Authorities hoped to spare thousands of Texans — 140,000 by some estimates who ignored orders to flee ahead of the storm — from another night amid the destruction. Eight deaths had been blamed on the storm, and authorities worried the toll could rise.
So far, Gov. Rick Perry’s office said some 940 people had been saved.
Residents of the tiny community of Seabrook, Texas, near Johnson Space Center, were met by a roadblock as they tried to return home, and police officers standing in the rain turned them away. At times the line was six to 12 cars deep.
“It’s gonna be a while,” an officer shouted to one man as he made a U-turn. “Just listen to the news.”
“Seabrook is a disaster area: no sewer, no infrastructure. It really isn’t safe,” said officer Charlie Skinner. “It’s making residents pretty upset. I understand, but ... There’s an order signed by the mayor. We can’t let anybody in.”
Overnight, a team of paramedics, rescue dogs and structural engineers fanned out under a nearly full moon on a finger of land in Galveston Bay. To the northeast, Coast Guard crews also worked into early Sunday morning, pulling a half-dozen people out of Bridge City before rescue missions were suspended for the night.
Five-year-old Jack King escaped serious injury when a rush of storm-surge water washed out the first floor of his family’s Galveston home just two blocks from the bay.
“I falled in the attic,” the boy told paramedic Stanley Hempstead of his 10-foot tumble through the attic and onto the garage floor.
Jack and his family rode out the storm with blankets and other supplies. As the Texas Task Force 1 Search and Rescue crew arrived, Jack gazed at a TV aglow with “The Simpsons,” a Band-Aid covering a gash on his head.
“We just didn’t think it was going to come up like this,” said the boy’s father, Lee King. “I’m from New Orleans, I know better. I just didn’t think it was going to happen.”
WTF? at least everyone is OK