Church, football help ease pain from Hurricane Ike

? Wearing jeans and rubber boots, clutching Bibles and weeping between hymns, residents of the storm-shattered Texas coast comforted each other Sunday at makeshift church services that provided more than a respite from Hurricane Ike cleanup.

About 50 people came together on a basketball court outside the Oak Island Baptist Church, just south of Interstate 10 about a mile from the tip of Trinity Bay. They sat on folding chairs or simply stood, forced outdoors by the 1-inch layer of mud left inside the single-story red brick building by floodwaters that tossed pews like matchsticks.

A demolished mobile home was still lodged among trees, many of them snapped by the storm’s 110-mph winds that somehow left the church’s trio of 20-foot white crosses still standing. Across the street, piles of debris had sprouted, proof of the labor undertaken since the storm blew through last weekend, and of the work yet to come.

“I know it’s hard. Looking around, it’s tough,” the Rev. Eddie Shauberger said. “But there is a God, and he has a plan for our lives.”

Similar services were being held on Galveston Island and throughout the Houston area, where power was sufficiently restored that schools planned to hold classes today for the first time since the storm.

In Galveston, Bobby and Pamela Quiroga sought succor at a Mass set up in the historic Hotel Galvez. They went to their Roman Catholic church a week ago, the day after storm arrived, but it was closed.

“It’s just good to be around people,” Bobby Quiroga said. He added, letting his voice trail off, “When you feel a wave shake your house : .”

The newly married 42-year-olds were still trying to gather their senses eight days after watching their homes and businesses flooded by Ike’s 12-foot surge.

Quiroga’s wife dabbed her swollen eyes with a hand towel and vowed never to live on the island again. “When I fall asleep,” she said, “I see the water rising.”

Island leaders emphasized that Galveston remained dangerous. Fuel and other essentials remained scarce. Police will indefinitely enforce a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew once the island reopens, and parents were warned their children could be exposed to infections from storm debris and other hazards.

Planes continued spraying the island to control mosquitoes. Officials urged those returning to wear masks to protect from mold and to properly dispose of spoiled food to stave off vermin.

Teams of cadaver dogs were still working their way through rubble and debris on Bolivar Peninsula, which suffered even heavier damage than Galveston. Evacuees from the peninsula will board heavy vehicles this week to examine their homes, since the main road is impassible in many spots.

Authorities had blamed the storm for 26 deaths in Texas and 61 total in the U.S., including a utility contractor from Florida who was electrocuted Friday while trying to restore power in Louisville, Ky.

Whether the power was coming through the wall or from a generator, people throughout the region watched the Houston Texans try to win one for the fans back home.

Maine Williams, a 49-year-old cotton warehouse worker, tuned in the football game with friends in Galveston on a portable TV they set up in an alley. The humidity, mosquitoes and flood muck that covered the neighborhood was made bearable thanks to the grilled hamburgers, cabbage and potatoes, along with camaraderie and cold beer.

“It’s like normal,” Williams said.

As for the game, which the Texans lost on the road to the Tennessee Titans, Williams wasn’t too concerned with the outcome: “I’m a Dallas Cowboys man!”