GALVESTON — Aside from a fire and the partial collapse of a building, Hurricane Rita inflicted its worst damage on Galveston’s traffic lights, city officials said Monday.
As residents pour back across the Causeway, they are driving up to intersections where lights are flashing red, are red in all directions or simply off. In some cases lights are completely gone.
“Our traffic signals are probably the most damaged of our public assets,” City Manager Steve LeBlanc said.
At four intersections along Seawall Boulevard — 61st Street, Central City Boulevard, 69th Street and 81st Street — the lights have been replaced with stop signs “which will be there quite awhile,” LeBlanc said.
Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said city crews were working hard to fix traffic lights around town, but she urged motorists to be careful until they are.
Drivers should treat intersections with malfunctioning lights as if there are stop signs there.
Meanwhile, electricity was restored to most buildings by noon Monday.
David Murphy of CenterPoint Energy said that when Rita came ashore late Friday and early Saturday, it knocked out power to 45,000 of the island’s 60,000 customers.
By Monday, the number of customers with no power was down to 9,000. They should all have power back by Friday, Murphy said.
“There are a lot of people who will have individual problems,” Murphy said. “We won’t hear about them unless they call us.”
CenterPoint can be reached at (713) 207-2222 or (800) 332-7143.
Meanwhile on the mainland, Texas-New Mexico Power Co. was reporting that about 20,000 of its customers lost power from Rita. The company said that 90 percent of those would have power back by the end of the day Wednesday.
LeBlanc said a boil water order continued to be in force for residents living west of 7 Mile Road and east of First Street. He said a loss of pressure in those areas during the storm might have made water unsafe.
Superintendent Lynn Hale said the Galveston Independent School District’s buildings suffered relatively little damage in the hurricane.
However, the new Crenshaw Elementary and Middle School on the Bolivar Peninsula will not be able to open until power is restored. That could take as long as two weeks, Hale said.
On Sunday, city and school district buses brought residents back to the Island Community Center after what was for many a harrowing evacuation on Thursday.
As residents got off the buses, Hale said she was in awe of the bus drivers who volunteered to make the trip. She said she also was proud of the custodians who volunteered to open and run a refuge of last resort at Alamo Elementary School during the height of the storm.
Now the buses themselves need attention after the grueling journey.
“We are in need of our mechanics to report back to work,” Hale said.
Teachers are to report to work on Wednesday and classes will begin Thursday.
One man was arrested as the buses arrived on suspicion that he sexually assaulted a woman during the evacuation. But LeBlanc said he was later released.
“He was released due to the fact that the stories didn’t match up,” LeBlanc said.
City officials said there was one case of looting in the aftermath of Rita. On Saturday night, police arrested a man after they reportedly found him breaking into Game Crazy at 6105 Stewart Road. LeBlanc did not release the man’s name Monday.
There were also some burglaries of West End homes reported, LeBlanc said. No arrests have been made in those cases.
Rita did less damage than expected to Galveston infrastructure and it took less sand off of the city’s beaches than originally feared, LeBlanc said.
“Looking at what Beaumont, Lake Charles and Port Arthur are looking at we are very, very lucky,” Thomas said.
The city’s emergency operations center was closed at 5 p.m. Monday. Thomas said residents experiencing storm-related problems should now call city hall at (409) 797-3702.
LeBlanc said he had been getting calls from residents wanting to know if they would be penalized for paying their water bills late. He said there would be no penalties for those who pay their bills by Friday.
Garbage collection will begin today with pickup at residences that normally have their garbage picked up on Monday. Pickups will be staggered through the remainder of the week and will resume their normal schedule on Monday.
To make sure the history of Rita is not lost, Thomas is asking that residents write their experiences down and drop them off at the city secretary’s office. The accounts will be compiled and made part of the archive at Rosenberg Library, Thomas said.
