Photo: Dan Dalstra, Brazosport Facts
Debra and Paul Furrh and their daughter, Maddie, examine a hole in their wall at their Lake Jackson home a year after wind from Hurricane Ike knocked a large tree through the house.
Debra and Paul Furrh and their daughter, Maddie, examine a hole in their wall at their Lake Jackson home a year after wind from Hurricane Ike knocked a large tree through the house.
One Year After Hurricane Ike
By Nathaniel Lukefahr
Ray Wilkinson plans to begin today shooting the breeze with passers-by from the porch of his new Arizona home. It’s the same thing he did almost every morning during a 30-year stay on the Surfside beachfront. He’ll do the same thing today, but the former islander does not expect the day to end the same as it did last year.He’ll do the same thing today, but the former islander does not expect the day to end the same as it did last year.
Without a car and unable to get a lift off Surfside Beach because he many times had refused help from police, Wilkinson rode out Hurricane Ike’s howling wind and powerful storm surge from an apartment on Fort Velasco Drive. As the storm began pushing water over the roadways and flinging objects through the air, Wilkinson left his porch and moved inside, attempting to find peace amid the fury by resting in bed.
“The storm got to shaking the house so bad that I got out of bed and laid down on the floor,” Wilkinson said. “There was nothing else I could do.”
Wilkinson emerged from the apartment hours later to find the island battered and many buildings severely damaged or destroyed, but he walked away unscathed. In the days following, the former Marine would become a local celebrity for riding out the storm with beer and cigarettes.
But things can change drastically over the course of a year, even for an old carpenter set in his ways, Wilkinson said from his new home. The change of scenery helped Wilkinson curb his drinking and smoking habits, and he began receiving treatment for a hip problem. And the celebrity is no more, Wilkinson said.
“When I went through that, I realized I had had enough,” Wilkinson said. “I like privacy just like you do and anyone else. I get tired of repeating it to people all the time. Would I advise anyone else doing that? No. Would I advise me doing it? Didn’t intend to.” “But it happens,” he said. “That’s the best way I can put it.”
THE DEVASTATION
Ike’s 110-mph wind and 20-foot storm surge pummeled the Texas coastline early Sept. 13, 2008, causing more than 800,000 insurance claims totaling more than $10 billion in damages, according to the Insurance Council of Texas.
First responders determined 20 people died in the Category 2 storm, but none died in Brazoria County. Coastal towns in counties most affected by the storm — Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston and Jefferson counties — suffered major losses, according to the insurance council.
Every structure in Quintana suffered some damage from the storm, while Surfside Beach sustained $7 million to $10 million in damages and 20 homes were either pulled into the Gulf of Mexico or destroyed. One of t he homes lost at sea was a blue beachhouse managed by Brooks Porter.
Once Porter was able to make it through the debris cluttering the front row, the only proof the 1,100-foot rental home had existed was three small pieces of siding resting on the ground and one damaged piling. “Everything else was completely gone — no bathtubs, no couches, no nothing,” Porter said.
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THE UNEXPLAINABLE
One year after Ike’s storm surge pushed almost 7 feet of water into Anchor Church in Surfside Beach, twisting the building 8 degrees and causing severe damage, congregants still can’t explain a mystery within.
Congregants found flood damage almost to the top of the church’s doorways, fallen walls and a refrigerator and freezer, table and chairs, and desks had been thrust outside. But a set of books in a bookshelf about 4 feet high were untouched.
“I thought, ‘Well, maybe the pressure of the building would not let it come in,’” Pastor Gaylan Jones said with a laugh. “But that isn’t so, because you could see how it was totally washed out everywhere. It’s kind of unexplainable, but we had the books to prove it.”
The church was condemned and since has been demolished, Jones said. Now, congregants meet in Richwood for praise and worship every weekend, but the pull of the ocean is too strong. People were saying, ‘Let’s look for something over the levee,’ but after we got off, people began to say, ‘We miss the beach.’” Jones said. “We checked around and asked how many want to go back and it was just about unanimous.”
Plans are to take $400,000 of insurance money and rebuild the church when this year’s hurricane season comes to a close, Jones said. But there will be one change.
“I guarantee you that it won’t be on the ground,” Jones said.
Members must replace most of the items that were inside the church when water pummeled the building, but the books that survived the storm unscathed come as proof that miracles do happen, he said.
THE EVACUATION
For Jim Andreas, the hurricane brought out the good in people, showed him others cared and was a way for community members to get together and work through problems as a group, not leaving one person to fend for himself.
Andreas, like about 1,200 Brazoria County residents, evacuated his Freeport home on a bus to a Bell County shelter through the 2-1-1 service for people who have medical needs, don’t have a vehicle or don’t have money to travel. There, Andreas says, he felt treated like an equal and made many friends.
“When we got there it was more like, ‘God, am I in a major hotel?’” Andreas said. “That’s the way they took care of us. It was a lot more than I expected. The people up there — I’ll walk there if I have to go to get back to that place.”
Andreas evacuated for Ike and for Hurricane Rita, and said there’s no way to compare the two evacuations.
“The first time we went it was just a terrible situation because of the trip, not because of where we were,” Andreas said. “It was the 24 hours I was in a school bus in clothes and stuff that weren’t meant for that type of trip in a non-air-conditioned school bus.”
But the trip during Hurricane Ike was about six hours, and when he got to the final destination, it was well worth it. “The second trip was fantastic,” he said. “It was well-planned and they got us there in a comfortable situation as quickly as possible.”
Andreas has registered for the 2-1-1 service again and says he won’t think twice before evacuating if another storm comes Brazoria County’s way. “I’ve already got my plans right here in front of me,” he said with a laugh.
READY TO GO BACK HOME
Paul and Debra Furrh have marked this Thanksgiving as a return to normality. After months of arguing with insurance companies and waiting on trustworthy contractors to become available, construction on their Lake Jackson home is under way and could be finished by the start of the holiday season.
The roof is on, the rafters have been fixed and the trees are gone, but work on the interior has not been completed yet, Paul Furrh said.
“It was a long, drawn-out ordeal that took a long time to finish,” Paul Furrh said of dealing with insurers and contractors. “I’m tired of the whole thing.”
The home suffered severe damage during the hurricane when a tree fell and snapped a water line, leading to flooding and eventually gutting the majority of the house.
Since then, the couple and their five children have been living in their Surfside Beach vacation home, which they were surprised made it through the storm. Debra Furrh said the family is thankful for its second home, but after one year, it’s getting a little cramped.
The Furrhs provide legal assistance to low-income families who have suffered loss in disasters such as hurricanes, Paul Furrh said. The destruction of their home has helped them relate to clients.
“It’s been a long year,” he said. “I’m much more sympathetic than I ever was in my life to my clients after having my life disrupted. It’s just not an easy thing.”
THE REBUILDING
Lake Jackson Public Works Director Craig Nisbett was shocked when he saw what Ike left in its wake a year ago. More than 80,000 cubic yards of trees and other organic debris were scattered everywhere, blocking roadways and hindering attempts to get municipal services back online.
“When I first saw it, I said, ‘My goodness, how are we going to get all that picked up?’” Nisbett said.
It took about 4,000 truckloads, or three days’ worth of trips to the city’s waste site, to clean it all up.
Mike Sorrell, owner of debris removal company Mike Sorrell Trucking & Materials, was tasked with cleaning what the storm left in its wake along Brazoria County’s coastal communities and Bluewater Highway. Mangled tree limbs, home debris and dead animals were all over the coastal area, and crews removed them with bulldozers, excavators and front-end loaders.
Sorrell had a special request from county leaders to create a makeshift path down Bluewater Highway so sheriff’s deputies could reach the Treasure Island subdivision near San Luis Pass.
“I took a ’dozer through and around the washed-out areas to make us a path,” Sorrell said. “It was nasty — a lot of dead hogs and dead birds.” The hurricane knocked out power to many cities for as long as three weeks, but the county’s industrial backbone quickly stepped in to help them out so they could run essential services. Dow Chemical Co. offered generators to Surfside Beach and Lake Jackson, while BASF loaned equipment to the same cities, Freeport and Demi-John Island.
“It was a need,” BASF Freeport site General Manager Art Colwell said. “We live in this community. It’s your family and it hurts, so you want to do what you can to relieve that.”
THE LESSON LEARNED
Even with all the destruction and the exhaustive work to put everything back together, area leaders say the storm has a silver lining: Teamwork and determination can overcome any obstacle.
After crews worked to remove debris, repair infrastructure and replenish the beach, Surfside Beach and Quintana officials reported strong spring break and Memorial Day attendance.
“I think it looks better than it did before,” Sorrell said. Ray Wilkinson, the man who faced the hurricane head-on and survived, agreed, even if he’s not there anymore.
“Even before I left it was coming back pretty good,” he said. “It will be there in no time.”
Facts reporter Erin McKeon contributed to this story.
Nathaniel Lukefahr covers coastal communities for The Facts. Contact him at 979-237-0151 or nathaniel.lukefahr(at)thefacts.com.
BY THE NUMBERS
Key numbers in Hurricane Ike recovery:
800,000
Number of insurance claims filed in Texas as a result of Ike
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$10 billion
Total amount of damage from Ike as judged by the value of insurance claims.
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$7 million per day
Amount FEMA has disbursed in Texas since Ike made landfall early on Sept. 13, 2008. That amounts to about $2.5 billion total.
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$1.15 billion
Amount FEMA spent on debris removal statewide.
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$21.4 million
Amount FEMA has given Brazoria County for debris removal.
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$4.04 million
Amount FEMA spent in Brazoria County to replace buildings and the equipment within.
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$16.7 million
Amount of FEMA money awarded to Brazoria County homeowners.
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$189.56 million
Amount of FEMA housing money distributed in Galveston County since Ike.
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$28.63 million
Amount of assistance Brazoria County businesses have received since Ike.
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$242 million
FEMA funds received by Galveston County businesses.
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$637 million
Business assistance statewide from FEMA.
Sources: FEMA, Insurance Council of Texas
