EXCLUSIVE: Day 3 in post-Ike Texas

Posted on 25 September 2008

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Chris Landry, senior reporter for Trade Only and Soundings magazines, spent three days in Galveston, Texas, with a BoatU.S. Marine Insurance Catastrophe Field Team reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. This is his third and final dispatch. Look for a complete report in the November issue of Trade Only.

Packed in a small, one-bed hotel room, eight burly marine surveyors — members of the BoatU.S. Catastrophe Field Team — adjourn their 7 a.m. meeting. They’re eager to get to their assigned marinas and yacht clubs around Galveston Bay, where boats beat up by Hurricane Ike await inspection.

Before they depart, the public relations people want to take a group photo. They gather in front of a tree on the hotel grounds.

“All right, everyone say ‘salvage,’ ” announces photographer Terri Parrow, the BoatU.S. Internet guru who’s documenting the team’s efforts to assess BoatU.S.-insured boats. Parrow and Scott Croft, the assistant vice president of public affairs, have been shuttling me around hurricane-damaged zones for three days.

At 8 a.m. Wednesday — our final day here — we pile into the car and head to a field between a patch of oil refineries and the highway.

This 4-acre makeshift boatyard serves as BoatU.S.’s home for damaged vessels, some that may beyond reviving. It’s a graveyard for boats, really — one that’s infested with jumbo mosquitoes and hungry fire ants. BoatU.S. will sell the boats to an auction company, which will then sell them to the highest bidders. Only eight vessels have been dropped off so far — six sailboats and two powerboats.

Ted Lemmond Jr. heads up the boat-transportation operation. With three hydraulic trailers and three towing trucks, Lemmond expects to haul more than 100 boats to this site when all is said and done. He will spend the next 45 days here. I hope he is paid well, I thought, as I swatted mosquitoes off my calves and then discovered a small army of fire ants on my shoes.

After two fire-ant bites, I’m ready to leave, as are Parrow and Croft. Our destination is the Houston Yacht Club in Shoreacres, which has received major media attention because of the severity of damage to its boats and property.

Ike completely destroyed the first floor of the clubhouse, where showers, restrooms and offices are housed. The restaurant and ballroom on the second floor suffered some damage but are in relatively good shape, said club general manager Ross Tuckwiller.

“Yeah, we got hit hard,” Tuckwiller said. “Some people say we’re through, but we’re not. We’re going to have a better facility than before the storm.”