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*HURRICANE IKE AFTERMATH AND COMMENTS*

KFDM COOP

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KFDM COOP

KFDM COOP

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Return Home to Bolivar Underway

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September 26, 2008 - 8:52AM

Scott Lawrence

Hundreds of families are crowding onto Highway 124 and Highway 87 Friday for the 'Return Home to Bolivar", but many are discovering there's nothing to return to, according to KFDM News anchor Bill Leger, who is documenting the story with KFDM photographer Drew Barrilleaux.

"We got to the Intracoastal Bridge a little after 5 a.m. and already we must have passed hundreds and hundreds of cars," Bill reported to us by phone.

"There were people with trailers standing on the side of the road, waiting to get to a staging area. At 6 a.m. the DPS took us in and everyone followed."

Bill said there are no surprises for the media that's already seen the devastation, but residents viewing their homes for the first time weren't prepared for how little is left.

"People were driving with trailers to load up their belongs, but many have nothing to bring back," Bill said.

"We met one couple from Austin that lost everything. There is nothing but rubble. One couple from Kingwood had just finished remodeling their beach house a couple of weeks ago. It's gone."

Bill said the entry seems to be going smoothly.

"As far as we can tell, there are no problems.  The Rollover Pass Bridge is reinforced.  Big motor homes went across, flatbed trucks went across. I was surprised by the sheer number of people."

At 9 a.m. traffic was backed up from Bolivar to Winnie.

Watch for Bill's reports on the 'Return Home to Bolivar' Friday on News at Noon, Live at 5 and KFDM News at 6 & 10.

HIGH ISLAND, Texas (AP) - Residents of Bolivar Peninsula crowded onto the only roadway back home Friday, the first day they were allowed to return and check out the massive wreckage left behind after Hurricane Ike roared through this thin strip of land along the Gulf of Mexico.

The peninsula's 4,000 or so residents are being allowed back on a "look and leave" policy, lining up to return despite warnings they could find snakes and alligators in the debris. The peninsula just northeast of Galveston was among the hardest-hit areas when Ike blasted ashore Sept. 13, with 110 mph winds and a storm surge that swept away homes and businesses.

In the small town of Gilchrist, what was once a field across the street from some vacation beach houses now looked more like a dump where the remains of the homes were scattered. Homeowners slowly wandered through the field, looking through chunks of wood, plates, VCRs, blinds and broken toilets.

Beth Varing, whose vacation home of 20 years was gone except for some wooden pilings, was making a small pile beside the road of items she recovered: a few unbroken dishes, some utensils, a fishing pole and some tile pieces.

"It's unbelievable. All I can do is cry," she said. "these beach houses have been here forever. I can't wrap my thoughts around this. I can't see how it picked up these beach houses and now there is nothing left."

Neighbors Raymond and Lola Rice of Nederland walked around looking for anything from the beach home they've had since 1969. They let out a cheer when a neighbor announced he'd found a piece of his carpet.

At one point Lola Rice, 69, stopped walking, looked down and yelled out to her husband: "Do you want a piece of your roof?"

Raymond Rice was walking back to his car a short time later with a silver case containing his horseshoe set.

"It's not any value hardly," he said. "It's just the thought that we found something."

Under the look and leave policy, residents are allowed to come to the peninsula and begin repairing their homes but cannot live in them as there is no power, water, sewer or telephone service and cell phone service is limited. A bridge on the island, near Rollover Pass, has been damaged and only one lane can be used by traffic.

It was slow going along the two-lane State Highway 87 onto the peninsula, though, as traffic backed up at least 5 miles and didn't move for long stretches. Some commuters spent more than an hour on the highway, which was mostly cleared of debris, before passing through a checkpoint onto the peninsula.

As they arrived at the checkpoint, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials stood by the road handing out pamphlets on how to apply for aid. Further down the road, tents were set up where people could get ice, water, mosquito repellent or tetanus shots.

While most residents fled before Ike arrived, a small group stayed.

The Bolivar Peninsula has a population of more than 4,000 residents but that more than doubles during the summer months with the arrival of tourists and beach home owners. The peninsula stretches 27 miles along the Texas Gulf Coast. It is bounded on one side by Galveston Bay and on the other by the Gulf of Mexico.

The peninsula, named for SimDon BolDivar, the South American revolutionary hero, is about 3 miles at its widest point and about one-fourth of a mile at its narrowest. Its five residential communities are Crystal Beach, Port Bolivar, Caplen, Gilchrist and High Island.

Ike has been blamed for at least 62 deaths, including 27 in Texas. More than 1 million people evacuated the Texas coast.

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Guest abovetherim

Guest abovetherim

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Over 400 people missing is what I was referring to.

More than 400 people are listed on the center's Web site from Galveston, Harris, Chambers and Jefferson counties.

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KFDM COOP

KFDM COOP

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High Island woman's missing son found on Galveston Bay island

By CHRISTINE RAPPLEYE

September, 30, 2008

Norma Rubin's son isn't on the missing list anymore.

Herman "PeeWee" Thomas Moseley of Gilchrist was found this weekend on one of the islands in Galveston Bay, said Rubin, who is from High Island.

She last heard from him Sept. 12. He was still at his Bolivar Peninsula home as the storm surge from Hurricane Ike was rising. It washed homes away and left them in debris piles all along the bay.

Rubin said Moseley was identified by pictures of his tattoos and a necklace she had given him.

"God gave him to me for 48 years," said Rubin, who also lost her home to Ike.

Moseley was listed on the Laura Recovery Center's Web site as one of those missing after the storm.

The center still lists about 400 names of people believed to be missing, including dozens from the Bolivar Peninsula, Crystal Beach and Gilchrist.

At one point, there were about 700 missing people reported. Aabout 300 names were taken down after people called in to say they were OK, officials said. There have been three from the list confirmed dead.

Some of those who have been found in Ike's receding storm surge or in debris include Mosley and Gail L. Ettenger, 58, of Gilchrist, who was found in a debris field in Chambers County last week. Last Saturday, a woman wearing a black tank top was found on a debris pile on Pelican Island. Her name wasn't immediately available.

Greg Walker of Port Neches was found on Sunday afternoon in Orange County. He has been missing since Sept. 13 when, caught in the storm surge near the Rainbow Bridge, he made a 911 call for help, according to The Enterprise archives.

Funeral for Walker is at 2 p.m. Thursday at Lorraine Bridge Cemetery in Bell City, La., under the direction of Broussard's-Nederland. A local gathering of family and friends is from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Arrangements for Moseley were pending with Allison Funeral Home in Liberty.

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KFDM COOP

KFDM COOP

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Searchers ID 5 'Hot Spots' for Ike Victims

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Search teams looking for as many as 50 people who remain missing since Hurricane Ike have identified five "hot spots" where they will focus their efforts on Thursday, officials said.

Mounds of debris scattered across Bolivar Peninsula likely conceal the remains of those still missing, authorities said. Long-awaited reinforcements from state search-and-rescue units are expected to arrive Thursday with trained dog teams to search for bodies.

"The sooner we can get closure the better," Crystal Beach Volunteer Fire Chief David Loop said in a story in the Houston Chronicle. "My main concern is to make sure we do everything possible and make every effort we can to have a good, clean recovery."

The search for bodies is also expected to move offshore to uninhabited Goat Island, where one storm victim's body was already found and where large, remote piles of debris have collected.

On Wednesday, trained dogs identified several potential body sites amid the remains of beach houses. Searchers flagged at least two sites that will receive closer inspection.

"It's going to take more time and manpower to go sifting through all the debris," Galveston County Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik told the newspaper. "All that stuff has to be overturned and sifted through and taken to a place where it can be spread out and looked at."

The renewed efforts to find bodies has come too late for some, including Raul "Roy" Arrambide, whose mother, sister and nephew disappeared while evacuating from a beach house in Port Bolivar. The two vehicles they left in have been found, with no sign of bodies.

"I really don't have any confidence with the way this is being done," Arrambide said.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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bullets13

bullets13

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"authorities are still searching "for as many as 50 bodies"...

"As many as 700 people were listed missing at one point", but "300 names were taken down (off the list) when people called to say there were OK". 

I'm not the best at math, but these numbers don't mesh.  there are currently 296 people on a list that has had almost 780 people on it at one point or another since Hurricane Ike.  300 were taken off the list when it was discovered they were okay.  There are 3 identified dead off of the list.  There are search efforts under way for around 50 people right now.  There are a lot of people "unaccounted for".  Any thoughts?

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bullets13

bullets13

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From CNN:

Alligators loom over submerged cars. Mountains of debris are embedded in the ground. The bodies of cows, trucks and the remnants of homes lie in and out of the water. And unverified sightings of missing loved ones still make the rounds.

Traci Turner says she hasn't hear from her sister Danielle Chapman or her two nephews since the storm.

More than 300 people are missing since Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast last month, and the obstacles to finding them are frustrating family and friends who desperately want to know if their loved ones are dead or alive.

These family and friends want answers: Why are so many still missing? Why has the first organized search for bodies, to be held Thursday on the battered Bolivar Peninsula, taken so long?

Local and state authorities are conducting Thursday's search and have been working with the Laura Recovery Center, a missing persons organization. The center helped compile a list of missing people and police are using the information to go door-to-door looking for answers.

"We are hopeful most of these people will be found, that a lot of them were evacuated to shelters, or don't even know they've been listed as missing," said Bob Walcutt, executive director of the Laura Recovery Center in Friendswood, Texas. iReport.com: Are you looking for loved ones?

"We are hoping to get more answers as people call in or as school starts, but another week with this number could be a different story," he said.

As of Thursday morning, the number of missing hovered at 300, including 24 children. Laura Recovery Center volunteers, working with the Galveston Police Department and Galveston Emergency Management, have been fielding calls from family and friends of people missing since Ike hit September 12.

A majority of the missing come from the hardest-hit Texas towns of Crystal Beach, Port Bolivar, Gilchrist, Texas and Galveston.

Traci Turner, of San Diego, California, doesn't know where her sister Danielle Chapman is. The last time she spoke to her was right after Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast, about a week before Ike came ashore.

At that time, Turner's sister Danielle Chapman said she and her family, who were on the west end of Galveston Island, were all OK.

Chapman, 32, and her sons Joel, 15, and Addison, 12, lived in a home at the far west end of island, past Jamaica Beach.

Turner said despite arduous online searching she has seen no news or photos about that area, and has heard nothing from her sister and nephews since Hurricane Ike.

"My heart is hurting. This is my little sister and I love her to death," Turner told CNN.

"These are her kids. I love them to death and they are gone. I don't want to say it -- maybe they have been washed out, maybe they haven't -- maybe they are in a shelter. Either way, they are still missing."

Adding confusion to her search,Turner said, the recovery center took her sister and nephews off the list because someone called to say he or she knew their whereabouts.

Turner hasn't been able to talk to the person who called in the tip. So without any proof that her family is still alive, she cannot rest easy.

"Not until I hear a voice or see pictures of them," she said.

Turner, like many others, wishes a streamlined procedure were in place to find residents in an evacuation zone.

Chapman and other evacuees may not have a phone number for their relatives, Turner said. There should be a main number everyone knew to call, she said, so families across the Gulf Coast wouldn't be left in the dark as to whether their loved ones are dead or just scattered across the state.

The frustration about the post-Ike recovery runs deep for Robin Huber, pastor of a church that was destroyed along with her home in Gilchrist. Huber estimates only seven homes are still standing in Gilchrist, which is surrounded by huge piles of debris. 

Cars and dead animals float in the bay, she said.

The amount of debris is unfathomable, Huber said, and it was hurled with such force that residents can barely dig through it.

"Imagine that all of these homes were picked up and dropped from a high airplane," she said. "It looks like a bomb exploded here and the pieces are so stuck in the earth, it's impossible to pull out. Who knows what is in there."

Cars and trucks litter the road leading to the highway as if they were trying to escape at the last moment, Huber said.

When she was allowed back to Gilchrist after the storm, Huber swore she saw a body leaning out of a submerged car.

"Nobody could get to them because they were still under water and because of all of the alligators in the area," she said.

Huber, like others, wants to know why officials haven't been searching for bodies.

"When there's a disaster everyone focuses on it for a week then everyone forgets," Huber said. "That's the problem right now. Why are there not more people out there looking for bodies?"

"I have people saying to me 'Do you know where my daddy is?'" she said. "All I can say is 'Don't give up,' but now we are going on three weeks."

On Thursday, search teams will begin the first organized search in five "hotspots" -- debris piles across the Bolivar Peninsular, according to The Associated Press.

Chambers County Judge Jimmy Sylvia has been asking for help from the governor's office since the hurricane hit, according to CNN affiliate KTRK-TV.

"I don't have a clue why it is taking so long. You know it really should be Galveston County pushing because those are Galveston County folks that would be up here in my county," Sylvia told KTRK-TV.

State Rep. Craig Eiland told KTRK-TV that the delay will be investigated.

Now, two weeks after the storm hit, the phones at the call center are steadily ringing.

Walcutt said the center and the Red Cross are continuing to crosscheck their lists.

Between calls from the public and checking with shelters, Walcutt said 317 people have been found and taken off the list, including 51 on Wednesday alone.

The Laura Recovery Center Web site lists the names of the missing along with their towns and photos. On the site, family and friends can create their own missing person fliers and upload those photos.

The center is working with local authorities, who are in some cases going to knock on the doors of the missing, Walcutt said.

For Huber, the struggle won't end until all the answers are in.

"They say Lord won't give you more than you can handle, but right now it's getting pretty close," she said.

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tvc184

tvc184

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  Any thoughts?

Yeah...... it is called "The Media".

Been there, done that. They take bits and pieces from different sources and come up with numbers that even leaves the person talking to the reporter going, HUH?

I have given statements to the media many times (and still do, the latest being this week) and often look at their report of my words and say, HUH?

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