Dublin People - Southside mum tells of family's hurricane devastation

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Southside mum tells of family's hurricane devastation

Thursday, 09 October 2008

A Southside woman has spoken of the heartbreak suffered by her son when he lost the entire contents of his Texas home in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane.
Ann Clarke from Moreen Estate in Sandyford was looking forward to a relaxing holiday with her son Paul and his family in the town of Orange, near Houston last month, when she was caught up in one of the largest evacuations ever carried out in the southern United States.
Hurricane Ike, a category two storm, lashed the Texas and Louisiana coasts on Saturday, September 13, killing at least 30 people and leaving thousands homeless. Ike had already killed over 70 people in the Caribbean islands in the days before it made landfall in the US.
That very morning Ann was woken up by her son, who gave her the alarming news that the authorities had told everyone in the state to evacuate.
Within an hour the whole family had packed up what they could, but little did they know that when they returned, the entire contents of their home would be lost.
Ann recalled: “At 6am in the morning, while I was still asleep, the word came for mandatory evacuation, so Paul barred up the windows and the doors.
“Everyone had to evacuate from Galveston, Houston and Beaumont,” she added. “As soon as we heard Ike was going to hit Galveston we knew it would hit Houston and then Beaumont as they are all in a straight line.

“Over there the authorities don’t advise you to go anywhere in particular, they just tell you to get out and wherever you end up is your problem.”
While most of Houston escaped flooding, the tide of seawater that was pushed ahead of Hurricane Ike flooded the streets of several cities and towns near the Louisiana border, including Beaumont, Bridge City and Orange.
Affected
In Orange, about a third of the city of 19,000 people was flooded with water from six inches to six feet and Ms Clarke’s son’s house was one of those affected.
“When we got back to the house my son went inside to check and found everything devastated,” Ann said. “We went in and their furniture, beds, couches and everything was broken up and lying in about a foot of water. The water had risen to about five feet in the house.
“All his possessions were gone, everything that he had worked for including the children’s toys. He and his wife Jenny were devastated. Their hearts were ripped out of them looking at what was left of their belongings. They weren’t left with a thing and he had to watch the entire house contents being taken away in a dumper truck.”
Ann added that unfortunately for Paul while his insurance covered damage that was done to the structure of his house it did not cover the contents.
As of last week, thousands of residents of Texas had yet to return to their homes as emergency workers still struggled to distribute food and water in the state.

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