Death toll from Ike is....

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10 according to the AP...

10?

that many people die in a normal Houston rush hour

[katmondoo]

1. I saw 25 in the local Florida paper

[XemaSab]

2. Yeah, like, is there an exponent missing?

3... 4... 5? :shrug:

[Avalux]

3. They don't know yet. A whole area of Galveston (south) has yet to be searched.

Homes were ripped apart and lie in rubble. It will take weeks to figure out how many perished there.

[tekisui]

4. I am having a very hard time understanding the news

or lack thereof coming from the Texas coast. Some of the pictures from Galveston show complete destruction, and it was reported 90,000 chose to stay in the coastal cities. I don't buy those numbers. I hope it is true, of course. But, I simply don't believe it.

[goodgd_yall]

5. I heard 30 on NPR. n/t

[EFerrari]

6. I believe that's counting people outside of TX, too. n/t

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

14. I did not mean just iun TX

[EFerrari]

7. Why aren't they talking to survisors on camera?

:shrug:

[scarface2004]

8. saw a flyover of bolivar today..

if there was anybody there trying to ride it out they are long gone. the surge took everything out.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

11. Uh huh

the hamptons of texas

http://www.bolivarchamber.org/

[AndyTiedye]

12. They Probably Wouldn't Even Find Bodies There

The sea would have taken them.

[geomon666]

13. I'm sure there were survivors.

I've already heard some amazing stories of survival from people at Crystal Beach. Check this out.

Man survives 17 hours in rough waters after refusing to leave home

Crystal Beach Couple Rode Out The Hurricane

[Garbo 2004]

16. And this Crystal Beach story: "Five shelter from Ike in church with a lion"

CRYSTAL BEACH, Texas—As if holing up in a church as Hurricane Ike was doing its worst to the Bolivar Peninsula wasn’t bad enough, Robert Reed had something else to contend with: a 500-pound African lion.

When Ike’s storm surge made the peninsula’s only main road impassable, Reed assisted in getting other residents onto helicopters so they could be airlifted to safety. Reed figured the Coast Guard would be returning to pick him up, but as the weather deteriorated, it became too dangerous for further rescue efforts.

That left Reed and five others stranded in the Seaside Lumber Store on Highway 87 in Crystal Beach. With the water rising and Ike only hours away from landfall, Reed and the band of survivors waded through waist deep water to the Baptist church next door.

The church was built at a higher elevation...

<snip>

KHOU.com sent Reed a text message, and eventually he was able to get a call through.

It was less than ideal – we could only hear every sixth word he said.

That’s when someone in the church with Reed had an idea: They sent a text-to-land line message to KHOU.com.

Text-to-land line messages are delivered by a computerized voice, based on the text typed into the user’s phone.

The cryptic message to KHOU.com was as follows: “We are in Crystal Beach. Five men and one (inaudible) and an African lion at the Baptist church.”

We didn’t believe the part about African lion could be real.

But it was...

Full story at:
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080915_tj_ike_shelter_lion_crystal_beach.7a72aecc.html

[Sabriel]

9. Would we believe the count, anyway?

I mean, after the Katrina number-fudging....

[MadrasT]

10. I firmly believe there is a huge cover up going on.

And no, my tinfoil hat is not too tight. :tinfoilhat:

[Phoonzang]

15. Well when people see "22 foot storm surge" most of them are going to leave...

Even the most hardy.