Galveston: Is it wiped out off the Texas map?

I hope not. We have spent the Spring Break in Galveston, Texas, just this year and I’m lucky to have hung around in the island city long enough to enjoy its beauty before Hurricane Ike came over. God, was it that brutal and quick? Our parents live in Post Office street, in a Victorian-style house just like most of them in Galveston. They say that since the house was elevated from the ground several feet, the water rose only as high as to cover the floor about six inches deep. Still, with all the electric appliances, furniture, carpets, and all other stuff that lay on there and the wooden floor itself, I’ll call it a miracle that this house still survived. Heck, even the Galveston newspaper office didn’t make it till next morning with the roof still intact.

So the question is, is Galveston wiped out off the Texas map? I’m not sure, and we will have to visit our parents to find out exactly how things look like. Yet, we are positive that restoration of the city can go two ways — it can happen fast, but it may take a while. So far, the news tell us that things are going good, despite the fact that the aftermath is horrible. Sewage water stinks the flooded areas, mosquitoes swarming, no water or electricity–Galveston is practically unlivable. But everyone in the city is extending their efforts to help restore the city, before our dreaded thought of it being obliterated from the Texas map may ever be confirmed.