GALVESTON — With Hurricane Ike rapidly approaching, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas announced it is too late to evacuate.
“The message now, at this point, is to get inside and stay there until tomorrow,” Thomas said.
Thomas and City Manager Steve LeBlanc said they wished more residents had heeded their mandatory evacuation order. The last bus carrying evacuees who couldn’t drive themselves off the island left at 11:30 p.m. Thursday and arrived in Austin at 3 a.m. Friday.
The city opened a shelter of last resort at Ball High School at noon Friday.
LeBlanc said about 40 percent of the island’s 57,000 residents stayed. As Hurricane Rita barreled toward the island in 2005 as a Category 3 storm, nearly 100 percent of island residents left, LeBlanc said.
Fears of a Rita-like exodus likely kept people from leaving this time, LeBlanc said. Fluctuating forecasts about the storm’s landfall also contributed to so many residents staying, he said.
“Every morning, we got up, and it kept changing,” he said.
The city ordered a mandatory evacuation Thursday, less than 48 hours before the storm’s predicted landfall.
While the evacuation is mandatory, city officials can’t force people off the island.
“We don’t go to someone’s house and dig them out,” Thomas said.
The city provides residents with information year-round, apprises them of the risks of a hurricane and urges them to be prepared to leave, Thomas said.
“If they choose to stay, they stay at their own risk,” she said.
By 3 p.m. Friday, emergency personnel had rescued 12 people by boat from high water.
The entire West End of the island is under water. Crews cut off water service to the West End early Friday to prevent contamination of the water system.
Water lines are exposed and broken and likely already contaminated, LeBlanc said. Water service to the rest of the city will not be shut off.
“The worst is yet to come,” he said.
At 9 p.m. Friday, the mayor will order all city staff off the streets. City employees will hunker down at the San Luis Hotel to ride out the storm.
After that, emergency crews won’t respond to rescue or other emergency calls because it is too dangerous for them, Thomas said.
Weather permitting, rescue crews will take sick or injured people to the University of Texas Medical Branch emergency room in dump trucks if necessary, Thomas said.
LeBlanc compared this storm to hurricanes Carla and Alicia.
“In my lifetime, this is the worst I’ve seen,” he said.
