The Proof Is In The Pictures...

Remember my cartwheel incident on the beach in Galveston? Well, oddly enough, my Galveston girlfriend did get some pictures of my folly. I'm sure I should be embarrassed by them, but at my age it's just hard to be embarrassed about anything. I came, I fell, and I was conquered. Conquered by my aging body and brain, simultaneously.

So, I present you with The Cartwheel Incident, in a sequence of pictures:

On another, sadder note, our Galveston friends sent us an email telling us about some video footage that had been shot by a neighbor of their's. It is quite shocking and it looks as if our friends might eventually lose both of their houses. The saddest part of all this is that they still have to pay off the bank for both houses. Texas is one of the few states that has laws against re-building after hurricanes and tropical storms when the amount of beach left is an issue.

While insurance covers repairs, it doesn't cover houses deemed to be destoyed by the state. If the state decides your house needs to go, then you still have to pay it off with the lender anyway. So, in other words, you pay out the wazzoo for nothing. A few good years on the beach, then a hurricane and it's all gone. Something that no longer exists but keeps on taking from you until it's paid off. Beach houses on West Galveston mostly sold for around $350,000.00 up to the millions. You would have been hard pressed to find a beach house under $350,000.00 before Hurricane Ike made landfall. I'm pretty certain you could get a bargain these days.

Here is some video footage of our friends' neighborhood. One of their neighbors was able to take video of their street. Their new house is the one standing out in the water. Their first house is the one leaning to, at the edge of the water:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtVyxdtbmf4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn7sy3IZKWc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJYl3Caznkk

Reality Bites.... The Portrait of A City In The Aftermath of A Hurricane

The news out of Galveston continues to get worse. Our friends who were living there also still have their home here in West Texas, so of course, they are not homeless. However, they own two beach houses right on the beach and they will not know for a while about the fate of those two houses. Several years ago, the pair decided they would retire down in Galveston. Retirement not being as fun as they thought, forced them to decide they would also keep their home here in our town. As it turns out, that was a wise decision. So, they are here, safe and sound.

However, Galveston is actually a very poor town, on the whole. I'd venture to say that most towns who depend on tourism, are poor, when all of the bright lights of *The Season* go out. Aspen was like that in many ways. The people who really live there, not just those passing through, are just hard working folks who are not wealthy. Galveston is like that as well. There are many small towns and cities located down by the Gulf Coast that are poor towns, which is why it makes this damage done by *IKE*, worse than it would be elsewhere.

I'm not talking about the people who own the beach houses. I'm talking about the people who build them, clean them, rent them out, and protect them. I'm talking about all of the people who work in the hundreds of restaurants and hotels, the grocery stores, the souvenir shops, etc. These people aren't wealthy and were probably just able to make ends meet before the hurricane. Now, they have lost their homes and their jobs and most of their belongings, with no hope of help on the horizon. How depressing is that?

Our friends have a beautiful home here and had furnished both beach houses with excess items from home, buying other things at places around Houston and Galveston. So, they will not lose anything too valuable if the state decides to take down their beach houses. The state has laws about homes being built too close to the water. So, with each tropical storm and each hurricane, they have seen many houses go by the wayside, that weren't destroyed in the storm, just too close to the beach after the storm. Even the burms were wiped out along with all other vegetation. It's all covered in sand now.

It's not going to be any fun getting there, either. Here's a video of what it's already like with prople trying to get back into Galveston:

http://www.khou.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=283337

You see, every time there is a hurricane or a tropical storm, it takes sand away from the beaches. So, you have to realize that our coastline is receding with every single storm and this is not a good thing. Not. At. All.

Yesterday I donated money to the American Red Cross, because they're going to need all the help they can get. This is going to be a long, nasty process, I'm afraid.

If you want to make a donation, you can go here:

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ggl_main&s_subsrc=DonateToRedCross&s_src=F7FWE001&gclid=CPielpuA45UCFQSwFQodq26GgA

GALVESTON, OH GALVESTON....

All week the old song of the same name has been constantly going through my head as I worried for Galveston and everyone else effected by Hurricane Ike. As I watched the horrendous video footage, I could only fear for the worst, although I prayed for the best. West Galveston Island was really hit hard and it will be a long time before anyone can even get back there from the Galveston side. A stretch of the four lane highway just after it turns from being Seawall Drive, into The 3005 (or the San Luis Pass Rd.), completely collapsed after the ground underneath had been washed out. The road is completely gone. You can go to the following URL to see the video from KHOU TV in Houston:

http://www.khou.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=282684

So, our Galveston friends called this evening to say that they watched this same video and were able to see both of their houses are still standing. But, you can't even see where the paved streets used to be in any of the private subdivisions, and many houses (mostly older ones) are simply no longer there. They lost an amazing amount of beach from one end of the island to the other. The debris everywhere is incredible, as if you're looking at a miniature set of Galveston. And, who knows what will be left by the time residents are allowed back in to Galveston?

The highway could take months and months to repair and the only other way back to Galveston is to continue west for 55 miles take the first right, go another 30 miles, take another right and go back east for another 55 miles to reach I-45. I haven't heard if that stretch of road survived or not. Sounds like it's going to be a major pain at any rate.

Half of the restaurants on Seawall Blvd. are either completely annihilated or just no longer there. This is really hard for me to wrap my brain around, especially since we were just there in July. I can't imagine how much worse it would have been if they hadn't hustled everyone out of Dodge ahead of time. The seawall did exactly what it was designed and built to do, but the wall only goes so far and it doesn't extend to West Galveston. This is why the private beach houses were hit so hard. The ocean is a powerful force, especially when paired up with Mother Nature.

As far as I could tell, our favorite Biker Bar "Woody's" is gone which caused me a moment of reflection. Of course, they will be back. Eventually. I hope.

We told our friends that if and when the time comes to begin cleanup, we will head down there with our shirt sleeves rolled up and do what needs to get done. I'm not even talking about repair work. I'm merely talking about helping them sift through their things at both houses so repair work can begin. Who knows when we'll be going down there to help? Then, we figured we can volunteer ourselves to neighbors. There is so much that is going to have to be done, it just seems overwhelming, but we figured the more people there are to help, the faster everyone can get their dreams back up and running again.

I also want to give a BIG shout out to all of the brave Galveston rescuers and those who stood vigil through the storm. I would have never been able to do that. And, thank you to everyone for all your prayers. Galveston may be down for a time, but its going to be back. Eventually.