As a BOI, the old saying of having sand between your toes is true. There's something about living on the island, but I will admit, after Ike I moved off the island. A month without utilities, and the first week, before the sounds of generators at night, it was eerily and unnervingly quiet. No crickets, no birds, no traffic noise, absolutely nothing, and pitch black, I couldn't see my hands in front of me at night. Pictures fail miserably to grasp the level of destruction.

My parents built a house on the west end in 1957. We lived there for 9 years. It never had a drop of water in it until Ike. It survived Carla and Alicia. But Ike was different, direct hit and the storm surge was huge.

I remember when we got the mandatory evac orders and piled into my SUV, we had no idea we would ultimately end up right back at home to ride the storm out. I sat in unmoving traffic for 17 hrs in the harsh humid heat of Texas (we would turn the vehicle off when we were stuck at stand stills to try and save gas), all the ice had melted in the ice chest, all the waters and Gatorade’s had been drank, and finally when my gas gauge had reached the halfway point between E and 1/4 of a tank left with no gas stations open or that had gas in sight we decided to turn around a go home! I remember seeing car after car that had either ran out of gas or overheated lining the grass between the highway and feeder roads, families/kids sitting on their vehicles, even mattresses laid on next to the highway with kids and babies laying on them! I was so scared because Katrina had hit NOLA the year before and I was afraid that was what’s going to happen to us........I’ll admit, my family definitely was one of the lucky ones. We lost power for a day maybe 2, and that’s it!! The worst part was finding gas, food, and water!! No stores had any left for days after the storm hit. But we all survived praise God.

This is… astoundingly well made.

I remember going through Hurricane Ike when I was just 6 years old. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. The house me and my family were at in Beaumont had nearly collapsed. I remember seeing the fierce winds against the other houses and trees.

The storm nobody outside of south Texas paid attention to. It hit the same weekend as the U.S. financial crisis. In fact, those of us in Houston didn't know what the hell the crisis was until days later!

Ike had us w/o power for 2 weeks in Sw Houston. We had wind damage but no water damage. We had no street lights, grocery stores were empty, no ATM, and it was just a huge inconvenience. On top of that it was HOT. We barbequed everyday and my job was using a backup generator. It was miserable.

A month without power after Ike was horrible. But the city did bounce back from the hurricane.

Im 15 and i lived through hurricane rita, ike, katrina, harvey, and tropical storm imelda

I live outside of Houston. I just remember the howling winds that never seemed to stop, they went on for hours and hours. Ike was a huge storm that left an indelible mark on me. We had a lot of damage and to do this day, I fear hurricane season.

I'll never forget this storm in my life my mom passed away in Herman hospital downtown Houston in the 6 th and the storm hit right after that and tore the roof off of my granddad's apartment at Concord at Little York Rd ...

I have said this before, it does not matter how well you build a house, a storm,hurricane,tornado could be so strong that nothing could withstand them, if you want to live in a weather event region you have to be prepared to loose your property, it isn’t a nice thing to have happen,but you need to be aware and prepared to start all over again even knowing that it could happen again-- soon!!!! Good luck to you all. Thanks for an interesting but sad video, Mother Nature will always have the last say, no matter how well we prepare, and this video concentrated on the practical side of the devastation, something other films do not address, thank you.

I worked disaster relief on this storm. It was a scary situation.

Sad sad memories. I was still in a wheelchair; my kids: were 7-year-old7 & 17. I recall one day when my 7 year old & I were home. My 17-year-old came running from 3 blocks away; it was still flooded. My 17 year old carried me upstairs in an empty apartment, then, my 7 yr old & a little boy next door. He had to leave in a metal bucket like a boat, barely big enough for a dog. 😔recall

DAMN, she's awesome . Only a person who was born and raised on the Island can stand their ground ❤

Building on pure sand on a barrier island is just not a good idea. People will deny the possibility that anything really catastrophic could happen to them, or their home, but in reality, it does.

Never forget that when a hurricane is about to make a direct hit where you live, you are about to go without power for at least a week, and that's fast, which only happens if you are closest to the power plant. They restore power in order, rebuilding power lines in sequence as they move away from the power plant or junction station. Also, remember that each time a hurricane hits, it will always snow the following winter, its a meteorological phenomena. Snowed in Houston Christmas day 2004, which was random, but after Ike in 2008 it snowed good, and after Harvey several times, I guess powerful ones can cause multiple wintery precipitation events. It can snow without a hurricane hitting prior to that winter, but it has ALWAYS snowed after major hurricanes within my lifetime, except hurricane Rita which swerved away from us so maybe that's why.

I would have evacuated if a Cat 2 hurricane were to come

About a year after Ike, I went to Boliver and saw the bare slabs where homes used to be at. But, I saw that many of the owners of these slabs put an RV on that slab. Actually thought that was a good fix. If a storm is coming, hook up to the RV and head out of danger.

Then Harvey came along.

Well here is an eyewitness by me. When I lived in Galveston Texas we lived in a sea house next to pleasant Pier we all ate at bubba gumps after we went to go swim I never thought that the waves would be so high so I went to the sea bar the tide pulled me really good luckily I made it out we went home next day I look out my window after getting an alert on my phone saying warning flood warning for Galveston beach I looked and saw like 20Ft tall waves and told my mom my dad ran in the house after going to the other part of the island to go find new things to do he yelled get in the closet I said why that’s when he said a hurricane is going to hit soon I started shaking I kept getting warnings on my little radio my mom got for me after about 10 to 20 minutes and that’s when we knew it hit we heard like huge waves hitting and it sounded like bombs hitting the ground when the waves hit

We left glad we did

Ooof the fact that the upload date is in 2017...Harvey is on his way

I don't think a hurricane's category should be released until after it has passed. People don't evacuate because 'It's just a category 2' yet storms can (and do) change in a heartbeat

Mt. Ferrite is wise.. history repeats every 100 years.

Keep in mind, this will happen again and again and again just like it has for the last million years.

I rode Ike out certain death was not an issue but I never counted on fires! Ike was one mean storm!

They might want to take a look at some of the earthquake building codes to better reinforce houses. They might also want to look at the engineering work being done in fluid dynamics to perhaps find a way to slow storm surge water and do things like preventing turbulent water flow near the houses. I was just watching something earlier about a Russian aircraft. I forget the name of the thing but it had four rear-mounted engines, which means they had to put the elevator at the top of the tail fin. In our American and British designed aircraft with rear-mounted engines, having the elevator up that high has caused problems, as has having the engines behind much of the rest of the aircraft since things breaking off the aircraft might get sucked into the engines (and have done so). In the Russian design, they slightly changed the leading edge of the part of the wing closest to the body of the plane in such a way so as to divert the air passing over the wings, plus they mounted the engines higher than planes like the DC-10. In any case, I wonder if there isn't a way to make the piles supporting those houses more in the shape of a boat or to even build something in front of the house facing the sea to divert the turbulent water flow and potential damage from storm surges since water flow shares many principles with air flow. Planes stall and fall to the ground if there is too much turbulent air flow passing over the wings so maybe it would work to build the buildings so that they won't stall so to speak by preventing that turbulent flow. It should be easier since buildings don't tend to change their angle of attack and you know basically which way the force is going to come from the waves.

We bought a house in Dickinson, Texas, closed on the house and moved in. Three months later, Hurricane Harvey sent 28 inches of filthy dirty bayou water into our home. Within minutes it went from some water running under the front wall of the living room to being knee deep. We walked out at 3 a.m. with our cats in carriers in my kayak, water waist deep, fire ants crawling on us and stinging. I got to a higher point on I-45 and sat down and scraped the fire ants off. Ironically, we moved into the apartments above an airplane hangar at the old Lone Star Aviation Museum and lived a year on Galveston while our house was completely renovated. After less than three years we sold the house and got the hell out of hell/Texas. Happy here in the Rocky Mountains. Of course, we weren't told when buying a house, that rice used to be grown in the area. Stop building in a flood plain and stop asking the entire country to subsidize your decision to live at risk. The man in this video from League City needs to stop blaming the feds and move to high ground. Schwartz is 100% right.

Can someone teach this guy how to pronounce bolivar peninsula?

I live in SW Ohio. 24 hours after Ike made landfall, it arrived in Ohio with very strong wind gusts. It wrecked havoc on our power grid. It took them a week and half to restore power to everyone. Massive power outage. We lived in the dark for a solid week. Cat 2 my arse.

I lived in Chambers County ... I 10 acted as a dam to keep the water to the south. That's 90 miles inland.

I grew up on the coast and got hit by Ike we had flooding for days.... I remember when Katrina hit even we felt it all the way from Texas..... when the weather service saids leave that means get your ass out of their... it is hot and humid the days following

I was 3 when this happened, lived in Kingwood at the time, our tree fell on our neighbors house, luckily I moved about a year before Harvey hit

Legend has it that Ike had 2 eyes.

We lived on west end of galv- we had whole houses in our canals! Everything downstairs was gone even our grass! The trauma was crazy! I seen front of houses torn off- 1 house u were looking into the kitchen - the Refrig was open & EVERYTHING was still in it even in the door next to it EVERYTHING was still sitting on the counters including the coffee pot! It was really weird! Folks n town that stayed said water came up real fast but as Ike moved on land it was like God came & took the water away FASTER than it came up ut went away! Lydia Ann sucked as a mayor we went to 1st town hall meeting- it was absurd! Their were out of state contractors on the island when residents couldn’t return! We left but coming back across the causeway they were not even checking IS’s! FEMA buses were coming in & I swear FEMA STANDS FOR: Find Every Mexican Available! Those buses were full of them! FEMA SUCKED! Most didn’t qualify for FEMA help but u had to give them all ur personal Info to b told NOPE U DONT QUALIFY! I feel like the city & fed gov let the citizens of galv down bad! Ike was the FORGOTTEN STORM!

Ghetto Island made a full comeback, it's even more ghetto now

Anyone from Heathside/ watching this for homework?

I refuse to live near the coast.

11:10 ah the last home standing is the home of a marine.... there’s a marine flag I love it...

We didn't have power for 2 weeks (Houston). I was dating am HPD officer, and she would be patrolling the city, call me and tell me to get over to whatever gas station, they just got a gas delivery and/ or they had ice come in. I'd make these trips at 2 or 3 in the morning, whenever that phone rang, to help keep the generator going. To this day I hate scented candles.

At the end it should say stay tuned, more to come.

Lived in IL during this but just recently moved to FL 5 or 6 years ago. Definitely though hurricanes where just a regular storm. Now I know anything above a CAT 3 is an issue. Whole reason we bought a house inland and not in any flood zones

For God’s sakes people, if you are ordered to evacuate then GET OUT!!

You know....after the great hurricane of 1900 that killed thousands of people and pretty much wiped out Galveston the people of that island took wagons teams of mules and dozens of men armed with nothing but shovels and pick axes and they spent several years jacking up houses and raising the ground beneath them a good 6 to 8 feet taller....a monumental task done in that day with those tools ....it NEEDS to be done AGAIN this time with the U.S. Army Corps of engineers to prevent another disaster of that magnitude....one day a category 5 will hit the Texas coastline and push a 30 foot wall of storm surge before it....

We got the winds from this in Indiana..

I lived thru Hurricane Hugo when it hit SC

That's why people buy insurance. Hurricanes are not predictable.

I have always had a pipe dream to live on or near Galveston Island. If I was billionaire and the folks in the know said time to get out....well if I was smart enough to have those resources....I would be smart enough to get my butt out.

That one woman. Spent their life savings to build a home and retire to Galveston. 🤔 It’s Galveston! It’s a sandbar! I love Galveston, even though I’ve never lived there. But come on people how dumb can you be?? She acts so surprised that this happened. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I should add that when we bought our home that flooded, at the closing in the title office, we were told we didn't need flood insurance because we weren't in a flood plain and our home had never flooded. We had Dickinson bayou at the end of our street. And the only reason our home hadn't ever flooded is because it was built the year AFTER Camille struck. Thank God we didn't listen to the employees at that title office.

August 1, 1989...wrong, that was Chantal

I love that Texas Open Beach law and wish it was a federal statute. All the beaches should be open for everyone and people outside the affected area shouldn't have to pay to rebuild them over and over again. My city has done that with property along our local river: You can keep your current property but once it floods and destroys the structure the city can use imminent domain to claim it and turn it into parkland.

I don't remember Hurricane ike I'm pretty young and was very little. I was and still am fine. My family is pretty blessed. We dont flood. And my grandparents house is like steel. I'm glad were okay. I have family who lived there thats one of the most important place to me. It was a beach id visit every summer with family. Seeing what happened to it before i even knew it exist makes me really upset.

I was born the year before and ike I was not even 1 wen it hit my hometown of Houston Texas I even saw the eye of ike

I wonder what there “destroyed” definition is. Over half the homes are still here in Shoreacres

People wouldn’t leave by bus because they couldn’t take their dogs. They changed that rule after Ike.

My mom worked for the food bank in Gilchrist. She always said that there were many more people who died because they could not get out. Many were disabled and communication was not the best. My sister left Gilcrest to pick up a friends son from a private school could not return. There was no warning that the ferry would not continue running. She came to my house, 150 miles north of the beach. I still had over 10K worth of damage from tornados and tree damage. Both my mother and sister lost everything.

The day I was born September 10 2008 bruh

i remember this i was 9 when it happened 😳

Ayo why does this look like a cod mw2 intro scene?

Oh yeah we went to Dallas I Remer the flea market where I got that Rolling Stone cover with Britney Spears:An American Tragedy Wegot back home and I remember the free food they were giving out I loved it I loved the food it was "american food" I growing up Mexican wasn't accustomed to I was like 16 What a HELL HOLE 2008 was The only shining moment that year was getting to see my grandma and grandpa I was in the early stages of a decade of depression How sad Had I known Had I gotten help I'd probably would of had a better more prosperous life

I was 17 years old before that I drove a 1991 Dodge pickup Hurricane Ike dropped Tree on it destroying it

I went thru katrina, ike, TS allison, but I never hear anyone talk about rita.

Its interesting that the # of deaths is different. Ive heard from the local news it was 99, when they found the last woman's remains from Bolivar across the Bay.

Two weeks without power we were out of power for a month my house was damaged beyond repair and i still live here so boo hoo

good thing that I lived in Baton Rouge

Ike took out the historic Balinese Room:(

3 days and I had power power back

Wtf is a peninchula?? I've heard of peninsula...

That was 366 days before i was born

Don't rebuild. That's obvious.

I was in Galveston County jail when Ike hit Galveston.

I'm not on board with the scale being broken. I do understand their point about the damage. But they're the Insurance Council and we shouldn't go off damage for them. That's what we do with the tornados and the Enhanced Fujita scale that rated El Reno an EF-3. That's too dependent on where it hits.

Insurance Council.... well, I hope you have cleaned up the estimators and legit claims... because my house was roofless and damage from the rain with no roof... I say that because all I got was money for a new roof... what about the broken windows, flood damage, personal items...? people got their homes rebuilt and I got $12k for a roof. took me two years to get the house back together myself. Lied to about that storm ... wind was height.... 140 mph gusts and sustained 115 mph. Storm surge was 25 ft in places.... one tough storm!

We need phones that can turn down the freakin music!

Why it seems like the world changed after Ike

Homes is shoreacres we’re flooded not destroyed 80 percent of those homes are still standing

I was only 8 when it all happened

Hi, I'm new to Houston,Can you swim in those waters?

The big bad wolf destroyed the house's of the little pigs but even the big bad wolf has to run from mother nature.

May 28 bruh

my name is isaac and my sister calls me ike lol

Fact is you shouldn't build in hurricane prone zones!

Dude I'm living in a house that got hit by ike rita harvey laura delta imelda coastal Texas sucks

Who was president back then?

Hurricane in Texas act like mongraal

24:59

Some people can't evacuate because they simply have nowhere else to go. You're literally trapped in one spot a rock and a hard place. I believe they call. I was in Puerto Rico for hurricane Maria. We went 8 months without power. I couldn't get back to the states because everything. I had had got washed away and blown away. But here in the states, not everyone has to homes.Not everyone has a family that you can just go to and be okay with them

That old guy has a shitty attitude towards people and I don’t appreciate him telling people what they should and should not do! How dare him

Dr Gilbert strikes me as a half empty sort of man, it seems he thinks that when homes are destroyed they shouldn’t be rebuilt, purely on economic grounds, “why would you want to build a home “ (costal homes), my answer, why not, you can build a home anywhere and it could be destroyed by a natural disaster or man made effect, so you should build wherever you want, and build a home that can at least withstand extreme weather events, but, as one commentator said, you can’t build any structure that could withstand everything thrown at it. Maybe I am wrong, but Dr Gilbert is a doomsayer, and instead of moaning about it he should put his expertise into designing homes and commercial buildings that can withstand the extreme weather conditions. I can’t understand why some of those modern buildings like the medical facilities won’t be able to be used again, certainly they looked in a condition that they just needed to be gotten dry again and repairs (not that they showed much of those types of damage) carried out, then they should be fine, I would not like to see them demolished, it’s a waste of materials, and a lot of it considering the size of those buildings. Surly insurance on commercial properties is a must have, and on residential it should be mandatory, and if you live in an area susceptible to extreme weather events then having a policy with specific clauses that cover your type of risk should be mandatory, and insurance companies should have a cap on the amount of premiums they can charge, to me insurance is a necessity not a luxury, rebuilding a once popular region is hard enough, without the capital to do that you might as well give up because it’s not possible to return it to the way it was before.