HURRICANE SEASON 2008

[Bianca]

Avoiding Chaos



Gene Hafele, director of the Houston-Galveston National Weather Service office, said about 500,000 people in and around Galveston were in a mandatory evacuation zone, and only about 300,000 left.

Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, estimated there were about 140,000 people in the smaller, "certain death" zone. About 70 percent of those residents evacuated. That left nearly 40,000 people to contend with the worst of the storm surge.

There is "no one answer" why so many Texas residents ignored the evacuation order, Read said.

Some probably refused to leave because they'd been caught in the chaotic evacuation for Hurricane Rita in 2005, he said.

During that event, roads out of Houston became gridlocked. Officials later estimated that about 90 people died during the 2005 evacuation because of heatstroke, dehydration, and other causes.

Read also said that some of those who refused to leave during Hurricane Ike stayed because they have an intense anti-government attitude. "They think, No one tells me what to do," Read said.

The National Weather Service's Hafele said officials decided to issue the "certain death" evacuation warning because the storm surge from Hurricane Ike would be unlike anything seen on the Texas coast since an unnamed hurricane in 1915.

"People who were living in the storm surge zone had never experienced a surge like this and had no way of knowing how severe this could be," Hafele said.

Hafele said he was puzzled by why some residents of Bolivar Peninsula—a low-lying, more rural community just north of Galveston—defied the evacuation order.

The peninsula took the worst of Ike's storm surge, and dozens of homes and other buildings there simply disappeared after the hurricane (photo: the peninsula before and after Hurricane Ike).

 

"The people who live on Bolivar understand their vulnerability," Hafele said. "Some have lived out there an unusually long time, and they've experienced a lot of storms.

Why some of those people decided not to leave really is beyond me."

[Bianca]

False Sense of Security



Jay Baker, a professor of geography at Florida State University in Gainesville, has studied how people respond to hurricane warnings.

The main reason people don't comply with evacuation orders is because they think they will be safe despite the warning to leave, Baker said.

"They think the storm will miss them, or they think they will be safe in their homes even if the storm does hit," Baker said.

There's also the fact that evacuating can be an expensive and very difficult task, and that can prompt people to decide not to leave, Baker said.

In addition, the National Hurricane Center's Read added, live news reports from the ground in Galveston may have given some viewers a false sense of security. "Viewers think, It's OK for the cameraman to stay there, why not me?"

Florida State's Baker said, "I'm not convinced that there's any kind of deep-seated psychological reason. People just make poor judgments. They don't know how bad it can get if they stay."

Billy Wagner is the chief emergency management specialist for Early Alert, a private hurricane warning and emergency management consulting service based in Tampa, Florida.

The availability of so much hurricane information on the Internet may be another reason why some people decide to ignore evacuation orders, Wagner said.

Amateur forecasters don't have the skill and training to evaluate hurricane data and make sound decisions about whether they should evacuate, he added.

The National Hurricane Center, on the other hand, has the "overall picture" of the approaching storm and also is communicating with local officials about whether to issue evacuation orders, he said.

"They need to listen to public officials," Wagner said. "I'm always concerned that too many people think they're tropical meteorologists now and are second-guessing what's taking place."

Read, the National Hurricane Center director, said forecasters will be taking a "cold, hard" look after the hurricane season at hurricane warnings and how people responded to them. The review could prompt changes in how the center issues warnings, he said.



Willie Drye is author of Storm of the Century: the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, published by National Geographic Books.



http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080926-hurricane-ike-evacuation.html?source=rss

[Bianca]

                                   Hurricane Kyle forms in open ocean, Maine on watch






13 minutes ago
Sept. 27, 2008
 
MIAMI - National Hurricane Center forecasters say Hurricane Kyle has formed in the Atlantic Ocean and it's expected to pass near eastern New England.
 
Kyle had top sustained winds near 75 mph Saturday afternoon. The storm is moving north in the open Atlantic at 23 mph and could make landfall anywhere from Maine to Nova Scotia.

A hurricane watch is in effect for the Maine coast from Stonington north to Eastport. Hurricane conditions are possible in that area within 36 hours.

A tropical storm warning is in effect from Port Clyde south to Cape Elizabeth, an area that includes Portland.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the storm's center was located about 315 miles west-northwest of Bermuda.



THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

[Bianca]

EASTPORT,
Maine
(AP)
Sept. 27, 2008

— A rare hurricane watch was posted for part of the Maine coast on Saturday as Tropical Storm Kyle roared north toward the region with a threat of conditions similar to one of New England's nor'easter storms.

"Hurricane season isn't over, " said Maine Emergency Management Agency director Rob McAleer. "It's been a very active season."

It was Maine's first hurricane watch in 17 years, the National Weather Service said. Elsewhere in New England, a hurricane warning was posted for Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts in September 1996, according to the weather service office in Taunton, Mass.

Two to 4 inches of rain had already fallen along some coastal areas by midday Saturday and the storm was expected to deliver an additional 2 to 4 inches, said Eric Schwibs of the weather service in Gray.

At 2 p.m. EDT, Kyle was centered about 300 miles west-northwest of Bermuda and 550 miles south of Nantucket, the National Hurricane Center said in Miami.

The storm had top sustained wind near 70 mph and the potential to grow to hurricane strength. It was moving north over the open Atlantic at 20 mph, up from 15 mph during the morning.

Kyle's center was forecast to be near eastern New England or the Canadian Maritime provinces late Sunday, the hurricane center said.

The hurricane center posted a hurricane watch from Stonington, at roughly the center of the Maine coast, to Eastport, on the border with New Brunswick, Canada. A tropical storm watch extended south to Cape Elizabeth, near Portland.

Kyle could make landfall near Eastport, possibly late Sunday, the hurricane center said.

That would put the storm's strongest wind in New Brunswick, rather than in Maine, which would get conditions more akin to "a garden variety nor'easter," said Schwibs.

The government of Canada issued a tropical storm watch for southwestern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the hurricane center said.

The weather service also issued flood watches for the southern two-thirds of New Hampshire and southern Maine through Sunday evening.

McAleer said the storm's biggest threat in Maine would be the potential for high waves and small stream flooding.

"We urge everyone to pay close attention to weather warnings, and stay away from any flooded roadways, or fast-running streams," McAleer said.

The Coast Guard prepared crews and equipment for the storm and urged boat owners to secure their vessels in anticipation of high wind and seas that could run 10 to 20 feet high off shore.

Eastern Maine's power company, Bangor Hydro-Electric, said it prepared for potential outages and planned to have additional crews on duty.

[Bianca]

                                         Hurricane Kyle forms off U.S. east coast





7 minutes ago
Sept. 27, 2008

MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Kyle strengthened into a hurricane off the east coast of the United States on Saturday as it swirled on a path toward landfall between Maine and Canada's Maritime provinces, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
 
Kyle, which developed as a tropical storm on Thursday, had sustained winds near 75 mph and was forecast to be centered near eastern New England and Canada's maritimes late on Sunday.

Kyle was a minimal Category 1 hurricane on the five-step hurricane intensity scale.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Kyle was located about 485 miles south of the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts and moving north at 23 mph, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

The hurricane was spawned by the 11th named storm of an already busy and destructive Atlantic hurricane season.

Forecasters have predicted the six-month season, which runs through November 30, could produce up to 18 cyclones and the warm sea temperatures, low wind shear and other factors that contribute to the formation of hurricanes are still in place.



(Reporting by Tom Brown,
Editing by Chris Wilson)

[Bianca]

                                   Hurricane Kyle takes aim at New England, Canada






Sun Sep 28, 2008
 
MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Kyle strengthened into a hurricane off the United States on Saturday as it took aim at New England and Canada's Maritime provinces, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Kyle, which developed as a tropical storm on Thursday, had top sustained winds near 75 mph and was forecast to make landfall near the Maine-New Brunswick border early on Monday.

Kyle was a minimal Category 1 hurricane on the five-step hurricane intensity scale. In its 11 p.m. advisory, the hurricane center said there might be slight weakening in Kyle before it hits the coast.

Kyle was 355 miles south of the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and moving north at 23 mph.

The hurricane -- spawned by the 11th named storm of a busy and destructive Atlantic hurricane season -- was forecast to dump as much as 6 inches of rain over parts of New England, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island through Monday. It was also likely to cause large and dangerous surf in some areas.

Forecasters have predicted the six-month hurricane season, which runs through November 30, could produce up to 18 cyclones. The warm sea temperatures and other factors that contribute to the formation of hurricanes are still in place.

The disturbed weather system from which Kyle developed drenched Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Caribbean island of Hispaniola before it moved north into the Atlantic.

Authorities in Puerto Rico, a U.S. island territory, said at least four people were killed and scores of homes were flooded.

Kyle was the first tropical storm to form in the Atlantic-Caribbean region since Tropical Storm Josephine on September 2.



(Reporting by Tom Brown; Editing by Vicki Allen)

[Bianca]

                                   Maine preps as hurricane races toward Nova Scotia






Sept. 28, 2008

EASTPORT, Maine - Heavy rain drenched Maine on Sunday and fishermen moved boats to shelter as Hurricane Kyle plowed northward across the Atlantic, triggering the state's first hurricane watch in 17 years.

Kyle could make landfall in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick sometime during the night or early Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A hurricane watch was posted along the coast of Maine from Stonington, at the mouth of Penobscot Bay, to Eastport on the Canadian border, and for southwestern Nova Scotia, the center said. Tropical storm warnings were in effect from Stonington to the coasts of southern New Brunswick and southwest Nova Scotia.

There were no immediate plans for evacuations in Maine.

Near the Canadian border, residents along the rugged coast are accustomed to rough weather, but that usually comes in snowstorms rather than tropical systems, said Washington County Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Hineman.

"Down East we get storms with 50 to 60 mph winds every winter. Those storms can become ferocious," he said. Down East is the rugged, sparsely populated area from about Bar Harbor to the Canadian border.

Many lobstermen moved their boats to sheltered coves, said Dwight Carver, a lobsterman on Beals Island. Some also moved lobster traps from shallow water, but most were caught off-guard by the storm's short notice.

"I'm sure we'll have a lot of snarls, a lot of mess, to take care of when it's done," Carver said. "It'll take us a few days to straighten things out."

In Lubec, the easternmost town in the U.S., town workers pulled up docks on the waterfront and fishermen moved boats across the harbor into Campobello Island, New Brunswick, which has coves and wharves that offer shelter.

"We're getting prepared," said Lubec Town Administrator Maureen Glidden.

Heavy rain lashed the state Sunday for a third straight day. As much as 5.5 inches had already fallen along coastal areas. Flood watches were in effect for the southern two-thirds of New Hampshire and southern Maine through Sunday evening.

Authorities expect wind gusts in Maine to reach up to 60 mph and waves up to 20 feet, said Robert McAleer, Maine Emergency Management Agency director.

Residents of coastal islands were advised to evacuate if they depend on electricity for medical reasons, because ferry service was expected to be shut down Sunday, McAleer said. Power failures also were likely over the north coastal region of the state, he said.

At 11 a.m. EDT Sunday, Kyle was centered about 140 miles east-southeast of Nantucket, or about 355 miles southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the National Hurricane Center said. It was moving toward the north-northeast at roughly 24 mph and expected to continue that track for the next day or so.

Kyle's maximum sustained wind was blowing at nearly 80 mph, with hurricane-force wind of at least 74 mph extending up to 70 miles out from the center.

However, it was expected to weaken as it moved over colder water and was expected to lose tropical characteristics on Monday, the hurricane center said.

Maine hasn't had a hurricane, or even a hurricane watch, since Bob was downgraded as it moved into the state in 1991 after causing problems in southern New England.

The deadliest storm to hit the region was in 1938 when a hurricane killed 700 people and destroyed 63,000 homes on New York's Long Island and throughout New England. Other hurricanes that have hit Maine were Carol and Edna in 1954, Donna in 1960 and Gloria in 1985.

A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions, with wind of at least 74 mph, are possible within 36 hours. A tropical storm warning means conditions for that type of storm, with wind of 39 to 73 mph, are expected within the next 24 hours.

___





On the Net:



Nat'l Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Environment Canada: http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/

[Bianca]

                                   A rare hurricane spins past Maine and hits Canada






By DAVID SHARP,
Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 31 minutes ago
Sept. 29, 2008
 
MACHIAS, Maine - It threatened to be the first hurricane in 17 years to make landfall in Maine. Instead, Kyle delivered little more than a glancing blow equivalent to that of a classic nor'easter.
 
Heavy rain pounded the nation's northeastern tip Sunday night as residents accustomed to winter blizzards hunkered down while the weakening storm moved through the Gulf of Maine and into the Canadian Maritimes.

Maine emergency responders braced for wind gusts as high as 60 mph and waves up to 20 feet, but the Category 1 hurricane took a turn to the east, weakening to a tropical storm as it made landfall in Nova Scotia and pressed northeastward toward New Brunswick.

In Maine, where residents are accustomed to nor'easters, the storm didn't impress.

"This was a run-of-the-mill storm. It had the potential to be a real problem and it all sort of went away. That shift to the east did wonders for Maine," said Michael Hinerman, director of the Washington County Emergency Management Agency.

A hurricane watch had been posted for Maine before it became clear that the state would be spared. A tropical storm warning was lifted late that night.

In Canada, the storm arrived on the eve of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Juan, a Category 2 storm that killed two people and caused an estimated $100 million in damage. Canadian officials said Kyle's impact would not be as severe.

In Maine, as much as 7 inches of rain fell in three days along some coastal areas. Flood watches were lifted Sunday in southern Maine and New Hampshire as the rain let up, but remained in effect in eastern Maine.

Down East residents are accustomed to rough weather, but it most often comes in the winter when nor'easters howl along the coast. Maine hasn't had anything like a hurricane since Bob was downgraded as it moved into the state in 1991 after causing problems in southern New England.

Jesse Davis of Marshfield described the storm as being similar to a nor'easter "except we don't have to deal with the snow." He rode out the storm with his family at home after gassing up his vehicles and generator, taking in his deck furniture and filling up water jugs — just in case.

Taking no chances, many lobstermen moved their boats to sheltered coves, said Dwight Carver, a lobsterman on Beals Island. Some also moved lobster traps from shallow water.

"I'm sure we'll have a lot of snarls, a lot of mess, to take care of when it's done," Carver said. "It'll take us a few days to straighten things out."

In Lubec, the easternmost town in the U.S., town workers pulled up docks and fishermen moved boats across the harbor into Campobello Island, New Brunswick, which has coves and wharves that offer shelter.

On Monday, the storm was expected to continue to make its way across New Brunswick. In its final report late Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said the storm was weakening, with maximum sustained winds of nearly 70 mph, as it approached Saint John, New Brunswick.

Nova Scotia Power was reporting 12,000 outages in communities along the south shore, while New Brunswick Power said about 680 customers lost power in the Sussex area.

The preparations in Canada come exactly five years after hurricane Juan tore through the region as a powerful category 2 force storm, causing millions in damages to homes, boats and parks that lost thousands of trees. Juan killed two people and caused an estimated $100 million in damages.

"Its going to be pretty bad around here," Donnie Ross said as he hurried across the bow of his fishing vessel in Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. "We have a lot of boats that are worth a lot of money and if any of them let go it will smash the rest of them up."

Emergency officials in New Brunswick were concerned that people living inland were not taking the storm warnings seriously enough. "They need to understand there's going to be a whole bunch of impact and it could be a few days before phones and power is restored," said spokesman Ernie MacGillvray.

The deadliest storm to hit the Northeast was in 1938 when a hurricane killed 700 people and destroyed 63,000 homes on New York's Long Island and throughout New England. Other hurricanes that have hit Maine were Carol and Edna in 1954, Donna in 1960 and Gloria in 1985.

___

Associated Press writers Clarke Canfield and Jerry Harkavy in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.

[Bianca]

                                 Kyle batters Nova Scotia, loses hurricane strength






NEW: Storm loses tropical characteristics after battering Nova Scotia

NEW: Kyle's remnants expected to pass over New Brunswick

Kyle drenches eastern Maine, causing some road flooding



Sept. 29, 2008

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Hurricane Kyle battered the shores of Canadian province Nova Scotia on Sunday evening before weakening and losing tropical characteristics, forecasters said.


Kyle, which formed Thursday east of the Bahamas, is shown here on Sunday afternoon.

 Though Kyle was no longer considered a tropical cyclone by 11 p.m. AT, it still was producing maximum sustained winds near 70 mph (112 kph) -- at tropical-storm strength, the National Hurricane Center said.

Its center at 11 p.m. AT was about 60 miles (96 kilometers) south of Saint John, New Brunswick, moving north. Kyle's remnants were expected to pass over New Brunswick overnight, the hurricane center said.

Three hours earlier, Kyle was a Category 1 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), just off Nova Scotia's western tip.

Kyle's center spared Maine, but with tropical-storm force winds of more than 39 mph (62 kph) extending across the Bay of Fundy, part of the state was under a tropical storm warning in the evening. That warning expired at 11 p.m. AT.

Maine's coast was hit by heavy rain for the third straight day, causing some road flooding, according to The Associated Press.

Kyle at one time was forecast to hit Maine more forcefully.

"This was a run-of-the-mill storm. It had the potential to be a real problem and it all sort of went away. That shift to the east did wonders for Maine," Michael Hinerman, director of the Washington County Emergency Management Agency, told the AP.

The storm formed Thursday east of the Bahamas.  Watch Kyle's waves batter boats »

The storm could dump up to 4 inches of rain in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and extreme eastern Maine, with isolated amounts of up to 6 inches possible in some places through Monday morning, the hurricane center said.

[Tina Walter]

Hi Bianca,

I don't know what the east coast would do if a hurricane ever hit it. Places like New York and New England haven't had one in years, there was a really bad one in 1938 that really did some damage to New England.

I guess that the hurricane season does last till November, but it seems that the worst of it always hits in that time at the end of August to the beginning of September! That's when the worst ones struck that I have seen.  Anyway, take care, and Cleasterwood, too.

[Bianca]

Hi, Tina!!!


I believe the last big one on the East Coast was AGNES, in 1972, if I remember correctly.

My ex almost drowned coming home to Annapolis from Baltimore on the B&W Parkway.
It caught me with my little ones in the backseat of the car inside the Baltimore tunnel.

Very scary!!!

Yet, I don't think places like New York and New England would fare as bad as us in the South.
Most of their houses are built to withstand winter weather, where ours can be pretty flimsy by
comparison.  Plus, most houses in the North have basements, we can't have basements because
of the water level.  So, at least they are well anchored.


Well, here's hoping we've seen the worst of it, at least this particular season.....

[Bianca]

                                         Laura weakens, new depression forms





2 hours, 47 minutes ago
Oct. 1, 2008
Yahoo News
 
MIAMI - The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Laura is weakening over the cold waters of the north Atlantic.
 
Meanwhile, a new tropical depression has formed in the Pacific.

Laura's maximum sustained winds had dropped to near 45 mph early Wednesday. Laura was centered about 295 miles east-southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, at 5 a.m. EDT and moving north-northeast near 16 mph.

The new tropical depression in the Pacific has maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and could become a tropical storm later Wednesday or on Thursday. The depression is centered about 590 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico, and moving west-northwest near 9 mph.

[Caitlin Cone-Hoskins]

Did you see this, Bianca?

Two weeks after Ike, more than 400 are still missing

By LISE OLSEN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 28, 2008, 1:40AM

Gail Ettenger made her last phone call at 10:10 p.m. She was trapped in her Bolivar Peninsula bungalow with her Great Dane, Reba. A drowning cat cried outside. Her Jeep bobbed in the seawater surging around her home.

Ettenger, 58, told her friend she was reading old love letters by flashlight. "I think I really screwed up this time," she said, according to Monroe Burks, Ettenger's neighbor who had evacuated to Houston.

That was Friday, Sept 12. On Wednesday — 12 days later — her nearly **** body was found face down by a huge debris pile in a remote mosquito-ridden marsh in Chambers County, about 10 miles inland from where her gray beach house once stood.

Two weeks after Hurricane Ike swept through the Texas coast, 400 people remain missing, mostly from Galveston County, according to an analysis of calls logged to a hot line set up by the nonprofit Laura Recovery Center to assist local authorities.

Until Wednesday, Ettenger was one of them.

About 60 of the missing lived on the Bolivar Peninsula, stripped bare by the storm surge that felled beach houses like a bomb. More than 200 were listed as missing on Galveston Island itself, according to a city-by-city analysis of the data conducted for the Houston Chronicle by Bob Walcutt, executive director of the recovery center in Friendswood.

Hot line and rescue workers hope that many people, especially on Galveston Island, will be reunited with family and friends as hurricane recovery efforts continue. More than 145 already have been located through blogs, media Web sites, Red Cross shelter lists, endless phone calls, welfare checks and sometimes dramatic rescues led by the Galveston County Sheriff's Office and other agencies.

Yet disturbing tales told by survivors from Bolivar communities like Gilchrist, Crystal Beach and Port Bolivar suggest some may never return.

"There's still lots of people who are not accounted for," said Capt. Rod Ousley, of the State Parks & Wildlife Service, which is helping to search for survivors or bodies in remote corners of several coastal counties. "We don't know if they got washed out to sea, or buried in the sand or in debris piles. We just keep looking until they come up ... we're just going to keep trying."


Too late for rescue
Still missing is the grandmother of 16-year-old Jerrith Baird. Baird told the Chronicle that Jennifer Mclemore, 58, refused to abandon her beach house in the village of Gilchrist, despite his pleas that she retreat to High Island, where he lives. Mclemore believed her home, battered and rebuilt after Hurricane Rita, could survive a Category 2 storm.

When the first waves of seawater started to flood Gilchrist early on Sept. 12, Baird called the Coast Guard, begging for her rescue. "They said they were doing the best they could," he said. "But by the time they got around to it, the wind was too high. They couldn't fly."

Flights were suspended after about 100 people were rescued from the peninsula, leaving at least 150 still stranded, according to a Sept. 13 Coast Guard press release.

Mclemore holed up at home with her pit bull Hoodoo. At 8 p.m., her cell phone went dead, her worried grandson on the other end.

The next morning, Baird set out to find her the only way he could: he kayaked with a friend about eight miles through the marshes and debris along the ravaged coastline.

"There's really nothing left of Gilchrist. We were kayaking over our friends' cars that were out there that got washed away. It wasn't fun. I was just in total shock," he said.

Hours later, Baird reached the spot where his grandmother's house had stood. Nothing remained except a few snapped pilings, he said.

The search for survivors is an arduous one, stymied by the size and scope of the storm, which propelled wrecked boats as far south as Padre Island.

A handful of volunteer fire department members have led the search on the peninsula itself. Meanwhile, dozens of sheriff's deputies, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Texas State Parks & Wildlife Department wardens are patrolling vast marshlands and other remote areas, including roadless sections of Chambers County where storm debris fields stretch for miles.

Airboats, four-wheelers, search dogs and helicopters are being used to scour areas where the water and wind blew cars, homes and animals, creating seemingly insurmountable piles of wreckage and waste.

"Some of these debris piles are real, real tall and real real wild areas with nothing but boards and nails and snakes and alligators and mosquitoes," Ousley said. "This is some of the hardest recovery efforts we've ever faced with the storm surge and what all it moved and the debris that moved with it."


Washed off road?
Searchers confirm they've also spotted countless cars in the floodwaters and marshes. It's impossible to tell which were once occupied, though so far no bodies have been reported recovered from vehicles sticking out above water. Submerged vehicles are not being searched.

Raul "Roy" Arrambide last heard from his mother, sister and nephew as the three prepared to evacuate by car from Port Bolivar.

Just after 6 a.m. Sept. 12, his sister, Magdalena Strickland, 51, called from the house to say they were leaving. The family's 2000 white Ford Taurus and 1993 maroon Ford pickup were loaded and idling in the driveway. It was a quick call, since Strickland was eager to go.

His mother, Marion Violet Arrambide, 79, along with Strickland and Arrambide's nephew, Shane Williams, 33, had planned to evacuate to Arrambide's house near Dallas. They had two vehicles but no cell phone. They never arrived.

Roy Arrambide fears they were washed off the road.

After the storm, he hired an airboat to visit the area, where he saw dozens of submerged cars in the floodwaters and marshes along the peninsula's lone low-lying highway. But neither he nor anyone else has found his relatives or their vehicles. The house they left behind was damaged but intact.

Eight people, mostly from the Crystal Beach Volunteer Fire Department, have formed the core of continuing search efforts on the peninsula, though the members of Texas Task Force 2 came to conduct rescues, house-to-house reviews and provide other assistance.

"We have not gotten enough help, we're worn out," said Shawn Hall, a member of the High Island Volunteer Fire Department who said he joined the VFD search team for 12 days straight. "We have not had the resources to do the proper searches that need to done." He said they have relied on airboats provided by out-of-state volunteers.

So far, Galveston County Sheriff's Office officials, busy with searches themselves, have not allowed volunteers from Texas' EquuSearch, a nonprofit that specializes in searches, to respond to requests from families of 18 missing people on the peninsula, according to Tim Miller, its executive director.

Also unaccounted for are several transient beach residents who lived in travel trailers on the waterfront in places like Rollover Pass and San Leon.


'She needed to count'
Relatives and friends of the missing said they will keep pushing authorities to expand searches and to establish reliable and complete lists of missing persons.

"I didn't want the same thing in Galveston as in New Orleans, where they had all these unclaimed people after Hurricane Katrina," said JoAnnBurks, who was Gail Ettenger's neighbor and close friend. "I didn't want that for Gail. She needed to count."

Ettenger, a contract chemist who worked for ExxonMobil in Beaumont, loved living at the beach. She rose before dawn each day to walk with Reba, an aging black and white spotted Great Dane who looked like a Holstein calf.

Outside, Ettenger grew towering birds of paradise. Inside, she filled her bungalow with mementos: a wolfskin from New Mexico, a collection of nautical antiques and endless snapshots of Reba and beach sunsets.

All is lost now. Even Reba.

lise.olsen@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hurricane/ike/6027458.html

[Caitlin Cone-Hoskins]

It looks like the death toll from Ike is wasy higher than they say it is.  As usual, the Bush Administration is keeping secrets!

[Bianca]

Hi, Caitlin,

Thanks for the update!

As a matter of fact, this is the first time I have seen even an approximate death toll caused
by Hurricane Ike - in Texas.   I have been wondering what the total was but, frankly, I really
did not want to know - Ike was monstrously huge.......

I am not surprised it took the Repug governor of Texas, and shrub's protege', such a long time
to release a number.....

On another note, Caitlin - after almost 20 years in Florida - I have learned that when the authorities
say EVACUATE!!!, it is best to EVACUATE.....

A lot of people's deaths are usually unnecessary.



Haiti and the Islands is another story altogether.