Samaritan's Purse staff and volunteers are out in storm-ravaged neighborhoods along the Texas coast, helping people recover from Hurricane Ike.

Three of our Disaster Relief Units along with a convoy of support vehicles and equipment moved into Texas on Monday. They are based at Santa Fe in the Galveston area; Friendswood, between Galveston and Houston; and Port Arthur.

Staff and volunteers have begun removing felled trees from homes and yards, clearing debris, patching roofs with heavy-duty plastic, making emergency repairs, and cleaning out thick mud and debris from flooded homes.

AUDIO REPORT
Click to listen to a report from one of staff members about the work we are doing to minister to victims of the storms.

Hurricane Ike officially made landfall in the Galveston area just after 2 a.m. local time on Saturday as a powerful Category 2 storm. It slammed the Texas coast with 110 mph winds and towering waves, knocking down trees, flooding thousands of homes, blowing out windows in Houston's skyscrapers, and cutting off power to more than 3 million people.

The storm, nearly as big as Texas itself, blasted a 500-mile stretch of coastline in Louisiana and Texas. It breached levees, flooded roads and led more than 1 million people to evacuate and seek shelter inland. Hurricane winds battered the coast for hours before and after the storm's center came ashore.

As we begin to work in Texas in response to Hurricane Ike, Samaritan's Purse is continuing to help people in Louisiana who were impacted by Hurricane Gustav. A Disaster Relief Units remains in Donaldsonville, where we have been since September 2.

We have helped over 300 families in Louisiana who were affected by Gustav.

Samaritan's Purse , United States , DR Extranet , U.S. Disaster Relief , Responding to Hurricane Ike