Two weeks after Ike, more than 400 are still missing (1 found Wed)...

[uppityperson]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6027458.html

Gail Ettenger made her last phone call at 10:10 p.m. She was trapped in her Bolivar Peninsula bungalow with her Great Dane, Reba. A drowning cat cried outside. Her Jeep bobbed in the seawater surging around her home. Ettenger, 58, told her friend she was reading old love letters by flashlight. "I think I really screwed up this time," she said, according to Monroe Burks, Ettenger's neighbor who had evacuated to Houston.

That was Friday, Sept 12. On Wednesday — 12 days later — her nearly nude body was found face down by a huge debris pile in a remote mosquito-ridden marsh in Chambers County, about 10 miles inland from where her gray beach house once stood.

Two weeks after Hurricane Ike swept through the Texas coast, 400 people remain missing, mostly from Galveston County, according to an analysis of calls logged to a hot line set up by the nonprofit Laura Recovery Center to assist local authorities. Until Wednesday, Ettenger was one of them.... (more)

RIP.

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080926_tnt_chambers_body_id.b4f362ec.html

The woman whose body was found in a Chambers County debris field Tuesday has been identified.

Gail Ettenger, 58, apparently drowned in Gilchrist during Hurricane Ike. Her body washed ashore in Chambers County.

Ettenger was found in a field east of FM 562 between Loan Oak Bayou and Lake Surprise, north of the Moody Wildlife Refuge.

There are 44 major debris piles in Chambers County and sorting through all of them could take weeks. Investigators are continuing to search the piles with tracking dogs.

[hlthe2b]

1. Wrenching story.... I have no words...

RIP Gail with your beloved Reba...

[Jamastiene]

2. RIP

That harrowing realization is chilling to read. May she rest in peace. I hope the others are found alive and well. I hope.

[texpatriot2004]

3. Tragic. nm

[malaise]

4. There will be many more stories like hers

How sad.

[maddezmom]

5. so sad

:cry:

[malaise]

7. The comments ar heartbreaking

Gail was my friend and I appreciate all of you who defended her in previous posts reguarding her deserving to die. Indeed, she did try to leave but by the time the mandatory evacuation was called for that area, most roads were not passable in a car. She will be missed!!

when the earliest reports came out and said the storm would make landfall sometime after midnight Saturday Night...We did not understand they meant the EYE would reach after midnight...the surge was present when people woke up a 5 am and many were already stranded....unless they had a boat. I believe with all my heart these folks wanted to leave and either had worked the night before, and just thought they would have time in the morning to leave...a cat 1 or cat2 usually hasn't left this type of destruction. God Bless her, God Bless her family. I am so very sorry. She looks to be a very lovely person indeed.


bold, add.

[uppityperson]

10. when the sun rose at 5 am, they couldn't leave. Had plans but couldn't.

Thanks for posting that.

[babsbunny]

6. Haven't heard anything about this on the news

I just sent it to everyone I know. Ike remaining a category 1 hurricane as it hit Ohio was not reported either. 78 miles an hour winds, some people without power for over a week! Now here comes Kyle!

[Mnemosyne]

8. ... n/t

[malaise]

9. Still without power

http://www.khou.com/news/local/fortbend/stories/khou080918_tj_power_restored_centerpoint_tnmp.8e6426f3.html

HOUSTON -- Roughly 1.83 million CenterPoint Energy customers have had their electricity restored since Hurricane Ike knocked the power out for most of the upper Texas Coast last weekend.

CenterPoint has restored power to 81 percent of its customers, but 433,000 are still in the dark.
Progress on power

The second largest provider is Entergy, which says it has restored power to 100 percent of customers.

Finally, Texas-New Mexico Power, which serves people in Galveston, Brazoria and Matagorda counties, says it has restored power to or 94 percent of its customers. More than 6,000 people remain without power.

[uppityperson]

11. Hurricane Ike death toll in Texas rises to 32 (more bodies found in debris)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6030412.html

he Texas death toll from Hurricane Ike rose to at least 32 with the discovery of three bodies, which were found this weekend amid storm debris in Galveston and Orange counties.

On Sunday afternoon, volunteers with Texas Equusearch discovered the body of Greg Walker, who had been missing since Sept. 13, when he made a 911 call for help after he got caught in Ike's storm surge, said Lt. Jimmy LeBoeuf, with the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Walker's body was found in the tree-line of a levee in Orange County, about a mile away from the spot where his truck was discovered last Tuesday. Walker was trapped by rising water while driving back to his home in Port Neches after taking his family to Louisiana. Walker called 911 at about 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 13, just as Ike barrelled into the Texas Gulf Coast. Just before Walker lost contact, he told a dispatcher he was going to try to swim to safety, LeBoeuf said.

Search teams used helicopters, airboats and cadaver dogs during the two-week search for Walker, who would have turned 41 on Sept. 21, LeBoeuf said. In Galveston County, fishermen found the body of a man Saturday on Goat Island, off the Bolivar Peninsula, according to the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office. The body was that of a white male, who was wearing blue jeans and one black tennis shoe.

Also on Saturday, the body of a woman was found on top of a debris pile on Pelican Island. The body was that of a white female wearing a black tank top, the medical examiner's office said. Neither victim could be identified. Autopsies were scheduled for Monday. The weekend discoveries bring the total of deaths nationwide from Hurricane Ike to 67. The 600-mile wide storm caused flooding as far north as Illinois.