The Galveston County Daily News

TIKI ISLAND — To look at Tiki Island a week after Hurricane Ike laid waste to much of the upper Texas Coast, one could easily think the village at the base of the causeway missed taking a hit from the storm.

To be sure, debris piles line every street, FEMA trailers with ice and water line Tiki Drive, roofs have holes in them and boats that are supposed to be in the water this time of year sit on the side of the roads. Still, all of the 800 homes in Tiki still stand with only one home at risk of being condemned.

“I keep hearing people say that Tiki Island really didn’t get hit by Ike,” Mayor Charlie Everts said. “Let me tell you, we got the same hit that everyone else did around here.

“Tiki performed exactly as it is supposed to. Downstairs washed away (and) most of the upstairs structures are in tact.”

That performance is a testament, said Everts, to Tiki Island’s stricter building codes. Codes that over the years were fought tooth and nail by homebuilders and criticized by many in the community. It’s those same codes, though, that allow homeowners in Tiki Island to pay 10 percent less on their flood insurance and — now after Ike — left most of the living areas of homes unscathed.

Everts has been a champion of the stricter codes that call for such things as plywood on both sides of a home’s walls and 2-inch-by-6-inch studs to frame all outside walls.

Those codes stood strong against Ike and are allowing residents to clean up and repair instead of rebuild their homes.

Still, Everts was feeling as if Tiki Island had dodged a bullet.

“Now if that storm had the 130 mph winds and that same (storm surge), there would have been devastation,” he said. “It’s a prefect example, though, of when you do things right.”

Tiki’s weathering of the storm can also be attributed to residents and firemen who wasted little time in cleaning up debris and making the city ready for homeowners to return.

“It started with the Tiki Volunteers (fire department),” said Everts. “They were out here Saturday afternoon picking up debris.”

There were 30 to 40 volunteers on the afternoon of the storm and another 20 the day after, the mayor said. They made way for the residents who started returning Tuesday. By Saturday, Tiki was buzzing with homeowners and contractors.

Many were home for the first time since evacuating before the hurricane made landfall.

“We got five or six feet (of water) in the garage, had some damage to the roof and side. All in all ,we came out OK,” said Sandra Haire, a 12-year resident of Tiki, but who experienced her first hurricane up close. “I was pretty scared; I kept thinking (the storm) would turn. It never did.”

Still, Tiki is home and will remain so for a long time said Haire.

“It’s work, but not that bad,” said Tiki resident Louis Peralta as he grabbed a hot meal served up by a Salvation Army canteen from Maryland. “We lost the bottom (of the house) like everybody else.”

Peralta’s spirit remained high, even as his mourned the loss of his dog, Bristol. He was looking forward to when the cleanup was complete.

“It’s going to be a heck of a party when it gets cleaned up.”

Everts expects the cleanup and return of Tiki to be rather quick. Water and sewer service is already restored and new electric meters for houses will be installed starting Monday.

Hopefully, CenterPoint Energy will soon follow to restore electricity.

Contractors, which must check in with city hall and get a release form before starting work, are busy at work. Some homeowners have moved temporarily into trailer homes or RVs in their driveways.

In addition to the Tiki Island police, who are working on 12 hour shifts, out-of-town officers have arrived to help keep the island secure.

And even though the church lost its stairway, the Tiki Chapel plans a Sunday morning worship service.

“It was a bit dim, but that light is clearly at the end of the tunnel,” Everts said.