One of the things I've discovered during my time here in southeast Texas is the degree to which rural areas have disappeared from the public consciousness. I understand that the economic crisis and the Presidential election managed to shift public attention from the Houston-Galveston area almost immediately after Hurricane Ike hit the area. Still, it's difficult to miss the irony of how public awareness of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike differs from the extended attention lavished upon New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina did her thing in September, 2005.
The difference is most noticeable in rural areas, like Chambers Country, for instance. A trip to Anahuac and surrounding areas reveals places where the recovery and cleanup has barely begun. In some places, it appears to have not begun at all. Go to places like Oak Island, Goat Island, or Smith Point, and you'll see devastation that probably looks much as it did on Saturday, September 13th. I've given up trying to photograph the damage; it finally dawned on me that pictures do a damn poor job of documenting the thoroughness and totality of the destruction. There are no words to adequately describe it, and photographs fall distressingly short. You really have to see it, feel it, smell it, and listen to the stories of those directly impacted to have any hope of grasping just how thoroughly rural southeast Texas has been flattened. Going on two months after Ike, and there are few areas in Chambers County that look as if they've been cleaned up and are on their way back to being what they were prior to the storm.
The Houston area has the resources and the money to begin and continue cleaning up debris and restoring infrastructure. Rural areas, like Chambers, Jefferson, and Galveston counties, among others, are a much different story. Given the distances involved, as well as the lack of resources and money, and it's clear that the Houston area will be back to normal long before most of the outlying areas have even really begun cleaning up and rebuilding.
It would be nice to think that we as a nation could pay attention long enough to help the area impacted by Hurricane Ike get back on it's feet. Judging by the national media, though, you'd never even know that a hurricane devastated this area. Yes, I know that there's a Presidential election coming up, and I recognize that the economy's in the toilet. Still, it would be nice to think that just a wee bit of attention could be focused on an area that's still hurting and will be for quite some time. It would be nice, but it would appear that this would be hoping for too much. I'd like to think that FEMA could manage to pull it's collective anterior out of it's bureaucratic posterior, but that appears to be dreaming the impossible dream.
Out of sight, out of mind...and the people of rural southeast Texas are being left to largely fend for themselves. You're on your own, y'all....
