2000 from Galveston to Evacuate to San Antonio

GALVESTON — As city officials prepared 2,000 island residents for evacuation, rescuers went house to house today delivering ice and water — and checking for bodies.One resident who weathered the storm on the battered western end of the island recalled a total loss.

“It was crazy, crazy wild,” said Ronald Rodriguez, 21, who stayed behind with his mother and grandfather in their boarded-up home near 9 Mile Road.

“We lost all our cars, furniture, everything,” he said.

State troopers delivered ice and water door to door while city police handed out flyers telling residents that food and water was available at three supply hubs in the city, Galveston spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said.

She said crews from Texas Task Force 1 were searching house to house for those who might not have survived the storm.

City Manager Steve LeBlanc said there were three deaths but would not offer details.

City officials were negotiating with Wal-Mart in hope of getting at least one store open by the end of the week, and they plan to talk with grocers and other store owners about reopening, Cahill said.

Assistant City Manager Brandon Wade said the main pump station at 33rd Street was damaged and no natural gas was available to power its pumps, dashing hopes that water service might be restored to the city core today.

Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas expanded the city’s curfew hours to 6 p.m. to 6 am. Cahill said National Guard troops would assist police in enforcement. Curfew violators can be jailed and fined up to $2,000.

With the exception of two massive piles of debris from destroyed structures on the seawall, city workers have cleared Seawall Boulevard all the way to the western end of the seawall.

Police cars at the end of the seawall blocked all traffic to the low-lying western end of the island, much of it still covered in water.

The western end, primarily upscale homes, was devastated, LeBlanc said.

Thomas said the homes on the west portion of the island make up 47 percent of the city’s tax base.

LeBlanc said rescue teams still could not reach much of the western end where several residents rode out the storm and called police for help. Police were unable to respond to calls for help during the storm.

Companies have been contracted to remove debris and should begin work soon.

Essential personnel such as doctors will be allowed to enter the island, but residents will not be allowed back until living conditions are improved.

Officials said the city’s airport tower and runways are in good shape and cargo planes would begin landing as soon as all the water drained away.

The airport terminal was gutted by the flooding. Buses carrying residents from the Ball High School shelter headed for Austin at 3 p.m., and LeBlanc said the city would send about 2,000 residents to San Antonio where they would have the water and power their homes lack.

Cahill said transportation will be provided back to the island once it is cleared for return.

The causeway that connects Pelican Island to Galveston is impassable due to heavy damage on the land-based approach ramps from both directions, said Vandy Anderson, chairman of the Galveston County Navigation District.

“We are rapidly beginning these repairs and hope to have temporary access within the next few days.”

Anderson said he believes all of the several hundred Texas A&M University at Galveston students who live in dorms and apartments on Pelican left before Hurricane Ike. “The island was evacuated before the storm so we’ll assume there are no problems over there,” he said.

Anderson said communications are hampered, but that Gulf Copper and Rig Repairs shipyard, the largest employer on Pelican, might have a skeleton crew that walked across the bridge.

Ronnie Crocker contributed.