Hurricane Ike… September 13, 2008 Total Devastation

I’ll never forget receiving the phone call from my friend
Helene, who lived right on the bay of Kemah just north of Houston…
She called to say they were evacuating, that the water was up about
2 feet already in the yard. Taking the dogs and a few clothes, computer
and that was about it they were headed up to stay with family on drier
ground. Hurricane Ike was one of the most costly hurricanes to ever
hit the Texas coast yet it seems to not have garnered the talk
that New Orleans had a few years before. Yet, to witness
it myself, just one month after, it was apparent the devastation
to lives, homes and businesses was one that would take years to
recover from, with many leaving and never coming back…

2 years later, some were still living in trailers

Most of these images were shot a month after the hurricane when we
attended a family members wedding that was able to find a place
open to have the reception at. I stayed on a few days after the
wedding and wondered around a deserted Strand and Galveston,
shooting behind yellow tape, as I witnessed people trying to make
sense of what had happened and attempting to salvage what they could
to put their lives back in order. It was reminiscent of a ghost town,
as there were really not many people out working, but the few I
encountered were determined not to let Ike have the best of them…