Hurricane Ike, now a tropical storm headed north, left major devastation in its wake.  The search for survivors begins and those stranded must wait until rescuers are able to reach them, which won't be right away.   From those who were being treated for illness who are unable to reach their regular treatment facilities, to those who might not have enough food or water to last them days, the situation is tenous.

 

In the states of Texas and Louisiana, millions are without electricity and may be for quite some time.

 

As McClatchy Newspapers reports: "Hurricane Ike caused the largest blackout in Texas history Saturday, affecting millions of people from Houston to Louisiana. Officials said it could take weeks to restore power, perhaps longer than in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita in 2005.

"Over 2.5 million homes and businesses were affected, and the number of people without power is significantly higher. The Houston-Galveston area is home to 5.5 million people and covers an area bigger than New Jersey. The lights were out in most of it, except for downtown Houston, the medical district, and Bush Intercontinental Airport, said Terry Hadley, a spokesman for the Texas Public Utility Commission. The Beaumont-Port Arthur area, which has 300,000 residents, was also largely blacked out.

" 'In terms of outages, this is as big as we've seen,' Hadley said.

"Power companies had only begun to assess the damage, but there were signs that it was extensive. In East Texas, eight 345-kilovolt transmission lines were out of service, said Dottie Roark, a spokeswoman for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the quasigovernmental agency that supervises most of the state's electric grid. Numerous smaller transmission lines were also damaged.

" 'It's too early to assess ..‚ whether those towers are down or whether those are just lines,' Hadley said.

"If the towers are damaged, it will take longer to restore power in some areas, he said.

Damage was so widespread in the Houston-Galveston area that CenterPoint Energy asked customers not to call in reports of outages.

" 'CenterPoint Energy knows the location of the power outages and requests customers call only to report safety concerns, such as downed power lines and natural gas leaks,' the company said on its Web site.

"Senior Vice President Kenny Mercado said the company was asking for 7,000 more workers from other utility companies.

" 'We anticipate it will take four weeks or longer for restoration to be complete, and we may need to request additional assistance from other utilities,' Mercado said on the Web site.

"'It's unclear whether the damaged transmission lines will affect service in other parts of the state. The damage "increases the risk, but at this time I don't see any immediate threat to the grid," Hadley said.

"Totaling the damage could take months. Typically, the electric providers come to the Public Utility Commission several months after a storm and ask for permission to recover those costs from ratepayers. Entergy charged customers $383 million for damage from Hurricane Rita, Hadley said."