Thousands of Galveston, Texas residents returned Wednesday for the first time since their island city was devastated by Hurricane Ike almost two weeks ago, choosing to come home rather than to heed warnings that the city is “broken” and infested with disease and snakes. Many residents returned to find their homes destroyed. Vehicle traffic was backed up for 16 kilometers on the one major highway leading into Galveston, but traffic moved smoothly after the city began letting people in early on Wednesday. Many people had been waiting in their cars along the highway since before dawn. City officials had prepared residents for terrible conditions by offering a pessimistic assessment of damages to the island since Ike's devastation. “When you come back, it's not going to be the same Galveston Island you left,” Mayor Danny Weber said Tuesday. “It's been damaged. It's been broken.” Weber and others warned residents not to return without tetanus shots and rat traps and to be ready for swarms of mosquitoes and displaced snakes. People were told to bring their own water and to not turn on natural gas or electric lights until one of the island's three remaining electrical inspectors can examine their homes. Residents of the Galveston's most severely damaged area, on the island's west end, may visit their homes but are not being allowed to stay in them. At least 61 deaths, 26 of them in Texas, were blamed on the Category 2 hurricane. About 45,000 of Galveston's 57,000 residents fled the island, about 80 kilometers southeast of Houston, along with hundreds of thousands more from other sections of the Texas coast.
