Ike: Six Months Later

By Hayley Shaw

It has been six months since Hurricane Ike hit the Texas Gulf Coast.  Local areas have been able to recover since the hurricane, but not completely.
With all the media coverage surrounding Mardi Gras and spring break in Galveston, people have somewhat forgotten about the smaller communities on the coast that were also damaged by the storm.
Just over the causeway sits Tiki Island.
Tiki Island homes suffered a great deal of damage on the ground level because of flooding, but because building codes require break-away walls downstairs and do not allow those areas to be living spaces, damage was minimal.  Only two homes were demolished by owners after Ike and since Ike, four new homes have been built.
“Tiki is a small community, and residents quickly came back after the storm to help the island recover,” said Tim Cullather, the city’s emergency manager.  “Despite the surge covering the entire island, Tiki was able to restore water and sewer service within three days and electrical service in seven to nine days.”
Twenty-two miles down the road from Tiki Island is League City.
 “The city of League City is still recovering from Hurricane Ike,” said Jamie Galloway, director of emergency services.  “The city has completed repairs to many facilities and vehicles.”
Planning began in October for the 2009 hurricane season.  An outreach emergency notification system has been implemented with Connect CTY, a notification system in which citizens can receive important information five ways including cell, text and e-mail.  League City staff has been working with the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to help with flood-prone areas.
Bordering League City is Kemah, where many businesses have been reopened, but away from the boardwalk, there are many homes that still need to be repaired or demolished.  
“Kemah is recovering well,” said R.W. Kerber Jr., city administrator and emergency coordinator.  “All but one restaurant on the boardwalk are open, and the new amusement rides are open daily.”
Continuing up Highway 146 is the City of Shoreacres, which was damaged substantially.  This community only has half its citizens back.
“About half are back; of those, about half of them are living in trailers or RV’s,” said David Stall, the city administrator.  “Mostly their own recreational vehicles; we have about 34 of the FEMA housing.”  
Half of Shoreacres’ water system doesn’t work, as well as a third of the sewer system.  The community is managing because they do not have all their residents back yet.  Money to clean up Shoreacres still has not arrived and property values are being reassessed for next year.
“A year from now our property values will be greatly diminished and the amount of money the city will have will be greatly diminished,” Stall said.
It cost $2 million to haul away debris and Shoreacres has only received $70,000.  FEMA will fully reimburse the city, but Stall said there is just not a specific time frame of when the money will actually arrive.
Long time resident of Shoreacres Kathy Booth is living in her backyard in an RV trailer that she and her husband originally purchased for their property on Lake Travis.  Booth had to completely gut her house because of flooding, a house she, her husband and her father-in-law built themselves more than 25 years ago.  
“Mike likes to tell people that we bought the house in a fire sale,” Booth jokes, “because we bought the property next to where he grew up after the house burned in a fire.  When we first bought our home, it looked a lot like this.”
Booth said the worst part has been being displaced for so long, but that they will rebuild again.
“We built our house 27 years ago, and we just don’t see ourselves any place else,” Booth said.    
These cities represent just a portion of the often-forgotten cities affected by Hurricane Ike.  Other small Gulf Coast communities still in the reconstruction process include: San Leon, Bacliff, Seabrook, Oak Island, Anahuac and El Jardine.  
Simply venture off the main roads in any of these cities, and you will still see immense damage waiting to be repaired – strong reminders of what happened six months ago.