I'm gonna wrap this up with a few more pictures...
I felt this was a story worth telling...
some of the pictures are surreal...scary at least...
but Galveston Island has a fascinating history...
From Cabeza de Vaca...to Jean Lafitte's fort...
from a slave trading mecca to casino prohibition gambling...
from hurricane disasters to current day...
the city is currently thriving...
it was however listed last week as one of the 10 Deadliest Cities in the USA according to Douglas McIntyre...
city officials came unglued and quoted all kinds of statistics refuting this article...
http://247wallst.com/2010/08/23/americas-ten-dead-cities-from-detroit-to-new-orleans/
This Texas city was one of the largest ports in the US a hundred years ago. It was also the location of one of the greatest natural disasters in American history. In 1900, a hurricane killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people. In the decades after the hurricane, Galveston became a major tourist center due to its location on the Gulf and proximity to several larger Texas cities. Galveston was also a major military recruitment center during WWII. The cause of Galveston’s demise is unique. It had become something of the Sodom and Gomorrah of the southern US. There was a large gambling industry there, some of it illegal, which was controlled by criminals. In the late 1950s,Texas state authorities successfully attacked local organized crime. The regulated tourist trade could not replace the illegal business. Galveston’s port and hospitality industries had begun to improve, but where trampled by the effects of Hurricane Ike in 2008. The event destroyed a large part of the city’s tax base, and set back the tourism industry once again.
I live here...I was in the tourist industry for 27 years...our beaches and hotels are packed...Galveston is flourishing...these storms are almost treated as minor hiccups now days from the old timers...
hehehe...a big minor hiccup...
sure...they show concern...but you always hear them say...you should of seen what the one before this one did...
2 years later...some of my neighbors are actually still rebuilding...some people had a lot of issues with their insurance companies...
some homes in my neighborhood are on the market..."as is"...some remodeled...most inhabited by their former residents...
when you peek inside at one of the "as is" houses and see the sheet rock cut at stomach level...you can't help but get that eerie feeling and remember your own home's repairs...
anyway...if you followed this thread...I got very little damage...my insurance company treated me like a family member...I was very Lucky that I was cash heavy when the disaster hit...if you learned something from it...that's great...I really felt like it should be told...
if you didn't learn anything from it...take my advice...
leave when Mother Nature spreads her angry wings...you can defend against her a little...but she will win if she wants to...you can always rebuild...
Leave...Mother Nature can be brutal...
. Does it ever bother you that once you get back to normal which must take ages, that it could happen again. Watched a Tornado documentary man they are just awesome frightening things, one minute your sitting there having a meal, 10 minutes later everything is gone and if your one of the lucky ones your still alive. This guy they interviewed had lost everything three times with Tornado hits, Cattle house all his farm machinery and he said he was staying and starting again, think I would throw in the towel after that. As you say Mike Mother nature is Brutal you cannot beat her, you only have to see the devastation she has caused around the World this year, don't know if its my imagination but it seems to be getting worse year by year. Anyway Mike think all the guys are behind you on the forum and hope everything comes good for you. Keep us updated as to how you and your neighbours get on. Good luck Buddie.
