Galveston--Where Ike hit land

A couple weeks ago Kent and I flew with Kipp and Kyli over Galveston to take a look at the hurricane damage. It didn't look too bad as we flew into Scholes Field to stretch our legs. That is, until we landed and got a closer look. I guess there is a lot that looks good from 4500 feet. Structurally the outside of the terminal building looked great but all the windows were gone and debris was flowing out every opening . Despite all the damage there was still someone sitting under a canopy to greet us with a basket of snacks and cold drinks. We were also given a pretty champagne-looking bottle of grape juice.


I think the airport was being used as a staging area. There were so many diesel trucks, ambulances, RV's, disaster relief trucks and one of the runways were closed due to parked vehicles on it.



As we flew away from the airport we could see a bunch of ships parked on the median of the freeway (I-45) with others randomly placed inland. However, the camera memory was full and didn't actually take the pictures. I was so excited to have such bizarre pictures. Oh well. The rest of the pictures are taken from Kent's phone. They're not the best pictures, but hopefully you can get the feel for the complete devastation Galveston endured during the storm.

There were neighborhoods missing all the homes. You could see lines from the streets and property lines, but nothing else, not even debris. Occasionally you could see sticks in the air where a home use to sit on stilts.



In this picture you can see that there are only a few homes left near the water.


Then there were no more homes or sign of anything.


For miles and miles there was nothing left on Bolivar Peninsula.



On the way home we flew through the VFR corridor. It's the small area between the two Houston airports that you're allowed to fly. It takes you over downtown Houston and all the skyscrapers. We don't do it very often so it's always fun.