BOLIVAR, Texas — It was a rainy ferry ride Thursday from Galveston to the Bolivar Peninsula. Eerie weather on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Ike.
“September 13th will always be a day that I remember,” said Brenda Flanagan.
Flanagan is a longtime Bolivar resident and current Chamber of Commerce president. She lost her home that day in 2008 along with two close friends.
“I had a couple of neighbors, a husband and wife, that did not leave and they did not make it through the storm,” said Flanagan.
That couple were among 113 lives claimed by Ike in the U.S. It caused some $30 billion in damage.
The Bolivar Peninsula was, in many ways, ground zero in the storm. Entire neighborhoods were washed away by a storm surge of up to 20 feet.
Homes, businesses and bodies were blown clear across the east bay onto the mainland.
“Businesses totally wiped out, homes wiped out, people walking around in a total daze,” remembered Flanagan.
Fortunately, Flanagan said this is a tight-knit community that has come a long way in the last decade. Homes and businesses have been rebuilt to stricter standards.
“These homes built after Ike are under stringent windstorm codes,” said homeowner Allan Zumo.
Zumo isn’t sure his home, located just a hundred yards from the gulf, would survive another Ike. But losing it is a risk everyone here takes.
“There’s always a threat on the coast,” said Zumo. “But there’s a threat anywhere if you think about it.”
People on the peninsula were thinking of those on the east coast impacted by Florence. They said they too would recover, eventually.
“They have my prayers,” said Flanagan. “Hopefully, they will come out okay.”