Coming Home After Hurricane Ike: A Story of One Womans Struggle

This story of ongoing hardship is literally about one woman, however the context can speak for many thousands of Galveston Island and surrounding residents. For reasons of privacy we will call her Miss Smith.

Miss Smith has lived on Galveston Island for more than half of her life, and at the age of 56 that is quite a while. Her home was small and modest but her home nonetheless, and built in a quiet neighborhood a few blocks from the Seawall.

A day or two before the storm made landfall a mandatory evacuation was issued for the entire island, and while many residents decided not to heed the warnings and stayed to "ride out the storm", Miss Smith evacuated. She left to stay with her daughter, who incidentally, also lost power due to the storm but suffered no major damage to her home. About a week later Galveston officials initiated a "Look and Leave" policy, in which they allowed residents only to come and assess the damage to their properties.

Only, after it became clear in only a few hours that more than 50,000 residents intended on taking advantage of this opportunity, the city quickly rescinded their offer and blocked off the island to anyone other than official personnel. Miss Smith was one of the unlucky travelers who got stuck in a massive traffic jam on Interstate 45 that day. She reluctantly returned to her daughter's house, still with no clue as to the damage of her own home. Miss Smith had to wait another entire week before finally being allowed to return home, or at least to return to what used to be a livable home.

Miss Smith went home to find watermarks inside her home as high as her waist, somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 feet high. All of her worldly possessions were ruined, except for the small box of irreplaceable photos and more than four inches of beach sand covered her floors. Outside, shingles are missing from her roof, the neighborhood is littered with tree debris, sand, appliances and furniture. Devastating, but at least she is alive.

Everyone likes to believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel, a ray of hope that everything will be okay. Miss Smith did not carry insurance to cover such an incident, probably a careless decision but a necessary sacrifice because of her limited income, which incidentally was eliminated after she was fired from her job at a local apartment complex during the aftermath of the storm. But alas, FEMA was there to help, even though by the time she arrived home, the ice and water supplies had been discontinued for the island residents because as she was told, some stores were open and have supplies for sale. It is not verified that this is a factual statement, as it did not come from a FEMA official, but discouraging anyway.

That evening Miss Smith returned to her daughter's home once again, now knowing she could not stay in her own. Discourage some, but not without hope, she and her daughter filled out the FEMA assistance application together online. Surely an organization with vast resources and the will to help the hurricane victims would shine some light on her dreary day. That dream was short lived indeed, as Miss Smith received notification that her request for assistance was denied, she did not qualify for FEMA aid. No reason was given, just a blatant NO.

Miss Smith is disputing this decision of course, how can she possibly rebuild her home without assistance, the simple answer is she cannot. So for now, she waits and hopes that somewhere, someone is looking out for hers and so many others best interest.