The Galveston County Daily News reported that about 100 people had been rescued in that flooded city...and that 17 structures in the city had collapsed, including 10 homes destroyed by fire. The newspaper said blazes raged throughout the night as firefighters, stymied by high water, looked on helplessly.
Wilson Shaffer, chief of the National Weather Service's evaluation division, said the storm surge was smaller than predicted, but the region wasn't out of the clear as the storm continued on its path.
The highest surge Saturday morning was about 13.5 feet at Sabine Pass in Texas, according to tidal gauges. The surge at Galveston was 11 feet, about half of what was predicted. Forecasters had warned that the surge could reach 25 feet.
The Interior Department said 97% of Gulf of Mexico oil production and 94% of natural gas production have been shut down because of the storm. The Port of Houston, the nation's second largest port, also closed, and airports were shutting down. - USAtoday.com
"I was going to stay over there like I always done. Thirty years, never had anything like this," Moore said. "When the storm surge came in, it started taking out the front row of houses, and it was like a domino effect."
Shortly after midnight, he said, a huge wave slammed another house into his. The floor buckled, the door busted in "and I couldn't get out of there fast enough," Moore said.
"I swam, I treaded water. I found a tree, and I just stayed there." He said his pants snagged on a branch, and he lost them together with his identification, drivers license and all his keys. "Since then I been buck naked," he said.
"I was there for the hurricane when the sky turned black," he said. "I could see the trees swaying and the electric poles flying back and forth, knocking into each other. I thought I was going to die."
Houston Mayor Bill White said that 911 operators were working through a backlog of 4,700 calls in and around the city.
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