GALVESTON, Texas — President Bush got a firsthand look Tuesday at the fury that Hurricane Ike unleashed on the Gulf Coast and was greeted by a virtual ghost town here, where it made landfall. He urged frustrated storm evacuees to keep it that way until local officials say it is safe to return.
“I know a lot of people are anxious to get back in,” Bush said. “I urge you to listen to state and local authorities before you come back.”
Ike dumped heavy rains on parts of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri after slamming ashore in Texas over the weekend. It knocked out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses across the Midwest, spawned a tornado in Arkansas and blew high winds through Ohio. The devastating rain and wind in the nation’s midsection brought the death toll from Ike to at least 48 in 10 states.
In light of the continuing need from Ike and other storms in this year’s busy hurricane season, Bush pleaded for donations from the public to relief organizations such as the American Red Cross.
“I hope the country does not have disaster fatigue,” he said.
Many thousands of displaced residents face weeks or months in shelters, and Bush assured them personally and publicly that the federal government would reimburse them for their costs, up to 30 days, of interim housing. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director David Paulison, who traveled with Bush, said the administration was working hard to avoid a Hurricane Katrina scenario, in which residents moved out of storm-battered New Orleans in 2005 and never returned. He said a state-led task force would work to place evacuees in motels, hotels and apartments.
“It’s not just kind of ad hoc, like it was with Katrina,” he said. “If we have to use mobile homes — that will be a state call — we have them available.”
The White House also announced Tuesday that the federal government will pick up all the costs of debris removal in Texas for a two-week period starting Saturday, the day the storm hit.
While flying by helicopter from Houston to much harder-hit Galveston, Bush got an aerial tour of the damage. He saw the remains of the resort barrier island of Bolivar Peninsula: flattened homes, flooded fields and bare foundations where houses once stood. Roads and beaches were strewn with debris.
Ike missed the largest concentrations of oil and gas refineries in the region. From his helicopter, Bush could see scores of ships full of crude waiting off the coast for a green light to deliver to Texas refineries.
But Kevin Kolevar, assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability at the U.S. Energy Department, told reporters that it would take a week to 10 days for even the undamaged facilities to be restarted — if there is power.
Paulison said 70 percent of Houston should have power by the end of the week but that Galveston won’t fare as well.
“Galveston is going to have a tough time,” Paulison said. ” . . . It’s going to be a longer-term fix than getting Houston back up.”
