Galveston Island

Galveston Island
As I sit here, over 300 miles from the shores of Galveston, Texas, I watch the rain and the wind whip through the trees as the outer edges of a dying hurricane reach Frisco. I can’t help but imagine how much different it was last night on Galveston Island. My daughter and I feel a special bond with Galveston. I am not certain the exact reason for this connection but it does exist. When I visit the island I feel like I am ‘home.’

With heavy hearts at two o’clock on Saturday morning we sat in our dry, safe living room and watched the destruction occurring in Galveston on our television. As I was just there last weekend I have vivid images of the sights, sounds and smells of the island. Snapshots of smiles, waves, birds and houses flash through my mind. Snippets of conversations echo in my memory. My thoughts keep returning to one young lady, Brandi, on Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula. She was our waitress at one of the restaurants we visited. She had a pretty smile and a very sweet personality. She is the one who provided us with the name for the disgusting ‘lovebugs.’ She had said her son asked her why they were stuck together and quick-wittedly she said they were married and wanted to hold hands. I have wondered where she and her son are and if they are safe. We met many people when we were there and my heart truly goes out to them. I pray they are all safe.

I have several pictures of Jamaica Beach in Galveston from last weekend, six days before Hurricane Ike made landfall. After hurricane Ike thrashed the island last night many of the homes in these pictures are damaged or completely destroyed. Hurricane Ike was a strong category 2 hurricane. The storm surge began to arrive on the island eight hours before the eye wall arrived severing evacuation routes and stranding those who waited too long to leave. Ike was over six hundred miles across with wind gusts of 110 mph and a storm surge that it has been stated reached thirteen feet above normal tide levels. Many of the landmarks along Seawall Blvd. are no longer in existence. Regrettably I did not take pictures of those buildings.

My daughter and I will be going back to the island in early December. I am apprehensive as to what we will find when we arrive. They will have little time before our visit for their recovery efforts after this hurricane. However, this little island is full of tenacious headstrong people who have been through this before and they have, with time, recovered. I have complete confidence that they will hitch up their bootstraps rebuild and carry on as their predecessors have done in true Texas fashion. Our thoughts are with them as they find their bearings and begin to rebuild their lives.

Sharon

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