Hurricane Ike Photos

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Blimey...they're great!!!

Bet they wish they didn't build on those flood planes now though!

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The homes and businesses you see destroyed and damaged from Ike were NOT built on a flood plain. Flood plains are areas of land adjacent to streams and rivers. The only part that would be considered a flood plain is Addicks Dam in west Houston to prevent flooding of Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston. New Orleans is in part on a flood plain. Galveston / Bolivar / Surfside/ Kemah / Seabrook are not.

Many of these structures were on Galveston Island, Surfside, Bolivar Peninsula, and communities on Galveston Bay / Clear Lake. ALL costal areas - think of Norfolk. Suffolk, much of the flatter coastal areas of Wales, Morecombe Bay, in fact any low lying coastal part of the UK. The storm surge washed away huge tracts of land. Bolivar Peninsula is now 3 islands with no access at all to the 2 parts cut off from the rest of the mainland. Some in sheltered areas like Clear Lake.

The destruction goes way inland, even downtown Houston has hammered.

This is devastation on an unimaginable scale that you cannot grasp unless you see it with your own eyes. These pictures cannot even begin to really show the scale. Even far inland and further up into the US it has wrecked havoc and caused deaths.

I have family west of Houston who are without power and water and will be for at least another week or longer. As will so many. Bear in mind it is averaging 81 F with 80% humidity during the day, 62F / 70% humidity at night. NO A/C in these conditions! To make things worse the mosquitoes are horrendous there, even down on the coast, carrying diseases such as St Louis Fever; West Nile Virus. A poor guy from Galveston is in hospital after being bitten over 1,000 times by mosquitoes while searching for survivors.

Some of our best friends have lost, or suffered major damage to homes on Galveston. I lived in Houston through some of the larger hurricanes like Alicia in '83 and the experience was bad enough then. This in a way is far worse than Katrina. It will take years to rebuild Galveston, Surfside, Bolivar, if ever. So much land has gone. People have not just lost properties, they have lost the land the home stood on. People who evacuated are not even being allowed back onto Galveston to see what, if anything remains of their property as yet.
 
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I am out in the States at the moment, in Dublin Ohio. We arrived on Sunday evening for Columbus airport to be closed becuase of Hurricane Ike. Dublin was has been affected and we were lucky when we finally arrived (after a very bumpy flight, I can tell you) that our hotel was one of the few to still have power.

Loads of restaurants/hotels/stores closed as no power, and lots of homes sstill affected. The office building next to mine, has had it's roof ripped off completely, and there are loads of trips ripped up, and to be honest, Dublin was not as badly affected as other areas around here.

Bit scary actually
 
I'm in southern Louisiana and stayed through Hurricane Katrina. These pictures bring back a lot of really disturbing memories. I just hate thinking "go west or go east just don't come towards me" when these storms enter the gulf. I pray for all those affected by Ike - I've been there and it is truly horrible.

We stayed for Hurricane Gustav because of the 6 horses. Our biggest dilemma was whether to turn them out or leave them in. It's not an easy decision to make but we all made it through that storm fine. We're still living in a trailer (post Katrina) while our new house is being built and I must say that this is the last hurricane season I want to spend in a trailer!!

God bless all those who are affected by the storm.
 
My brother and his fiancee live in Houston.

My brother managed to get power at his apt back on Tuesday, his fiancee is still without, and not likely to get any till sometime next week.

He works down town, as does she, and he said it still looks like the pics, even after the 'clean up'. They were both lucky in that they didn't have any damage to their properties, but much of downtown is tree lined, and apparently about 1 in 3 tries is down, crushing houses, or uprooting htem. Also gas lines have been damaged aswell.

Having said that - Galveston looks so sad, I was there last year, and it was a pretty town, and all those new marina properties that had been built are now all gone.

As was said, it's a coastal area, now a flood plain area. Downtown Houston is also some 1.5 hours north from the coast area of Galveston so it's not the same as they government here building houses on real flood plains, and then wondering why they flood from rain only. This was a Hurricane, not just a rain storm...

I am so pleased my family is safe, but I feel for their friends who have lost hteir homes...

Bx
 
Many people could not get their horses and livestock out of Ike's path and there are carcasses of dead horses,cattle, and hogs waiting for clean up on Galveston and Bolivar. Some were lucky though and thankfully managed to keep alive on what higher ground they could find.

Bandit - your brother may be without power for a while longer than first thought (although hopefully not). HISD had first said schools would reopen this Monday but they now are saying not, at least another week as they were told power would be back on for then but the repairs to transformers and such are taking longer than hoped.

One thing that has been evident is the way people have pulled together out there. Both official responders and volunteers. Gaido's a famous seafood restaurant on Galveston Seawall that survived intact gave a full linen service free lunch to 1,000 first responders yesterday.
 
I have an uncle in Galveston, we havent heard from him yet. I cant imagine what those poor people have been through.

It makes me angry listening to people moan when we have a bit of snow. Our weather is "a walk in the park" compared to a lot of other countries.
 
Thanks for your kind words Bandit. He survived by locking him self in a cupboard. The insurance will cover a new house, but the most upsetting thing must be losing personal things, like photos. His dog was killed too
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