Ike toll at 40, survivors to wait weeks for hot meals, baths

NVDL: Very grim aftermath

Yahoo: A curfew remains in force for Houston, barring people from being on city streets from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and officials were working to prevent looting and theft. Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said the city has issued 108 citations and arrested 33 people who violated the citywide curfew that began on Sunday night. Hurtt said the arrests included several people in a stolen car, with stolen items inside.

Still, there are signs the recovery is moving forward. Houston Assistant Fire Chief Rick Flanagan said emergency calls dropped dramatically by Monday afternoon, and Mayor Bill White rescinded a mandate to boil water. White also said residents of the Clear Lake area, which had been under a mandatory evacuation order, could safely return home.

At the supply distribution centers, the lines were long but most people patiently waited. At Texas Southern University, where lines of cars stretched two hours or longer for bottled water and bags of ice, 33-year-old LaChandra Noel arrived with her 11-year-old deaf and blind daughter in a wheelchair. Those ahead of Noel let her go to the front and get water and ice first.

clipped from news.yahoo.com "A good bath would be nice: have the fire department swing by and spray us down," said Carlos Silliman, 48, as he sat on a picnic bench in front of his Galveston Island home, where 18 inches of water flooded his garage and ruined a freezer full of venison. "I'm ready to have a cold beer and read the paper." For most, such luxuries are far beyond the horizon. Many service stations have no gasoline, and some major highways remain under water. More than 30,000 evacuees are still living in nearly 300 public shelters, and roughly 2 million people in Texas alone are without power. Ike's survivors have already walked for miles and waited for hours at supply distribution centers, gobbling up all that was offered: 1 million bottles of water, 1 million meals and 600,000 pounds of ice in just the first 36 hours after the storm passed.