Ike recovery continues with feeding, cleanup; damage estimates as high as $25 billion

Millions living along the upper Texas Gulf Coast and north into East Texas on Tuesday were still without electricity after Hurricane Ike swept through Friday night and Saturday, causing the biggest power disruption in Texas history, state officials said.

Eighteen counties, mostly rural counties east and north of Houston, reported 75-100 percent of residents without power on Tuesday morning, according to the website of the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

Additionally, about 2 million Houston area residents remained without power on Monday night, the Houston Chronicle reported.

President Bush was preparing to tour the upper Texas coast on Tuesday.

Disaster relief response from Southern Baptists continued as teams from multiple states, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and Texas Baptist Men fed evacuees and cleared debris.

More than 100 Southern Baptist disaster relief units from several states are serving along the Gulf Coast and farther inland, with SBTC volunteers continuing relief for hurricane evacuees in Tyler, Livingston, Lufkin, Port Arthur and Huntsville through feeding and chaplaincy, said SBTC DR Director Jim Richardson.

Ike’s wide and destructive swath was “catastrophic,” Richardson said, spreading its damage east of Galveston into Louisiana and north into deep East Texas along much of the same area that Hurricane Rita devastated in September 2005.

Noel Vargas, pastor of West End Baptist Church in Galveston, was in College Station, Texas, on Monday, staying at a Motel 6 as he and his family waited to return to Galveston.

He told the TEXAN by e-mail that reports from people there say the West Side buildings were damaged, “but I don’t know how bad it is,” Vargas said.

“Our street was flooded so I think our home got flooded as well. My family is doing good.? Please keep us in your prayers.”

David R. Brumbelow, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Highlands, Texas, just east of Houston near the Houston Ship Channel, chose to stay home rather than evacuate, chronicling his experience in several pages of notes.

Brumbelow said his church and home sustained some damage, but his decision not to stock up on more food nor to retrieve his generator that was 75 miles from his home early last week was a mistake; he spent Sunday night at the church because his home was still without power.

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