Hurricane Ike Comes to the Upper Texas Coast

Hurricane Ike left us with quite a mess to clean up but fortunately our building and all staff members are fine.  We evacuated to various locations staying with friends and family until the Lake Jackson emergency management team said it was safe to return on Tuesday.  The city is operating on limited power and most staff are still without electricity in their homes although we have running water and sewer for which we are very thankful!  There are many downed trees at the GCBO sanctuary and we are operating in a limited capacity on generator power (thanks Tom!).  We spent Wednesday assessing our situation and beginning clean up by creating huge piles of debris.

Unfortunately, our endangered species biologist's truck was totaled by a tree fall while he was riding out the storm in Houston.  The boat that he used to access Wolf Island also took a tree fall which broke the trailer frame under the spare tire (not really evident in this picture taken after the tree was removed). So... we are in need of a trailer for a small aluminum boat.

We are thankful for all who expressed concern for our welfare and wish our partners further up the coast well in their recovery efforts.