Storm-struck areas of Texas were to receive new aid yesterday after officials in Galveston raised to five the number of people killed in the city by Hurricane Ike.
The reported deaths were in the weather-ravaged port city, and officials said the toll likely would rise as clean-up and recovery continued.
CNN television reported that the overall death toll from Ike in the US was at least 13. Simon Chabel of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said that as of late on Sunday, 3,743 people had been rescued throughout Texas after Ike, a Category Two storm, blew the roofs off houses, felled trees, flooded roads and downed power lines when it made landfall here early on Saturday.
Millions of people remained without power, water or sanitation on Sunday, prompting officials to advise residents sheltering outside the region to stay away until conditions in the storm-battered area improved.
“Galveston has been hit hard. We have no power. We have no gas. We have no communications. We’re not sure when any of that will be up and running,” Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said.
“Do not come back to Galveston,” she said in a plea to her city’s residents. “You cannot live here at this time.”
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush said he would travel to Texas today to witness the devastation at first hand, and promised food and water deliveries, after meeting FEMA Director David Paulison in Washington.
Three US-based risk assessment firms tagged the onshore damage at anywhere between US$8 billion and US$18 billion.
Officials said the much of the area was still uninhabitable, with nearly 5 million electricity customers still in the dark and with promised federal disaster aid not yet arrived more than 36 hours after Ike pummeled the region.
Houston Mayor Bill White on Sunday questioned why FEMA had not yet begun delivering vital food, water and ice to residents of his stricken city.
“We expect FEMA to deliver those supplies and we will hold them accountable in this community,” White said.
Also on Sunday, officials said, at least 10 offshore oil platforms were damaged in the storm, while Houston-area oil refineries that produce 20 percent of the nation’s gasoline remained shuttered and offline, causing fears to mount of an impending gasoline crunch.
Authorities warned it could be weeks before electricity was restored to some customers, prompting authorities in Houston to announce a dusk-to-dawn curfew to prevent looting and help prevent accidents on roads strewn with fallen trees and live power lines.
More than 2.2 million residents fled inland to avoid Ike’s wrath, but more than 100,000 residents of low-lying areas — including 20,000 in Galveston — decided to ride out the storm despite dire warnings from the national weather service.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices fell nearly US$2 on Sunday in New York, dipping below US$100 to US$99.30 dollars, as traders were reassured that refineries and rigs had been spared the worst. Gasoline prices at pump stations, however, spiked in the southeastern US and officials warned they would punish firms engaged in price-gouging.
When Ike made landfall early on Saturday in Galveston, it unleashed a wall of water and winds that ripped through the country’s fourth-largest city, Houston.
Also See: Oil prices drop to six-month low as Ike leaves Texas
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