Ike Fire-Rescue Updates from around Texas

News compiled from various sources in the Gulf Coast area:

Photos from Houston Chronicle:  Bolivar Peninsula /  Galveston /  Hurricane Aftermath

Rescuers find 60 Survivors on Bolivar Peninsula / Click here for rescue video from CNN /Rescue Crews in Sabine Pass /  Lewisville, Denton County Departments send Firefighters, Paramedics, equipment. /  FEMA, Politicians Blame each other as Responders go without Food, Water. /  FEMA Struggles to Provide Hurricane Aid. /  2000 from Galveston to Evacuate to San Antonio.

Houston – Fatal House Fire May be Ike Related. / Water Rescues continue in Orange County. /   Updated: 2000 Rescued so far in Massive Effort. / Stories of Survival.

Houston Chronicle – President Views Damage

President Bush today promised storm-devastated Texans that “there will be a better tomorrow” as he boarded a helicopter at Ellington Field for a first-hand look at the worst hurricane destruction in the Houston area in at least 25 years.

“It’s a tough situation on the coast,” Bush said. “I’ve been president long enough to have seen tough situations, and I know the resilience of the people to deal with tough situations. I know with proper help from the federal government and the state government, there will be a better tomorrow. It’s good to be home. I’m just sorry it’s under these circumstances.”

Bush said his visit, including conferences with Houston, Harris County and Galveston officials, would provide a “chance to show our heartfelt sympathies.”

He also gave assurances that the federal government would reimburse the state 100 percent of the cost of debris removal and emergency operations.

The president also said there will be reimbursements over the next 30 days for people who have had to leave their homes because of the storm.

“People have been moved out of their homes,” he said. “A lot of people are anxious to get back in. I urge you to listen to state and local authorities before you come back in.”

He left Ellington Field at 10 a.m., joined by Gov. Rick Perry and other elected officials, and his helicopter lifted off from Galveston at 11:20 a.m. after he conferred with officials there.

What awaited the president — mile upon mile of coastal structures wrecked or washed into the Gulf of Mexico — hinted at the enormity of a disaster that has left thousands homeless and millions without desperately needed electricity.

So severe was damage on Galveston Island, where Hurricane Ike generated a storm surge in excess of 12 feet, that City Manager Steve LeBlanc spoke of his city entering a “downward spiral” and declared it was not fit for habitation.

In stern language, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas warned of a potential public health crisis and told the estimated 20,000 residents who rode out the storm in the city to leave.

Downtown Galveston sustained up to 6 feet of flooding, and the extent of damage on the island’s west end — an area beyond the seawall’s protection — is still being assessed. More than a fifth of the island’s 7,000 historic structures were seriously damaged by the storm, including the 1857 Italianate mansion, Ashton Villa, which took 18 inches of water in its first floor.

Ike, which left roughly 2 million Houston-area customers without electricity — and, consequently, led to fuel shortages, closed schools and shuttered grocery and retail stores — arguably is the worst storm to hit Houston since Hurricane Alica blasted the city in 1983.

The storm’s death total this morning stood at 40, with at least 11 of the fatalities occurring in Texas.

Thirty Houston residents have been treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after improperly using gas-powered generators to supply electricity to their homes. Three deaths linked to the gas have been reported in southeast Texas, including 4-year-old Joshua Aguirre, who was found dead in his north Houston home on Saturday while a generator was still running in the house.

An adult and three other children who were in the home were treated at a hospital.

Hurricane Alicia came ashore on Galveston Island’s western edge with 96 mph winds, creating a 12-foot storm surge at Seabrook. Upon landfall, the storm generated 23 tornadoes between Houston and Galveston.

Twenty-five people were killed and 2,300 homes destroyed. Alicia’s damage totaled $2 billion.

But it was Ike, not Alicia, that was on the minds of thousands of desperate Houston-area residents Monday as they waited in line for food, water and ice that became as precious as jewels in the aftermath of the storm.

Lines stretched for blocks at some of the 19 Harris County distribution sites, and volunteers at some locations ran out of certain supplies. But officials said the system generally was working well and sought to downplay previous reports of friction between local and federal officials.

FEMA officials expect to open an additional 40 distribution centers today. Thus far, storm survivors have gotten 1 million bottles of water, 1 million meals and 600,000 pounds of ice.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines today announced it has joined the North Texas Food Bank to send 10,500 pounds of emergency food for distribution by the Houston Food Bank.

Meanwhile, Houston public works officials today said residents should continue to boil tap water before consuming it. A Monday report that the boil order had ended was premature.

As of late Monday, more than 2 million electrical customers in the Houston area remained without power. CenterPoint Energy reported 69 percent of its customers lacked power; Entergy Texas, 94 percent; Texas-New Mexico Power Co., 58 percent; and Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, 99 percent.

The agony of September in Houston without air-conditioning has been somewhat lessened by a cold front that dropped low temperatures into the 60s. The National Weather Service said today’s high should be 80. Highs through Saturday should be in the mid-80s.

Houston police reported 100 people have been arrested for looting since 6 a.m. Saturday. Police Chief Harold Hurtt said the first night of the 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew brought 108 citations and 32 arrests.

Police found one car they stopped had been stolen and was filled with apparently pilfered merchandise.

Police said they have obtained sufficient fuel supplies to operate their patrol cars.

Energy industry observers predicted that, with 22 percent of the nation’s refining capacity affected by the hurricane, gasoline will return to $4 a gallon before dropping in price in November and December.

On Monday, Shell reported 40 stations up and running in the Houston area. Valero had 52; ExxonMobil, 10.

In indications that life in the Houston area slowly is returning to normal, Rice University and the University of Houston’s main campus announced today that classes had resumed.

Houston’s Central Library also reopened today — hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. — and has designated a computer lab as hurricane assistance center. The public may use computers there to file insurance forms and e-mail family or friends.

On Monday, vital relief arrived for thousands of storm victims and hundreds of the hot, thirsty and hungry lined up at FEMA distribution points hours before they opened.

In Fort Bend County, volunteer workers showed up at 4:30 a.m. to open three distribution centers, only to learn that a foul-up had eliminated their deliveries.

A peeved County Judge Bob Hebert said state workers told him they had not received his request for supplies. He vowed to buy 120,000 pounds of ice with county funds — and petition FEMA for reimbursement — and open the centers himself.

Two of the centers were stocked with FEMA-provided supplies and open by 10 a.m. today. A third was expected to open shortly afterward.

Thousands show up

By 8:30 a.m. Monday, volunteers at the Greenspoint center were unloading and passing out crates of water, ice and nonperishable food supplied by the state, and were told that the federal government would soon be sending shipments.

More than 10,000 people had showed up by 10:30 a.m., FEMA spokeswoman Mary Bell Lunsford said.

In Galveston, where four FEMA relief stations have been open since Sunday afternoon, people came on foot, pushing shopping carts, on bicycles and by car.

One center on the Seawall had passed out 3,600 bags of ice, 2,000 cases of water and more than 1,000 packaged meals.

By midmorning at the FEMA center in La Porte, the line of cars stretched for nearly a mile and a half but had dropped to about a half-mile by the afternoon.

Barbara Waters, of Deer Park, who suffers from diabetes, drove to the La Porte FEMA center with her pregnant daughter, Karen, and 9-month-old granddaughter, Bryanne.

Waters had come to the same center at the New Life Fellowship Church, 2104 Underwood, during Hurricane Rita to help pass out supplies. This time, she came in need of ice to keep her insulin cool and formula for the baby.

“We’re very thankful to be back,” she said, greeting the pastor, Sean Mooney.

Centers could move

As power is restored to various neighborhoods during the week, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said, the locations of the distribution centers could move to areas where the need is more urgent.

In the meantime, he encouraged people to help one another by sharing with their neighbors.

At the Tomball distribution center, traffic all but disappeared with the ice at about 3 p.m. With only water on hand, few vehicles continued to trickle through the parking lot of a shuttered grocery store.

Authorities had expected to be restocked with one truckload of ready-to-eat meals, two truckloads of ice and two truckloads of water from FEMA in the afternoon. Instead, three truckloads of water showed up.

This report was compiled by Chronicle reporter Allan Turner. Reporters R.G. Ratcliffe, Zen T.C. Zheng, Kristen Hays, Mary Flood, Mark Carreau, Carolyn Feibel, Roma Khanna and Liz Austin Peterson contributed to this story.

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EARLY UPDATES

The damage from Hurricane Ike was more extensive than that from Rita in 2005. It could be a month to restore power to the entire region, which is from Houston to Lake Charles, said Beaumont Police officer and spokeswoman Carman Apple.

Port Neches Fire Department responded to a house fire at 8 p.m. Friday night in the 2100 block of Tenth Street. The firefighters were able to rescue 6 people from the home and shelter them during the storm.

Water pressure a problem in Galveston – Houses burning.  10 structures lost to fire so far.  7 more to collapse.  Search and Rescue ongoing in Galveston.

Port Arthur Five homes in Port Arthur near Ninth Street and Stilwell Boulevard burned to the ground by Saturday morning. www.beaumontenterprise.com

Two house fires in Missouri City

North Conroe fire engine damaged by falling tree

2 Multi alarm fires in Houston simultaneous with a building collapse and multiple house fires.

Houston Station 20 structural damage.  www.chron.com :  Under cloudy skies that mirrored the mood of millions of Houston-area hurricane victims, rescue workers today launched searches for the more than 100,000 area residents who ignored evacuation orders and attempted to ride out the storm in their homes.

In Chambers County officials launched boats to hunt survivors in Oak Island and Smith Point, communities that were submerged in 15 to 17 feet over water when Ike smashed ashore earlier today.

In Galveston County, where fire personnel received 100 calls for help after they had shut down operations Thursday, city officials pleaded with the media not to photograph corpses. About 23,000 island residents are thought to have ignored the evacuation call.

Earlier today, Gov. Rick Perry announced that Galveston Island has been closed to all but emergency personnel to allow the search to take place. He said he had no information regarding possible island fatalities.

In Harris County, where 250,000 people were advised to evacuate their homes in neighborhoods vulnerable to storm surge, the list of living, injured and — possibly — dead has yet to be compiled.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today said more than 50 helicopters and other aircraft were flying as part of the massive search and rescue operation in Texas and Louisiana.

“We hope it’s a small number,” Chertoff said regarding possible hurricane deaths. “But we’re going to have to wait and see.”

He said 2.2 million Texans and approximately 130,000 Louisiana residents evacuated their homes on Ike’s approach.

The resistance to the evacuation calls surprised officials.

But, said Perry spokesman, Mark Miner, “This is a democracy. Local officials put out a very strong warning. . .But you can’t force people to leave their homes.”

Chambers County spokesman Mike Kubik said many residents of the coastal county east of Houston ignored the calls to evacuate because of sour memories of Hurricane Rita’s 2005 gridlocked evacuation.

Kubic said rescue workers will investigate an unconfirmed report that an Oak Island resident called for help, saying he was treading water on the second floor of his home but did not know how long he could continue.

In Brazoria County, where officials also worried about holdouts who refused to leave, emergency management officials this afternoon cautiously suggested the county may have escaped without fatalities or serious injuries.

Officials earlier estimated that up to 35 percent of residents in mandatory evacuation zones stayed behind.

“At least, we dodged the bullet on that,” said Brazoria County Justice of the Peace Wayne DuBose. “But we took a big hit and there’s a lot of damage everywhere.”

At least one area death was directly attributed to the storm. Montgomery County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Norris said a woman was crushed by a tree as she slept in her home.

Hurricane Ike’s center hit Galveston Island at 2:10 a.m. today.

Its 110 mph winds — Ike was a strong Category 2 hurricane — propelled a 12.4 foot storm surge into the downtown area, leaving much of the district inundated in 6 to 7 feet of water.

Ike scoured the city’s seawall, demolishing landmarks including the Balinese Room, a historic nightclub and one-time gambling establishment dating to the 1940s. Also destroyed were Murdoch’s Pier and a Hooters restaurant, the latter said to have crashed into the sea at 1 a.m. with an explosive roar.

In Houston, Ike flooded streets, uprooted trees, sucked windows out of downtown high-rise office buildings, damaged Reliant Stadium — leading to a cancellation of the Texan’s Monday season-opener against Baltimore — and left millions of residents without electricity.

Late this morning the Harris County Toll Road Authority closed the Houston Ship Channel Bridge for safety reasons, noting the bridge would reopen when winds subsided.

Homeland Security and emergency officials this afternoon closed downtown Houston to the public so cleanup efforts could commence. Ike left those thoroughfares filled with broken glass, tree limbs and other debris.

At 1 p.m. today, the National Weather Service downgraded Ike to a Tropical Storm as it moved toward Tyler with 60 mph winds.

Houston Mayor Bill White today admonished residents to boil drinking water and to stay off the roads this morning as emergency crews work to remove the downed power lines and debris that littered the streets in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

Street flooding also made many roadways impassable, White said, even for high-water vehicles.

“No matter how brave you feel, we don’t need to be rescuing people who do not need to be on the roads,” he said, noting that those rescue missions divert resources needed to help people facing storm-caused life-threatening emergencies.

Fire and EMS crews were back on the street by 9 a.m. after Ike’s powerful winds forced them to suspend services earlier this morning, Houston Fire Department Executive Assistant Chief Rick Flanagan said. The city’s 911 service has received 4,700 calls in the past 24 hours, and crews were working as quickly as possible to answer them, he said.

However, he noted the same downed power lines, billboards and trees that made driving hazardous for civilians was impeding their ability to reach some locations.

“It’s going to be a slow process for us to get out there to you this morning,” he said.

White today asked residents to conserve water because the city’s water supply was reaching low-pressure levels amid a power outage at a crucial pumping station. Using tap water to bathe or clean up could lower the pressure even further, he said.

CenterPoint crews had made restoring that power a top priority, he said. Residents who absolutely must drink tap water should bring it to a rapid boil for a minute, he said, in case the supply has been contaminated. There was no evidence of contamination, but it was possible since water pressure had fallen to such a low level.

Hurricane Ike knocked electricity offline for virtually the entire Houston area as it continued to roar across the area today.

CenterPoint Energy said about 90 percent of its roughly 2 million customers were in the dark before daybreak even as the storm continued to pack a 100 mph punch with the eye still near Kingwood as of 6 a.m. That means nearly 4.5 million residents were without power and doesn’t include the service area of Entergy Texas.

CenterPoint spokesman Floyd LeBlanc said downtown Houston and the Medical Center, both of which have underground power lines, were the only large areas with reliable electricity. He said CenterPoint had braced for more than half its customer base losing service, and full restoration could take “several weeks.”

Entergy spokesman David Caplan said 96 percent of its customers throughout its service area — or 380,000 – are in the dark. Two generating stations in Bridge City and Willis are down, so they and transmission lines have to be back up before crews can focus on restoring power to customers. Caplan says the process could take weeks.

“As soon as it’s safe to travel – it’s still blowing out there – we will get a couple hundred scouts to go out and do the assessments, either in vehicles or in helicopters, to fly over the lines, see where the damage is and begin to pull together a restoration plan. That could take 24 to 48 hours, depending on the weather.”

In Galveston, Fire Chief Michael Varela, speaking to reporters in the San Luis Hotel, where the city’s mayor and emergency personnel are staying, said they would respond to needs on the west end of the island first, since it was hardest hit.

At least eight to 10 feet of water was on the streets when they ceased operations, and the second half of the storm, which came after that point, was far worse than the first, he said.

Asked how hard he believed Galveston had been hit, Varela said: ”For us, one to 10, I’d say it’s a 10.