephen Pustilniks. "Searchers weren't looking for bodies; they were looking for survivors."

Hurricane Ike Hits Texas U.S. Prepares for Ike As the hurricane closed in, authorities estimated that 90,000 people ignored evacuation orders along the Gulf Coast. Post-storm rescuers in Galveston and the peninsula removed about 3,500 people, but another 6,000 refused to leave.

Nobody is suggesting that tens of thousands died, but determining what happened to those unaccounted for is a painstaking task that could leave survivors wondering for months or years to come.

Authorities concede that at least some of those who haven't turned up could have been washed out to sea, as at least one woman on the peninsula apparently was, and that other bodies might still be found.

"I'm not Pollyana. I think we will find some," said Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough, the county's highest-ranking elected official.

Pustilniks' office brought in two refrigerated tractor-trailers to store bodies until autopsies are performed. One sat in front of the medical examiner's office Wednesday morning with a sign on the side: "Jesus Christ is Lord not a cuss word."

By the afternoon, five deaths had been reported in Galveston County: one man who drowned in his pickup, another found inside a motel, two dialysis patients who could not get to their treatment, and a woman with cancer whose oxygen machine shut down.

The stench of rotting animals and livestock polluted the once-picturesque community of Crystal Beach, where about two dozen people stayed behind. One survivor told of seeing a friend wrenched from the rafters by the storm's fury and swept out to sea.

In evacuation shelters hundreds of miles from the coast, displaced residents — like the loved ones of victims of 2005's Hurricane Katrina — scrolled through address books and blog postings and anxiously dialed relatives, friends and neighbors not heard from.

On an Internet forum where survivors listed notes giving their whereabouts and asking for news of the missing, the messages revealed the growing anxiety and frustration of those desperate for some word about their loved ones.

"Anyone know Rosa who lived on the end towards the bay in gilchrist on Dolphin rd? She didnt have a vehicle and last we heard she was staying?"

And this message: "If ANYONE KNOWS WHERE MY FATHER IS OR KNOWS IF HE IS ALIVE AND WELL, PLEASE PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I AM HEARTBROKEN!!"

In Galveston County, where about 15,000 residents stayed behind, officials did not have an exact number of missing residents. The Red Cross is helping track down the missing by setting up registries at shelters and sending workers on welfare checks, Yarbrough said.

At Galveston's emergency management center, 12 phone lines rang constantly with calls from people trying to find relatives. As the calls came in, the city's beach patrol would go to the homes and check.

Sometimes, the searches end in relief. The Red Cross quickly found an elderly Galveston couple reported missing Wednesday morning by relatives in Wyoming, Yarbrough said.

The search echoes the chaos following Katrina in 2005, when bodies were turning up more than a year after the storm as ruined homes were dismantled and families returned after months away. Katrina killed more than 1,600 people.

In that storm, there was no way to track people who left the city. The situation worsened when more than 100,000 New Orleanians who took refuge in Houston had to scatter again a few weeks later for Hurricane Rita.

Authorities opened a center in Baton Rouge, La., to take reports of people who were missing. And just as Ike survivors are doing now, volunteers there turned into amateur detectives — digging through Web sites that sprouted for missing families and calling nursing homes and hospitals.

The center for the missing closed nearly a year after Katrina, when authorities said they had finally exhausted leads.

Brownsville resident Amy Woodside has posted several messages online trying to track down friends who may have succumbed to Ike.

"I'm worried about everybody who is still unaccounted for," she said. "We may never find some of them."

The good news is that of the 20,000...15,000 may be accounted for alive.

That leaves 5000. Some may be there alive, but not accounted for, some may have gotten out and be evacuated to other areas, and some I'm sure, are no longer with us.

Food remains scarce. Streets are almost entirely devoid of signs or stoplights. Most buildings lack power, and water and sewage systems suffered catastrophic damage. Tap water is undrinkable.

Yet Galveston officials continue to face mounting pressure from 40,000 people who fled Ike in a mandatory evacuation and want to come back .

Still reeling from a botched attempt to allow residents to "look and leave" earlier this week, Galveston leaders announced a tentative plan to open the island in three phases, beginning Friday or sooner.

Around the region, most cities lifted evacuation orders that prevented residents from returning. Jefferson County, as well as Beaumont, Port Arthur, Nederland, Port Neches and Groves lifted evacuation orders effective 6 a.m. today. Other coastal areas have not blocked roads but still hope people will stay away, fearing what may happen as supplies run out.

"We cannot support bringing people into the island because of health concerns," Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said. "In fact, we have been asking people to leave."

The only way in is by boat.
If you have a boat they can't keep you out.

Free Internet Access and Long Distance phone calling available to all Galveston Island residents at new Communications Center. Island residents now able to reconnect with family and loved ones through Comcast free Internet access, long-distance calling and apply for needed FEMA assistance.

20 desktop computers, eight telephones and HD televisions help reconnect residents at new Community Center.

Strategic collaberation by City of Galveston, Galveston Housing Authority and Comcast provide much needed communications outlets at Galveston Island Community Center.

WHEN: Opens tomorrow, Sunday

It was a ghost town here after the storm. Early on Saturday morning the amount of military helicopters was unbelievable. I suppose they were the ones who took the NOAA pictures although I do not know for sure. I stayed in downtown Galveston during the storm. I am not a knucklehood who decided to stay for the thrill. My parents were dead set against leaving. My choice was to leave them alone ( and live with that decision..if it were bad I am sure I would have been able to handle that) or to stay. I chose to stay. At one point when mom was contemplationg leaving the house to go to a stone building downtown she was having difficulties making up her mind. I told her then, that if she did not decide I was going to leave down. I told her that staying in the building downtown would be safer.

We packed a few things and moved downtown where there were 7 others staying. My cat came with me. Prior to the eye it was not too bad. After the eye all h*ll broke lose. I think the worse part was thinking that the windows were going to blow in. Not a very good feeling-the windows are huge in this building. Not many rooms without windows. I moved my parents,cat, and myself away from the windows. Luckily none of them blew in ...except for one on the the first floor that already had a bb hole in it.

A portion of the membrane that covers the roof blew off which hekped justify the large anount of the celing leaking in the second floor. Thank goodness for the fact that the first floor entrance is at about 8 feet and 4 inches off the ground. During the eye one of the other people noticed that the water ws within one inch of entering the building. With that in mind everyone moved all their belongings to the second floor. I was already on the floor. The room I stayed in had two windows...I had to leave the room because of the fierce winds and driving rains.

During the event we listened to KTRH radio station which talked almost non stop about Houston. The station claims to serve the entire area but we were not serve. Information was scarce for several days even after we moved back to my parent's house-not flooded.

My house flooded w/ 15 inches of water ( it was already 3-4 feet iff the ground) and chest high in the garage- truck totaled.

We have heard little about the deaths except for the first few. Yes, we know one of them. I do not think that the true reason for the drowning is coming out. We hear little to nothing about the high number of deaths. Even for Bolivar. I suspect that there were quite a few over there. We have heard rumors about 200 body bags being filled. And have heard about the person tagging the bodies. None of this information is coming out official or in the newspaper. Rumours travel fast around here even before we had power. I would say that at least 80% of the homes recieved some water damage. The areas closest to the bay got it the worst and those homes west of 61st really got it bad.
Enjoyed reading this board.