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Rescuing Ike stalwarts a race against the clock

AP, Galveston
Rescue crews canvassed neighbourhoods inundated by Ike's storm surge early yesterday, racing agarnst ume to rescue those who faced a second harrowing night trapped amid flattened houses, strewn debris and downed power lines.
One team of paramedics, rescue dogs and structural engineers fanned out under a full moon on a finger of land in Galveston Bay. Authorities hoped to spare thousands of Texans 140,000 by some estimates who ignored mandates to flee Hurricane Ike from another night among the destruction. Some had been rescued, but unknown thousands remained stranded. Only four deaths had been blamed on Ike so far two in Texas and two in Louisiana and rescuers hoped to keep that tally from rising.
But roads blocked by waist-deep water and downed trees kept many rescuers at bay as they struggled through the largest search-and-rescue effort in state history, just a day after the Category 2 storm crashed into Texas with 1 lOmph winds.
Fne-year-old Jack King escaped serious injury when storm surge sent a rush of water that washed out the first floor of his family's Galveston home just two blocks from the bay.
"I failed in the attic," Jack told paramedic Stanley Hempstead of liis 10-foot tumble onto the garage floor. Jack and his family had taken refuge in the room, loaded with blankets and other supplies. As rescuers arrived. Jack gazed at a TV aglow with "The Simpsons." The only evidence of his fall was a Band-Aid plastered to his closely-cropped hair, covering a gash
"We just didn't think it was going to come up like this,’’ said the boy's father. Lee King. "I’m from New Orleans, I know better. I just didn't think it was going to happen."
Fortunately, Jack only suffered scrapes and bruises in the fall. The Kings had hoped that a family member would pick them up. but a paramedic told him the road inland wouldn't be open for days. Lee King thought they could survive another night, but then their generator died. He ultimately decided the family was ready to leave.
Hempstead and other team members sailed through flooded streets Saturday, evoking thoughts of another disastrous storm that kept him working for 31 days.
This brings back memories of Katrina a lot of tom up homes and flooded stuff," he said of the infamous hurricane that struck New Orleans just more than three years ago. On one side of the Galveston peninsula, a couple of barges had
broken loose and smashed into homes.
Everything from red vinyl barstools to clay roof tiles littered the landscape. Some homes were "pancaked." the second floor sitting where die first had been before Ike's surge washed it out. Only the stud frames remained below the roofs of many houses, opening a clear view from front yard to back.
Gov. Rick Perry's office said 940 people had been saved by nightfall Saturday, but that thousands had made distress calls the night before. Another 600 were rescued from Louisiana floods.
"What's really frustrating is that we can't get to them." Galveston police officer Tommie Mafrei said "It's jeopardizing our safe ty when we try to tell them eight hours before to leave. They are naive about it. thinking it's not going to be that bad."
Some coastal residents waded through chest-deep water with their belongings and children in their arms to get to safety Saturday Military helicopters loaded others carrying plastic bags and pets in their arms and brought them to dry ground.
Big-wheeled dump trucks, boats and helicopters were at the ready to continue searching hard-hit Galveston and Orange County at daybreak Sunday.