Hurricane Ike

I just returned from a whirlwind (not tornado, but hurricane related!) trip. I went from snow on the San Francisco Peaks, to over 100 degrees on a Phoenix warehouse, to Houston, Texas. I ended up looking at damage from Hurricane Ike to the Houston and outlying areas. Many included damage from falling trees, windborne debris and others from simple poor construction. I had to condemn a church and I had one guy threaten to tell his momma on me as I told him his damage wasn't storm related.

While I didn't travel out to the island at Galveston, I did have time during my CAT work to take a trip to the town of Galveston.

All of the 'beachfront' properties were pretty much uninhabitable, with the storm surge being over 20 feet.

This was a different experience than being in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Things were a little more organized, with the clean up of the city.

I made it out of Houston area and to the sands of Galveston Beach, where I added some sands and shells to my 'Sands of Time' Collection.

This collection began after the losses of my relatives on my 40th birthday and I traveled up the Pacific Coast Highway for work. I collected a small bag of sand, not knowing why...part of the whole 'midlife crisis thing'. I came home and found several colored and shaped bottles. They now remind me of where I've been and where I want to go.

This little guy kept me company while the rest tromped all over the beach.

His larger relatives were dive bombing the ocean in search of fish. It was quite entertaining to watch.

Access to the beach was down the stairs at the seawall and then across a 2x6 board over the water.

These houses were part of the peninsula, which had survived the stormsurge, relatively unscathed.

Many structures did not.

I visited the Fort San Jacinto Historic Point. The beach is just covered, on either side of the jetty with debris from the houses and buildings that used to be near this area.

Several container ships were out on the ocean, waiting to move into the ports...probably some difficulty with that as a lot of the port area was damaged.

Within the town of Galveston, this 4 block area has been made into a temporary location for all of the debris that people have removed from their structures. It gets piled up outside of their businesses or houses and the city dump trucks are working the streets, removing each pile and bringing it to this location where semi trucks are lined up to be filled by excavators and trucked out to be burned.

You may have to look closely, but the opposite side of the road is littered with broken and beached boats.

This condition was common for several miles along the roadway.