Residents hit by Ike undeterred by rats and sewage

RATS, raw sewage and a no-excuses curfew await exiled residents who try to return to storm-wrecked Galveston Island when it reopens next week, officials have said.

A week after Hurricane Ike came thundering ashore, the grim predictions didn’t seem to scare some of the 45,000 evacuated islanders from trying to get home, even though most of the island won’t open back up until Wednesday.

Another miles-long traffic jam clogged the only highway into the city over the weekend. Some ignored orders to turn around, while others resorted to deception to sneak past police guarding a roadblock.

David Culpepper met his brother Joe in Atlanta, put a false magnetic sign on a truck to masquerade as contractors and drove down to help a third brother, Michael, who owns an antiques shop on Galveston.

Guards at the checkpoint waved Joe and David right in.

It could be weeks or more before basic services are restored in all areas. Authorities cautioned that residents could find drastically different conditions depending on how their property fared.

“We have people whose homes are totally and completely destroyed, all the way to the other end of the spectrum, to where your home is perfectly fine,” city manager Steve LeBlanc said.

Fuel and other essentials remained scarce. Some businesses were beginning to reopen, cell service was improving and electricity was coming back on.

But the strides are small, and island leaders emphasised that Galveston remained dangerous.

Police will indefinitely enforce a 6.00pm to 6.00am curfew once the island reopens, and parents were warned their children could be exposed to infections from storm debris and other hazards.

Planes continued spraying the island to control mosquitoes, and officials urged those returning to wear masks to protect from mould and to properly dispose of spoiled food to stave off vermin.

Hundreds of stop signs were being trucked in to replace traffic lights, nearly all of which were blown away, and 150 state troopers were on their way to help police the city.

“We will have order in the city,” LeBlanc said.

The increased activity was welcome news to evacuees, but less so to at least some of the roughly 15,000 who rode out the Category 2 storm on the island.

“I have been comfortable these past nine days without noise, without stupid sirens,” 61-year-old Leonid Elokhine said as he walked home from trying to find supplies to fix his flooded car.

More than one million people evacuated the Texas coast as Ike steamed across the Gulf of Mexico.