Texas ? Hundreds of revelers gathered Saturday to celebrate an annual Mardi Gras tradition in a show of support for Galveston Island ravaged by Hurricane Ike’s powerful storm surge just five months ago.

“I see this as a hopeful sign,” said Sue Orta, a reveler from Houston who has a home on the island. “The city will recover.”

About 75 percent of the homes in Galveston sustained damage from Ike’s 110-mph winds, rain and 12-foot storm surge when the hurricane came ashore just outside the city on Sept. 13. Revelers and some of the floats in Saturday’s parade, the first of three in the celebration, paid homage to the storm.

One float was decorated with the blue tarp material that still covers hundreds of roofs in the area. Phrases such as “No lights” and “No phone” and the word “Ike” with a line drawn through it were written on the float.

Some spectators wore T-shirts that read “I Survived Ike.”

City officials had worried that Ike’s destruction might cancel the celebration, which has been a citywide tradition since 1985. The city first celebrated Mardi Gras in 1867.

But the island bounced back, with Saturday’s parade route snaking along the island’s famed seawall, once littered with debris washed ashore by Ike. Other parades were scheduled for later in The Strand, the city’s historic downtown district that’s under repair.