Hurricane Ike: Before and After

[Inkpen]

(I tried to post this in News/Current events, but could not post images...)


Saw the "after" photo on MSNBC and was curious as to what the area looked like before.
After spending a bit of time on Google Earth, I found the "before". I found and circled the same round house in both images.
The area is Crystal Beach, Texas, just north of Galveston ship channel.


Before............

After............

Makes you understand the meaning of Storm Surge......so sad...ALL those homes just washed off the map......

Much larger of BEFORE...find the round house...(hint, it is above the street lable..."Sunrise".

 

[dawn]

Wow -- that is very sad. My prayers are with everyone down there, I pray I never have to endure anything like that. Very sad situation.

 

[Inkpen]

What really strikes me is the sever loss of community... this is a community...one street in/one out..(look at top of the map.)
it is one thing to have lsot 2-4 houses..as the community will come together to help and rebuild...but there is NOTHING left...the entire community is GONE...and I bet most of them were retirees..enjoying life on the beach....and had put all their money into a beach front community...
You can rebuild houses, but what about the people?

It is so sad...all that history gone, all those people displaced..and it is like this all up and down the coast....

How do you rebuild? Where do you start?

 

[Mousebaby]

Oh MY GOD! I am just speechless! And just imagine what New Orleans looked like after!

 

[Joe'smom]

My mother went through ANDREW---she drove like hell to try to beat the storm but ended up hunkering down in a motel--right where that damn thing made landfall---she to this day (at 83) can still recall the ferrocious noise and the calm of the "eye" and after.....trying to make their way out and down to the keys where their house was---hoping it still existed. Her car was "sandblasted" and the windows frosted--"just like a shower door" ---no signs left....no landmarks. Fish flopping around everywhere. There was a bank and a burgerking across the street--the only thing left were the vault and the walk in freezer! ( I have pictures I should scan and post!)
Unfortunately.....this is the risk we take, living on the water-----but 99.9% of the time its fantastic......and when something like this occurs----we pay for that 99.9% glory---but we rebuild--in the same areas! WHY?