*Stoically limping back into business.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/12/1012ikemonth.html
Link: One month after Ike, Texas still has signs of destruction, but recovery moving forward.
GALVESTON — A month later, piles of sheetrock, appliances, furniture and family mementos dot most streets in this island town.
Electronic road signs in Southeast Texas flash, "Watch for cows next 20 miles," a reminder that few fences remain to hem in livestock. Blue tarps cover 11,000 roofs for 100 miles from Houston to the Louisiana line.
And then there are the 37 found dead so far in Texas and hundreds still unaccounted for one month after Hurricane Ike barreled ashore on Galveston Island, leveling trees onto power lines and temporarily crippling the nation's fourth-largest city and the center of the U.S. energy industry.
The storm is the most expensive in Texas history, with an estimated price tag of $11.4 billion. (((But only 37 known dead– that's really amazing.)))
Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough offered a refrain often repeated by officials when discussing recovery efforts from Ike, which blasted ashore Sept. 13.
"It's a marathon. It's not a sprint," he said. "It's going to take at least a couple of years before we fully recover. It's going to be a long haul."
Yarbrough's county took a one-two punch from Ike on Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula, two communities dependent on the income from fishermen and beachgoers.
About 75 percent of the homes on Galveston, about 50 miles southeast of Houston, sustained some damage from Ike's 110-mph winds, rain and 12-foot storm surge. Residents who evacuated were kept off the island for 10 days. Most have returned and continue cleaning out their homes, salvaging what property wasn't drenched or ruined by mold and mildew.... (((repeat for 2 years, or until another storm arrives.)))
