As many as 50 still missing from the Bolivar Peninsula--still no bodies found

[jobycom]

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080918_tj_search_bodies_bolivar_ike.8e35ae67.html

GALVESTON, Texas -- Search teams finished a second sweep of Bolivar Peninsula on Thursday and did not find any bodies, the Galveston County judge said. However, as the search of the devastated peninsula transitions from rescue to recovery, Judge Jim Yarbrough cautioned that those missing from Bolivar might never be seen again.

snip

The judge also put to rest rumors that the county had shut off the peninsula to open a temporary morgue and cover up mass finds of bodies. He said that in five days of searching no bodies had been found and that no morgue operation was present on the peninsula or at Galveston's UTMB, as had been rumored.

snip

Yarbrough said a hotline set up by the county to track missing residents has created a list of 50 people considered missing. But he cautioned that some of those on the list have been found safe at shelters in other parts of the state.

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The article goes on to say that they are about to search an area called Goat Island, where a large debris field collected after the storm. Generally, a hurricane washes debris inland, then when the waves recede it leaves the debris there, almost like a levee. In the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 that debris levee actually saved some of the island by blocking the waves from going further inland. So it makes sense there could be bodies there.

One note about the "50 missing." That just means there are 50 people that someone has reported they can't find. Some of those "missing" may not even know they've been reported missing, maybe by some relative in another state who is not able to get in touch with them. And some of the missing may not have been anywhere near the island--some relative may have thought they were in the area and reported them missing, when they could have moved long ago. So not all 50 are necessarily actually missing.