GALVESTON, Texas — Shrimpers and oystermen lost their boats to the muck. Tourist areas on the coast that should be bustling at the start of convention season are flattened. Lingering power outages are keeping offices empty and restaurants closed.
It will take months or more to tally Hurricane Ike’s financial toll, but one thing is clear: Almost nobody in its path escaped unscathed.
The storm carried hurricane-force winds as far north as Kentucky, which suffered its widest power outage in history, and driving rain clear into New England. More than 500,000 people remained without power Friday in Kentucky and Ohio; schools in Louisville, Ky., were to open Monday after Ike closed them for a week.
Risk Management Assessment Inc., which quantifies risks for insurance companies, estimated Ike’s impact would land in the low end of the $6 billion to $16 billion in insured losses that the firm initially predicted.
In Houston, where the booming energy industry has kept the nation’s fourth-largest city economically stable in a nationwide slump, the outlook was downright positive. The city’s port survived with minimal damage, and the Gulf of Mexico’s oil and gas production barely took a dent.
Ike crashed ashore last weekend near the mouth of Galveston Bay, which produces about 15 million pounds of seafood each year.
Shrimpers and oystermen there will practically have to start over.
Even those who can salvage their trawlers will have to cope with the carpet of debris Ike dumped on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Ike killed oyster reefs with waves of shocking saltwater, and officials say Ike’s march through Galveston Bay will be catastrophic to an industry that generates more than $100 million annually.
Cattle ranchers lost entire herds in some Texas counties, and animals not among the 4,000 killed right away may still die from eating the grass or drinking water tainted by salt.
