GALVESTON, Texas — The death toll from Hurricane Ike in the U.S. climbed past 50 Wednesday and appeared to level off in Texas, where search teams pulled out of Galveston having searched the entire island for survivors.
The task force had checked on almost 6,000 people and performed more than 3,500 rescues since Friday. Seventeen people have died in the state.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was reviewing damage during his second stop in the state since Ike.
In Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, where power was still out and people were still lining up at dozens of distribution centers for basic needs, Chertoff said distribution of food and water were going smoothly.
Chertoff also said the federal government was working to help restore electricity to Houston, where nearly 1.4 million people were without power, probably until next week.
In Galveston, city and state officials still want people who stayed through the storm to get off the island because of concerns for a growing health threat.
Dr. David Lakey, state health commissioner, said he has seen respiratory illnesses, minor traumas such as burns and falls, stress and fatigue.
“The capacity to take care of moderate injuries and illnesses is not here at this time. It’s my opinion that individuals should not be living on the island at this time.”
The search-and-rescue teams of Texas Task Force 1 spent four days making door- to-door searches across the island. In some cases, searchers were told that a resident had stayed on the peninsula for the hurricane but had not been seen since.
In those instances, searchers checked the last place where the person was seen, then gave their names to local emergency managers for follow-up, said Chuck Jones, a task force team leader. Galveston County Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik provided details on the five Galveston deaths: One drowned in a car, one was found in a hotel room, two dialysis patients died when the power went out and their machines failed, and a cancer patient on a breathing machine also died in the power outage.
Most of the more than 50 deaths occurred outside Texas, although authorities may never know whether, or how many, people who tried to weather the storm were washed out to sea.
