Hurricane Ike rescued 2,000
A day after Hurricane Ike's rain and 100-mph winds thrashed the nation's fourth-largest city, police and politicians struggled Sunday to hold back another flood: the thousands of people attempting to return home.
Cars clogged debris-strewn roads into the Houston area, even though free-flowing electricity, gasoline and water may be days or weeks away.
The death toll rose to 28 in eight states. The storm left millions without power, destroyed oil production platforms in the Gulf and wrought damage estimated in the billions of dollars.
In Galveston and other coastal communities, rescuers plucked hurricane holdouts from rooftops, crews scrambled to restore electricity and police struggled to maintain order. Airports, schools and most gas stations remained closed. Some stretches of highways were impassable.
As floodwaters receded Sunday, thousands of volunteers waded into waist-deep waters looking for every person who stayed through the storm.
They found a 5-year-old boy who crashed through an attic. They found an elderly woman who stuck out the storm with her soggy dog. They found almost everyone alive.
Nearly 2,000 were rescued, and many boarded buses to shelters in San Antonio and Austin. About 4,000 evacuees are in North Texas shelters.
"If we save one, it's worth it. It doesn't matter to us. We help everybody we come across," said Capt. Perry Manuel of the Port Arthur Fire Department.
Even so, the death toll continued to rise Sunday. Three were found dead in the hard-hit barrier island city of Galveston, including a person found in a vehicle submerged in floodwaters. Many deaths were outside Texas.
And in North Texas, a 17-month-old boy whose family evacuated Houston was struck and killed Sunday by a vehicle in a Pleasant Grove parking lot.
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