Ike leaves at least 80 in Galveston needing rescue
Ike leaves at least 80 in Galveston needing rescue

Published: September 13, 2008

GALVESTON, Texas - Hurricane Ike continues to keep Galveston rescue teams from reaching at least 80 people stranded in high waters.

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City officials said early Saturday there were no reports of deaths or injuries on the island, where Ike came ashore as a Category 2 storm just after 2 a.m.

Rescue crews will respond to dozens needing water rescues once winds drop below hurricane strength, city spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said. Police have begun patrolling the streets.

Cahill said some residents are calling from the upstairs of their homes because their first floor is flooded.

Galveston access closing planned

AUSTIN - Galveston is covered with two to four feet of water and authorities are planning to close access to the island Saturday, state officials say.

"You can go out, but you can't come in," Allison Castle, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, told reporters at the emergency operations center Saturday in Austin.

Castle also said the U.S. Coast Guard is preparing to evacuate four critical care patients from the flooded University of Texas Medical Branch hospital. She said the Coast Guard is waiting for winds to drop below 50 mph before conducting the rescue operation.

Castle said the Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Transportation are being dispatched to Galveston to shut down roads and assist people out.

"Only emergency vehicles are going to be allowed on the island," she said.

Ship off Texas coast weathers storm GALVESTON, Texas - The 22-man crew of a disabled freighter 100 miles off the coast of Galveston, Texas, has made it safely through the night.

The Merchant Shipping Department for the Meditterian island of Cyprus reports the ship is no longer in danger and is waiting to be towed back to safe harbor. A tow boat is expected to meet up with the ship sometime after noon.

Officials say the ship's Greek owners have been in communication with the ship every hour.

The ship is a bulk carrier that's 167 meters long and carrying tons of petroleum coke. The crew includes two Greek nationals and 20 Ukrainian nationals.

The ship experienced trouble after sailing out of harbor when two of its six fuel injection pumps broke down.

Historic Galveston nightclub is destroyed

GALVESTON, Texas - A historic Galveston, Texas, nightclub that once attracted some of the world's top entertainers was washed away by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike.

The 79-year-old Balinese Room was once a popular dance and gambling hall. It hosted performances by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, George Burns and the Marx Brothers in the 1940s and '50s. Howard Hughes was a patron.

The structure along Galveston's sea wall had extended 600 feet out into the Gulf of Mexico. The building was added to the Natoinal Register of Historic Places in 1997.

It had survived Hurricane Carla in 1961 and Hurricane Alicia in 1983, but Ike was too much for it as the storm's surge ripped the building apart early Saturday.

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