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Author Topic: HURRICANE GUSTAV & HANNA & IKE- INFORMATION  (Read 31306 times)
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SunnyinTX
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« Reply #120 on: September 02, 2008, 03:44:07 PM »

Hi All,
My family and friends are all OK. I live southwest of Lafayette and my daughter lives near Morgan City (near landfall). We had high winds and as of today, we're still getting feeder bands with rain and tornadoes. No damage to my home, just trees, branches and leaves everywhere. My electricty was restored last night but the rest of the area is without. My cable and internet just came back on today.

I spoke to Cubbee last night and she's OK but still doesn't have electricity. It's still cloudy with rain showers, but once the sun comes out, then the heat and humidity will be horrible.

Thanks to all for the prayers. This could have been so much worse.

Cajun Miracle

So happy to read that you and your family are fine....with not a lot of damage...thank GOD!!!
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Natalee, We will never forget.
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Lala'sMom
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« Reply #121 on: September 02, 2008, 07:49:08 PM »

I just spoke with Cubbee...she is getting a generator on Thursday.  Lots of trees down and the infrastructure as far as electricity seems dire right now...they are telling them 4-6 weeks before they can return power....she's definitely not happy.  She fed the neighborhood chicken fingers today so they wouldn't ruin...cooked them on a butane stove.  She is in good spirits and just wanted info about the Caylee case...so I know she's fine.
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MumInOhio
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« Reply #122 on: September 02, 2008, 07:58:15 PM »

Hi All,
My family and friends are all OK. I live southwest of Lafayette and my daughter lives near Morgan City (near landfall). We had high winds and as of today, we're still getting feeder bands with rain and tornadoes. No damage to my home, just trees, branches and leaves everywhere. My electricty was restored last night but the rest of the area is without. My cable and internet just came back on today.

I spoke to Cubbee last night and she's OK but still doesn't have electricity. It's still cloudy with rain showers, but once the sun comes out, then the heat and humidity will be horrible.

Thanks to all for the prayers. This could have been so much worse.

Cajun Miracle


Great news Cajun...Glad you and your family are all safe. Thanks for checking in and letting us know.
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MumInOhio
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« Reply #123 on: September 02, 2008, 08:04:35 PM »

I just spoke with Cubbee...she is getting a generator on Thursday.  Lots of trees down and the infrastructure as far as electricity seems dire right now...they are telling them 4-6 weeks before they can return power....she's definitely not happy.  She fed the neighborhood chicken fingers today so they wouldn't ruin...cooked them on a butane stove.  She is in good spirits and just wanted info about the Caylee case...so I know she's fine.


Oh My...4-6 weeks!  Glad to hear she is in good spirits. Tell her we are thinking of her. Thanks for the updates Lala's.
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SunnyinTX
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« Reply #124 on: September 03, 2008, 11:18:57 AM »

CUBBEE UPDATE...she called a little while ago...they are OK...lots of trees down...no electricity...the main power supplies are down and it could be 2-3 weeks before 1/3 of the electricity in the area is restored.....but a generator is on the way...her BIL had to go to Arkansas to get generators...they are on a 6AM-6PM curfew...Natl Guard station not too far from her.....hope to get ice today....if not they will have to start throwing food out...she asked if there was any news coversage about the damage in Baton rouge...I told her I hadn't heard any....she wanted to know about an update on Caylee...I told her about NG and Padilla last night..also about Cindy...she was....ggggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...said to tell everyone hello and she misses us
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Rest in Peace Caylee
Natalee, We will never forget.
Zahra, run with the Angels

PUT ON YOUR BIG GIRL PANTIES AND GET OVER IT!  It's not about you or me.....It's about the Missing and the Murdered
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« Reply #125 on: September 05, 2008, 04:51:49 PM »




Hanna



IKE



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LilPuma
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« Reply #126 on: September 06, 2008, 07:15:59 PM »

We had two days of rain and some cooler weather that is being attributed to Gustav.  I remembered not to complain as getting too much rain is nothing compared to those hit much harder by this storm.  {{{{{Cubbee}}}}}  Even if you can't read this, it's some positive energy coming your way.  I'll remember all the southeastern monkeys in my prayers as more storms form and head for them. 

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« Reply #127 on: September 11, 2008, 03:41:24 PM »

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,420783,00.html

Hundreds of Thousands in Gulf Coast Ordered to Evacuate Ahead of Hurricane Ike
Thursday , September 11, 2008



 HOUSTON —

Authorities in the Houston area and along the Southeast Texas Gulf Coast ordered hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate Thursday as Ike bore down with hurricane-force winds that stretched across more than 200 miles and were expected to gain even more strength.

Forecasters issued a hurricane warning for the Texas Gulf Coast from the Louisiana state line to near Corpus Christi. The warning, which also extended east along much of the Louisiana coast to Morgan City, means hurricane conditions could reach the coast by late Friday with the front edge of the storm before its powerful center hits land over the weekend.

Ike is expected to become at least a Category 3 storm, meaning winds upward of 111 mph, before it comes ashore, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

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MuffyBee
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« Reply #128 on: September 11, 2008, 06:19:38 PM »

Hurricane Ike Aims at Houston; Evacuations Called (Update4)

By Brian K. Sullivan

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ike tripled in size in the central Gulf of Mexico on a weekend collision course with the 5.6 million residents of the Houston area. Traffic jammed highways as Texas coastal communities evacuated.

The system's strongest winds extend as far as 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the eye, up from 35 miles yesterday, the Miami- based National Hurricane Center said today. Ike's wind field is now larger than that of Katrina, the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005, said Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology at private forecaster Weather Underground Inc.

``The total amount of energy is more powerful than Katrina, so we could be seeing a storm surge that could rival Katrina,'' Masters said. The storm is so large ``the location doesn't matter much; it is going to inundate a huge part of the Texas coast.''

Three houses away from Galveston Bay in LaPorte, Jamie and April Ybarra packed their two children, two dogs and cat into a Chevy sports utility vehicle and prepared to leave.

``I think the call for evacuation came a little late,'' Jamie Ybarra, a 32-year-old safety coordinator, said. ``You hear the roads are crowded; you hear people are losing their cool.''

This is the third time the family has evacuated in three years, April Ybarra said. And ``we may not be coming back here for awhile.''

Galveston, parts of southern Houston and areas south of the city and near the Texas coast were under a mandatory evacuation order that started at noon today. Hurricane Ike is following a track similar to the 1900 Galveston hurricane that killed 8,000 people, the deadliest storm in U.S. history.

Felt Before Landfall

Ike was a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph, up from 80 mph yesterday, the center said in an advisory at 4 p.m. Houston time. Its central pressure is more like that associated with a Category 3 or 4 storm, Masters said.

``It is a massive storm; it is impacting in terms of its scope 40 percent of the Gulf,'' said Michael Chertoff, U.S. secretary of Homeland Security, in a conference call from Washington. ``The most important message I can send is, do not take this storm lightly. This is not a storm to gamble with. It is large and powerful and carries a lot of water with it.''

The storm is 400 miles east-southeast of Galveston and moving west-northwest at 10 mph, with landfall south of Galveston forecast for early Sept. 13. Because of its size, Ike will be felt along the Texas coast long before its eye makes landfall.

Strengthening Likely

The center's forecasters said Ike may strengthen to at least a major hurricane with Category 3 intensity, meaning sustained winds of at least 111 mph, before landfall. Other forecasters predict Ike may become a Category 4 storm, the second-strongest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, packing winds from 131 to 155 mph.

The storm is forecast to sweep through the center of the Gulf, missing the offshore Louisiana oil and natural gas fields. The Gulf is home to about a quarter of U.S. oil production.

Even so, about 96 percent of all oil production in the Gulf has been shut in along with 73.1 percent of natural gas facilities, according to the Minerals Management Service, a bureau of the Interior Department. Some facilities have been closed since Hurricane Gustav struck Louisiana last week.

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Baytown facility, 17 miles east of Houston, is the country's biggest, with a capacity of 586,000 barrels a day. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which is the largest U.S. oil-import terminal and handles 13 percent of imports, said it closed marine operations because of Ike.

Chemical Plants Closed

Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker, and competitors such as DuPont Co., LyondellBassell Industries and Texas Petrochemicals Inc. are closing plants in the Houston area. The Texas Gulf Coast produces two-thirds of the nation's ethylene, used in products from plastic bags to auto parts.

President George W. Bush declared an emergency for Texas, his home state, and Governor Rick Perry readied 1,350 buses to evacuate residents in preparation for Ike's landfall. As many as 7,500 Texas National Guard members are on standby.

Houston's population is 2.2 million, making it the fourth- biggest U.S. city, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and its metropolitan area, with a population of 5.6 million, is the sixth-largest in the U.S.

Officials in Harris, Brazoria, Chambers, Matagorda and Galveston counties ordered about 564,063 people to leave homes that are now in Ike's path. Television news reports showed miles- long traffic jams in the area.

Governor Urges Prudence

``My message to Texans in the projected impact area is this: finish your preparations because Ike is dangerous and he's on his way,'' Perry said in a statement. ``If your local officials tell you to evacuate, follow their instructions.''

Jim Rouiller, a meteorologist with Planalytics Inc. in Wayne, Pennsylvania, said he's particularly worried about storm surge damage around Galveston Bay, on the coast southeast of Houston, which may be in the top right quadrant of the storm field where rains and winds are most powerful.

Galveston's seawall is 17 feet high and the forecast storm surge is 20 feet high.

``If that's breached, a whole refinery complex goes under water,'' Rouiller said.

Some parts of the Texas-Louisiana coast may get as much as 15 inches of rain, the hurricane center said.

Ike could inflict between $5 billion and $15 billion of insured damage depending on how much it intensifies, said Steve Smith, atmospheric physicist for the Carvill reinsurance broker.

NASA Center Closed

NASA's Johnson Space Center heeded the evacuation order, preparing to shut its 1,600-acre facility in Houston that houses Mission Control and the training ground for astronauts.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ahOZo8NH9e20&refer=us
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MuffyBee
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« Reply #129 on: September 17, 2008, 11:33:21 PM »

Sep 17, 10:58 PM EDT

Some of Ike's missing may have just washed away

By JUAN A. LOZANO and MONICA RHOR
Associated Press Writers
 GALVESTON, Texas (AP) -- The death toll from Hurricane Ike is remarkably low so far, considering that legions of people stayed behind as the storm obliterated row after row of homes along the Texas coast. But officials suspect there are more victims out there and say some might simply have been swept out to sea.

Exactly how many is anybody's guess, because authorities had no sure way to track those who defied evacuation orders. And the number of people reported missing after the storm, whose death toll stands at 17 in Texas, is fluctuating.

Search-and-rescue crews cleared out Wednesday after plucking survivors from Galveston and the devastated Bolivar Peninsula, and authorities are relying on Red Cross workers and beach patrols to run welfare checks on people named by anxious relatives.

"We don't know what's out there in the wilds," said Galveston County medical examiner Stephen Pustilniks. "Searchers weren't looking for bodies; they were looking for survivors."

As the hurricane closed in, authorities in three counties alone estimated 90,000 people ignored evacuation orders. Post-storm rescuers in Galveston and the peninsula removed about 3,500 people, but another 6,000 refused to leave.

Nobody is suggesting that tens of thousands died, but determining what happened to those unaccounted for is a painstaking task that could leave survivors wondering for months or years to come.

Authorities concede that at least some of those who haven't turned up could have been washed out to sea, as at least one woman on the peninsula apparently was, and that other bodies might still be found.

"I'm not Pollyana. I think we will find some," said Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough, the county's highest-ranking elected official.

Pustilniks' office brought in two refrigerated tractor-trailers to store bodies until autopsies are performed. One sat in front of the medical examiner's office Wednesday morning with a sign on the side: "Jesus Christ is Lord not a cuss word."

By the afternoon, five deaths had been reported in Galveston County: one man who drowned in his pickup, another found inside a motel, two dialysis patients who could not get to their treatment, and a woman with cancer whose oxygen machine shut down.

The stench of rotting animals and livestock polluted the once-picturesque community of Crystal Beach, where about two dozen people stayed behind. One survivor told of seeing a friend wrenched from the rafters by the storm's fury and swept out to sea.

In evacuation shelters hundreds of miles from the coast, displaced residents - like the loved ones of victims of 2005's Hurricane Katrina - scrolled through address books and blog postings and anxiously dialed relatives, friends and neighbors not heard from.

On an Internet forum where survivors listed notes giving their whereabouts and asking for news of the missing, the messages revealed the growing anxiety and frustration of those desperate for some word about their loved ones.

"Anyone know Rosa who lived on the end towards the bay in gilchrist on Dolphin rd? She didnt have a vehicle and last we heard she was staying?"

And this message: "If ANYONE KNOWS WHERE MY FATHER IS OR KNOWS IF HE IS ALIVE AND WELL, PLEASE PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I AM HEARTBROKEN!!"

In Galveston County, where about 15,000 residents stayed behind, officials did not have an exact number of missing residents. The Red Cross is helping track down the missing by setting up registries at shelters and sending workers on welfare checks, Yarbrough said.

At Galveston's emergency management center, 12 phone lines rang constantly with calls from people trying to find relatives. As the calls came in, the city's beach patrol would go to the homes and check.

Sometimes, the searches end in relief. The Red Cross quickly found an elderly Galveston couple reported missing Wednesday morning by relatives in Wyoming, Yarbrough said.

The search echoes the chaos following Katrina in 2005, when bodies were turning up more than a year after the storm as ruined homes were dismantled and families returned after months away. Katrina killed more than 1,600 people.

In that storm, there was no way to track people who left the city. The situation worsened when more than 100,000 New Orleanians who took refuge in Houston had to scatter again a few weeks later for Hurricane Rita.

Authorities opened a center in Baton Rouge, La., to take reports of people who were missing. And just as Ike survivors are doing now, volunteers there turned into amateur detectives - digging through Web sites that sprouted for missing families and calling nursing homes and hospitals.

The center for the missing closed nearly a year after Katrina, when authorities said they had finally exhausted leads.

Brownsville resident Amy Woodside has posted several messages online trying to track down friends who may have succumbed to Ike.

"I'm worried about everybody who is still unaccounted for," she said. "We may never find some of them."

---
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IKE_THE_MISSING?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
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« Reply #130 on: September 24, 2008, 09:01:43 AM »

Hi everyone!   

I just wanted to say that all of your concern for the people impacted by Ike and your help with Tim & TES needs have really brought a tear to my eye!   It is heartwarming to know that people care...the Monkeys have proven time & time again how big their hearts are!

It has been so overwhelming catching up with the destruction Ike has caused along the Texas Gulf Coast.  Our power & internet has just been restored...after almost 2 weeks!    The pictures of the Bolivar Peninsula are just desvastating....we lost our home (summer vacation home) there in Gilchrist and our business in Crystal Beach.  We have not been able to enter into the area yet...but have pored over the pics trying to find our property...and as far as we can tell...it is all gone.

Many of the people listed as missing from that area are people we know.  One in particular, is heart wrenching to us.   A close friend who lived full time in Gilchrist...just around the corner from our house has not been heard from since the day before the storm was to hit.  Her last words implied that she could not leave due to the Rollover Pass bridge washed out and the ferry to Galveston had stopped operating the night before......the only 2 ways out of Bolivar.   Knowing Gail as I do, I am sure her love for Reba, her Great Dane, is the reason she did not evacuate.  Many storms prior she would not leave Reba behind & stayed to ride the storms out.   We tried so hard to get her to leave...to bring Reba to stay with us in Houston...but  not knowing the enormousity of Ike...we were a little too late in reaching her.   It just breaks my heart to know that they both may have been washed out to sea.  I still hold out hope that she will be found safe somewhere...along with Reba...but as the days pass...my hopes are diminishing. 

Please include Gail & Reba in your prayers...and all the people who have lost their lives, homes & loved ones in this devastating storm.  I am afraid the aftermath will affect many of us along the Texas Gulf Coast for years to come.

Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for expressing the biggest hearts I have ever seen!
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MumInOhio
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« Reply #131 on: September 24, 2008, 10:34:51 AM »

Hi everyone!   

I just wanted to say that all of your concern for the people impacted by Ike and your help with Tim & TES needs have really brought a tear to my eye!   It is heartwarming to know that people care...the Monkeys have proven time & time again how big their hearts are!

It has been so overwhelming catching up with the destruction Ike has caused along the Texas Gulf Coast.  Our power & internet has just been restored...after almost 2 weeks!    The pictures of the Bolivar Peninsula are just desvastating....we lost our home (summer vacation home) there in Gilchrist and our business in Crystal Beach.  We have not been able to enter into the area yet...but have pored over the pics trying to find our property...and as far as we can tell...it is all gone.

Many of the people listed as missing from that area are people we know.  One in particular, is heart wrenching to us.   A close friend who lived full time in Gilchrist...just around the corner from our house has not been heard from since the day before the storm was to hit.  Her last words implied that she could not leave due to the Rollover Pass bridge washed out and the ferry to Galveston had stopped operating the night before......the only 2 ways out of Bolivar.   Knowing Gail as I do, I am sure her love for Reba, her Great Dane, is the reason she did not evacuate.  Many storms prior she would not leave Reba behind & stayed to ride the storms out.   We tried so hard to get her to leave...to bring Reba to stay with us in Houston...but  not knowing the enormousity of Ike...we were a little too late in reaching her.   It just breaks my heart to know that they both may have been washed out to sea.  I still hold out hope that she will be found safe somewhere...along with Reba...but as the days pass...my hopes are diminishing. 

Please include Gail & Reba in your prayers...and all the people who have lost their lives, homes & loved ones in this devastating storm.  I am afraid the aftermath will affect many of us along the Texas Gulf Coast for years to come.

Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for expressing the biggest hearts I have ever seen!


Beachwego...Thanks for sharing your heartwrenching experience with us. My thoughts and Prayers are with those still missing, especially your friend Gail and her dear Reba, and with you and your family as you try to put things back together again.
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beachwego
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« Reply #132 on: September 24, 2008, 10:49:31 AM »

Thank you so much, Mum!!   It was so kind of you to reply..and..to include Gail & Reba in your prayers...my heartfelt appreciation!!
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Sharon/Tx
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« Reply #133 on: September 30, 2008, 05:25:48 PM »

Hi everyone!   

I just wanted to say that all of your concern for the people impacted by Ike and your help with Tim & TES needs have really brought a tear to my eye!   It is heartwarming to know that people care...the Monkeys have proven time & time again how big their hearts are!

It has been so overwhelming catching up with the destruction Ike has caused along the Texas Gulf Coast.  Our power & internet has just been restored...after almost 2 weeks!    The pictures of the Bolivar Peninsula are just desvastating....we lost our home (summer vacation home) there in Gilchrist and our business in Crystal Beach.  We have not been able to enter into the area yet...but have pored over the pics trying to find our property...and as far as we can tell...it is all gone.

Many of the people listed as missing from that area are people we know.  One in particular, is heart wrenching to us.   A close friend who lived full time in Gilchrist...just around the corner from our house has not been heard from since the day before the storm was to hit.  Her last words implied that she could not leave due to the Rollover Pass bridge washed out and the ferry to Galveston had stopped operating the night before......the only 2 ways out of Bolivar.   Knowing Gail as I do, I am sure her love for Reba, her Great Dane, is the reason she did not evacuate.  Many storms prior she would not leave Reba behind & stayed to ride the storms out.   We tried so hard to get her to leave...to bring Reba to stay with us in Houston...but  not knowing the enormousity of Ike...we were a little too late in reaching her.   It just breaks my heart to know that they both may have been washed out to sea.  I still hold out hope that she will be found safe somewhere...along with Reba...but as the days pass...my hopes are diminishing. 

Please include Gail & Reba in your prayers...and all the people who have lost their lives, homes & loved ones in this devastating storm.  I am afraid the aftermath will affect many of us along the Texas Gulf Coast for years to come.

Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for expressing the biggest hearts I have ever seen!

Hiya Beachwego,
     I just now read this thread and wondered how you are doing?  I am so sorry about your friend.  Our friend's front row house on Boliver is gone.  I love Crystal Beach and the people there.  I still cannot believe Ike.  God bless poor Gail and her dog.
   
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« Reply #134 on: September 30, 2008, 07:23:43 PM »

Hi everyone!   

I just wanted to say that all of your concern for the people impacted by Ike and your help with Tim & TES needs have really brought a tear to my eye!   It is heartwarming to know that people care...the Monkeys have proven time & time again how big their hearts are!

It has been so overwhelming catching up with the destruction Ike has caused along the Texas Gulf Coast.  Our power & internet has just been restored...after almost 2 weeks!    The pictures of the Bolivar Peninsula are just desvastating....we lost our home (summer vacation home) there in Gilchrist and our business in Crystal Beach.  We have not been able to enter into the area yet...but have pored over the pics trying to find our property...and as far as we can tell...it is all gone.

Many of the people listed as missing from that area are people we know.  One in particular, is heart wrenching to us.   A close friend who lived full time in Gilchrist...just around the corner from our house has not been heard from since the day before the storm was to hit.  Her last words implied that she could not leave due to the Rollover Pass bridge washed out and the ferry to Galveston had stopped operating the night before......the only 2 ways out of Bolivar.   Knowing Gail as I do, I am sure her love for Reba, her Great Dane, is the reason she did not evacuate.  Many storms prior she would not leave Reba behind & stayed to ride the storms out.   We tried so hard to get her to leave...to bring Reba to stay with us in Houston...but  not knowing the enormousity of Ike...we were a little too late in reaching her.   It just breaks my heart to know that they both may have been washed out to sea.  I still hold out hope that she will be found safe somewhere...along with Reba...but as the days pass...my hopes are diminishing. 

Please include Gail & Reba in your prayers...and all the people who have lost their lives, homes & loved ones in this devastating storm.  I am afraid the aftermath will affect many of us along the Texas Gulf Coast for years to come.

Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for expressing the biggest hearts I have ever seen!


Beach.... glad to hear that you are okay.... sorry for the loss of your properties...

I am especially sorry for the loss of Gail and Reba... they will remain in my prayers.....
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« Reply #135 on: October 02, 2008, 01:12:41 PM »

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/02/ike.missing/index.html

300 people still missing since Ike hit Texas
By Mallory Simon
CNN

(CNN) -- Alligators loom over submerged cars. Mountains of debris are embedded in the ground. Cows, trucks and the remnants of homes are sunk into the ocean. And unverified sightings of missing loved ones are still making the rounds.

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 is the first organized search for bodies, to be held Thursday on the battered Bolivar Peninsular, 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. Watch Galveston residents return home »

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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MuffyBee
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« Reply #136 on: October 03, 2008, 08:13:35 PM »


Ike's missing

People reporting missing after Hurricane Ike, from a database by the Laura Recovery Center.

http://www.chron.com/databases/ikemissing.html

I also posted this in the Missing Thread:





http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=3601.0
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beachwego
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« Reply #137 on: October 05, 2008, 08:51:08 PM »

Thank you all for your kind words...our loss was huge in one sense...it was our summer home that held so many happy fun memories of our years with our children growing up....but it is really so minimal with the realization of how many are still missing..and..must be presumed deceased & all the others who have lost their way of life with primary homes & business swept away.

I do want to follow up with Gail & her dog Reba....Gail has been found...many of you may have read about it in the news...as she was the first to be found & identified of all those that are still missing.  As of now, Reba has not been found...and probably never will be...but I will choose to believe they are together...for I know how dearly Gail loved Reba.
Just to show the power of nature, Gail was found 10 miles inland on one of many many piles of debris carried by the storm surge from Bolivar Peninsula.

I would like to include the email I received after I learned of Gail's passing and my inquiry regarding Reba, her Great Dane.  I think it is important to remember that each who lost their lives in this storm or is still missing is a person with a story..with friends & family who loved them...not just a number...not just a body....not stupid as I see so many saying so with such contempt for those who did not evacuate.  Unless anyone is familiar with the Bolivar Peninsula, they have no idea how these people were trapped...so many were swept away in their cars while trying to leave...at least 12 hours prior to the deadline given to them by county officials to be out...others did make the decision to not leave...as our friend, Gail, made for reasons that we may not understand ... but to them were valid.


I am sorry for your loss of a good friend and neighbor.
 
My name is Jackie xxxxx and I lived in Nature's Best on the corner of Hwy 87 and Yacht Basin Road.
 
We haven't found anything of Reba, except two dog collars.....one was black, that I found near where her house stood before, and the other JoAnn found at the end of her road, near where Gail's jeep was found crushed.  That one was Reba's favorite, the pink with her name in rhinestones.  It was just laying in the road, flat.(We speculate that it was in Gail's car, but don't know for sure.)
 
Gail is gone, and I believe Reba is as well.  Reba had become so old that she was having many physical problems....urinary and her bone structure now showing signs of leg turning out....Gail told me on Thursday, that Reba could no longer jump into the jeep......we discussed steps, even a flat board on an angle to get her into the back seat....but Gail said she couldn't get her in.....
 
I believe that Gail also chose to not put Reba thru anymore stress, I pleaded with her to get out and not put herself and Reba what they went through with hurricane Rita.  I told her the stress of it would probably kill Reba, but she still didn't budge on leaving....her most common phrase, "me and Baby girl  will be fine.....I have never had water in my house before, it's on the highest piece of ground around here!"
 
All of us, friends.... pleaded with her to leave and even her most significant other, Neil, also couldn't get her to leave.  Gail made her choice to stay, but Friday night on the last phone call, she admitted that she screwed up this time.  Water was already inside her house....she told of things floating by, and even said her jeep was floating...........
 
After going down last weekend and seeing where her house stood, words cannot express how much devastation exists.  The Morrison's new renovation to their house withstood IKE, but it has damage....JoAnn and Monroe begged Gail to go there, because it was so high off the ground. (Gail said she just couldnt break into a neighbors home & did not feel Reba could manage it...if she had done so..she would have survived)  One of her neighbor's, Rob, who works for the FBI, flew in by helicopter on Monday, after the storm.  He said that there was nothing.........and found no signs of Gail.  We knew in our hearts that it wasn't going to be good.  I am very thankful that they found her body, but more amazed that she was the first one identified....but JoAnn had been in constant contact with the Harris county, Chambers county, and any police in the area....telling them we knew the last time on Friday night she was spoken to and how scared she was about how bad it had become.
 
We will be having a memorial for Gail, because her two children are in so much distress, I can't say for sure how soon.  Gail's daughter, Amy, is supposed to fly in on Monday....and do something with Gail's body.......just not sure what.
 
I will notify you when something has been determined...............thank you for writing,
my phone number is xxxxxxx or work xxxxxxx.
 
God bless................Jackie
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« Reply #138 on: October 05, 2008, 09:37:18 PM »

Beachwego ~  I read your post with tears in my eyes.  Thank you for sharing with us and please let us know when you find out anything more.  I read earlier today the cadaver dogs hit on 5 locations in Galveston, which lead them to believe there are victims buried under debris/rubble.    I don't know how many more could be washed out to sea.  Very, very sad. 
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