GALVESTON – With ice, emergency housing and patience running low, President Bush got a firsthand look Tuesday at the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, promising a relief effort as relentless as the winds that raked the coast.
"I know a lot of people are anxious to get back in," Mr. Bush said, urging patience as crews try to restore electricity and water to more than 1.5 million people who have been without since the storm hit Saturday. "It's a tough situation on the coast."
Harris County officials announced six more deaths in the county from Ike, bringing the storm's total to 48. Seventeen of the deaths were in Texas.
In Galveston County, officials keen to avoid more injuries were trying to invoke emergency powers to force 250 residents off Bolivar Peninsula. In Houston, there were long lines for water, food and ice, and frustration at distribution centers.
Nearly three-quarters of Houston power customers remained without electricity and Galveston was worse off, said FEMA administrator Dave Paulison. "There's going to be a lot of people who can't go home for a long time," he said.
Mr. Bush spent just under three hours in Texas on Tuesday, his second post-hurricane trip to Texas this month. After a briefing at a Coast Guard hangar at Ellington Field in southern Houston, he flew over the Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston, viewing the flattened neighborhoods, the stilts where houses once stood, and the debris-strewn roads.
Scores of oil tankers were visible in the Gulf of Mexico, waiting for the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers to open the Houston Ship Channel. Mr. Bush said the disruption to energy supply was a major concern, though the situation could be worse.
In largely deserted Galveston, Mr. Bush met with Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas and other local officials. Under pressure to let residents check their homes, she opened the city during daylight hours so residents could "look and leave." But she later suspended the policy without explanation.
In nearby Bolivar, two Black Hawk helicopters airlifted 18 people to Galveston Tuesday afternoon, most of them Vietnamese-American shrimpers. The ferry to Galveston isn't running, and the main road and bridge on the east end aren't usable. Those who braved the storm, said County Judge Jim Yarbrough, are a "hardy bunch," but with no gas, power or water, the sliver of land – home to about 30,000 people during the summer peak – isn't safe, and he'll force residents off if necessary.
"I don't want to do it," he said. "I'm doing it because it's in their best interests."
In Houston, Mayor Bill White met with Mr. Bush on the tarmac at Ellington Field before the president flew home. He told Mr. Bush that some relief centers aren't getting supplies quickly enough, an aide said, and he emphasized the need for more ice and fuel – and more clarity from federal officials on when supplies will arrive.
"I know there are some shortages," Mr. Bush had told reporters earlier. "We'll continue to monitor the situation."
With rescue efforts winding down, longer-term issues like housing are getting attention. Mr. Paulison said a state-federal task force will work to place evacuees in hotels and apartments, and trailers if state officials decide that's best.
"It's not just kind of ad hoc, like it was with Katrina," he said.
Mr. Bush urged Americans to donate to the American Red Cross and warned against letting "disaster fatigue" slow donations.
He also announced that Washington will pay for all Ike-related debris removal for two weeks, waiving a rule that capped the federal share after three days.
Most of the state's federal lawmakers had lobbied for the waiver.
U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, said the recovery is going "as well as could be expected," though he echoed complaints about slow distribution of food and water.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Mr. Bush received no particular complaints about the FEMA response but empathized.
"There's broad recognition that residents whose lives have been upended will feel angst about getting their lives back to normal," he said. "... We have seen vast improvements in that response and the president wants to make sure that that continues."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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