Texas a Grim Tableau Nearly a Week After Ike

FOXNews.com ^ | Friday, September 19, 2008 | Associated Press

[metmom]

GALVESTON, Texas — It's been nearly a week since Hurricane Ike bulled ashore, and the images of once-bustling coastal Texas communities reduced to only a faint shadow of their old selves are no less staggering.

Survivors traipsing past debris piled higher than their heads. Loose livestock grazing beneath downed power lines. Before-and-after shots of whole neighborhoods washed away. Scores of people taking on the drudgery of making it all livable again for weary and anxious evacuees still waiting to come home.

[Roccus]

Very poor choice of headline by FOX...unless they really thought everything would be back to normal in a week. Ya never know with the MSM.

[FreedomPoster]

I always thought having anything beyond a throwaway vacation home on a barrier island was foolish.

[Daffynition]

I didn't think this story: Last House Standing deserves it's own thread but perhaps it fits here.

Yesterday, we received an amazing submission from iReport.com user austinheli. His photos showed a lone house standing in a wasteland left in Ike's aftermath.

We contacted austinheli, who is Ray Asgar, a private helicopter pilot based in Austin, Texas. He visited Gilchrist and Galveston Monday to photograph the damage left after Hurricane Ike slammed the coastal area last weekend.

The lone yellow house caught Asgar's attention. He said it was the only structure standing for miles. Considering the extent of Ike's devastation, he said, it was "odd to have nearly any damage to one home."

Several users left comments on Asgar's iReport, joining a debate about whether or not his photos were real. One user who jumped in was Kelley1. "This is my sister's house. It is real," she wrote.

Shortly afterward, Kelley1 uploaded a photo of the yellow house that was taken in May. Kelley1 is Judy Hudspeth and the house belongs to her sister, Pam Adams.

Pam and Warren Adams rebuilt their home in February 2006 after Hurricane Rita destroyed it the previous year. Hudspeth said that the couple hired a contractor to build a home that could withstand a Category 5 hurricane. Warren Adams watched over every step of the construction to make sure it was done correctly.

The couple evacuated to a friend's house in Lufkin, Texas, hours before Ike made landfall last week. Hudspeth said they've been without power since Saturday, and that her sister was "hysterical" when she initially heard everything was gone in Gilchrist.

Pam and Warren have since learned that their house is one of the few in the area to survive the storm. They are returning to see the devastating damage today.

[VOA]

Yesterday, we received an amazing submission

Surely that's photoshopped!!!

If not, I need to track down that housing contractor!!!

[justkate]

unbelievable

it looks like Hiroshima

[B4Ranch]

That contractor has the best bragging rights there is in Texas.

[LikeLight]

It’s real. It’s been verified and reverified, shot from different angles, aerials, etc.

[Daffynition]

I know what you mean ... but supposedly the pilot who took the photo is legit.

Of course, wouldn't be the first time I've been hoodwinked.

[Daffynition]

Prayerful thoughts for the tough people of Texas.

[VOA]

Really, I wasn’t doubting you.
It just looked too incredible.

That’s one of the best “real-life” advertizements I’ve ever seen.

I hope the contractor doesn’t work to death keeping up with all the
new bidness coming his way.

[Daffynition]

B/C of my posts ‘round here ... I can understand why someone would question these photos ... I’m still incredulous myself.

It would certainly make an stunning commercial. ;-D

[She hits a grand slam tonight]

i believe the pic.
i liv 90 miles north & we had hell & fury as the eye passed over, i promise u
they say u hear a freight train when a tonado comes (high winds), we’ll i sure heard it when it tumbled numerous trees. God truly blessed me because 1 tree just snapped at the y 45 ft up both y’s snapped off & luckily i only got a 6 ft hole to repair & a the tree itself didn’t fall over my bed. thank u father, all power praise & mercy to God

[abigailsmybaby]

I just heard on The Weather Channel that that house might have to be demolished anyway due to water damage.

[The Duke]

I simply cannot understand how Ike could have caused so much damage when Hurricane Elicia, 25 years ago, had the same wind speed and traveled exactly the same path (but travelling 3mph rather than 15mph!) - even hitting land at exactly the same time of day - but with far less damage.

My wife and I experienced that one first hand.

[TexanToTheCore]

It is not a grim tableau. It is astonish8ng how quickly things are returning to normal in Houston. Absolutely astonishing.

Galveston will require more work but we will git ‘r done.

[justkate]

So happy you’re OK.

It must have been a night of terror. I know it’s nothing you can live through & ever forget.

[justkate]

The sense of loss must be nearly unbearable. Prayers for sure

[metmom]

I always thought having anything beyond a throwaway vacation home on a barrier island was foolish.

Especially something worth hundreds of thousands, plural on the hundreds. It is foolish.

Just as long as the government isn't going to pay them to rebuild.

We can't even get our roof fixed from a windstorm and that's a lot less.

The bailouts need to stop.

[metmom]

I wonder how that one house managed to survive when EVERYTHING else was obliterated.

If anyone tried to ride out that storm in any of those other houses, they’re gone as well.