Ms. Ross, 79, has hunkered down through several hurricanes and storms in this same home. Ike would be no different as she decided to stay back while hundreds of thousands fled the area. She sat quietly in her home alone with no electricity, little food, and but in good spirits.

“It’s interesting that with all of the damage that my property sustained, my Barack Obama yard sign never moved,” Ms. Ross said with a smile. “I guess ‘Yes We Can’ means we can come back from this storm.”

Some parts of Houston are projected to be without power until early October. Meanwhile the aftermath of Hurricane Ike remains with fallen trees, contaminated water, long food lines, a serious gas shortage, fights at gas stations and total damages that could exceed $18 billion.

More than 300,000 evacuees are in shelters and the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to pay for some victims whose homes are unlivable to stay in hotels or motels until Oct. 14.

Shirley Saleem, a financial counselor at St. Joseph hospital, evacuated to a family member’s home and returned to devastation. “I have a hole in my ceiling and rain water soaked my living room and two bedrooms. I have a damaged roof and trees uprooted. But I am grateful that I had somewhere else to go and did not stay back. I’m going to volunteer now to help others.”

“The sound of that wind was frightening,” said Mavis Jackson. She changed her mind about leaving and stayed at her daughter’s home along with two grandchildren. “This hurricane impacted this city is such a way that it will be a long time before it totally recovers.”

‘I prayed my home would be spared’

Hurricane Ike roared ashore Sept. 13 with 110-mph winds and colossal waves, smashing apartment complexes, flooding thousands of homes, blowing out windows in Houston’s skyscrapers, and cutting electricity.

It is estimated that more than 150,000 of the 1 million or so people who had been ordered to evacuate the coast as Ike drew near may have decided to meet the storm head on. Many realized their mistake too late, and pleaded with authorities to save them, which compounded problems faced by officials in hard hit Galveston and other coastal areas.

The overall death toll for Ike was nearing 50 people in 10 states and nearly four million remain without power at Final Call presstime. Evacuees awaiting power restoration are scattered throughout the country in states on both coasts.

“There was a mandatory evacuation, and people didn’t leave, and that is very frustrating because now we have to deal with everybody who did not heed the order,” said Steve LeBlanc, Galveston’s city manager, in a broadcast press conference.

Ike weakened to a tropical depression as it headed across western Arkansas after making landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast as a Category 2 hurricane. Despite weather experts announcing a near “certain death” warning, rescuers in Swift boats, helicopters and trucks set out across the flood-stricken Texas coast to reach those who were trapped.

The areas with the most damages were Crystal Beach and High Island on the Bolivar Peninsula, which may have included the home of David Livingston.

“I left just before the storm came and I prayed that my home would be spared,” said Mr. Livingston. “But according to what I saw on the Internet, my area was crushed so I really don’t know if my home is among the few that are still standing. I’m preparing myself for the worst.”

Finger pointing by FEMA, city and state officials

Though thousands evacuated, there has been an urgent need for food, water and ice. Families without survival kits in their homes or apartments awaited the word about points of distribution (PODS) after the horror of Hurricane Ike.

FEMA came under fire as several dozen trucks filled with water and food were not set up in surrounding communities a day after the storm passed. While taking criticism reminiscent of Katrina, FEMA officials immediately pointed a finger at someone else.

In a press conference at FEMA headquarters, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff faulted state officials for handing his department the “unexpected challenge” of preparing distribution points in addition to delivering supplies.

But state officials said it was the duty of local government, which came as a surprise to Houston Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett.

“If I could have known something 18-hours-ago, we could have made plans to pick up something a lot quicker, that’s a fact,” a frustrated Mayor White said in a press briefing on Sept. 14. “Whatever the little drama was is only a matter of hours, not days.”

To Jennifer Posey, a mother of six, it was in no way just a little drama. “It is a damn shame that they’ve been sitting up arguing like children about whose fault it is when my family and others were in serious need,” said Ms. Posey, 35, to The Final Call. “I was standing in line for nearly six hours waiting for water and food to arrive at one site. See, this proves we cannot even depend on the people we pay our tax dollars to.”

In a report by the Houston Chronicle, Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Houston) said he was told before the storm by FEMA officials that food and water was already staged at the Ellington Air National Guard base.

“I hope some heads will roll in this,” he said.

There are presently a total of over 50 POD centers in counties including Houston, Galveston, Montgomery, Liberty, Chambers, Fort Bend, and Conroe.

‘We need to plan better as a people’

Khalid Greene, director of the Inner City Community Emergency Response Team (IN-CERT), led a crew of highly trained residents into the trenches of Houston’s poor neighborhoods just hours after Hurricane Ike passed.

They were able to rescue 53 people from a flooded Third Ward apartment complex, direct traffic at overcrowded gas stations in the Northeast area, restore power to one of the first complexes to receive electricity in the city, organize transportation for elderly patients, get shelter for 146 people living in a roofless building and they are not done.

“We have a lot of work to do in our communities,” said Mr. Greene. “From now on, we need to plan better as a people. We need to develop a disaster plan and implement it or we will continue to be at the whim of these disasters. We must build a community-based infrastructure.”

IN-CERT has been offering CPR, disaster preparedness and other types of training to religions institutions, organizations and housing projects for the last several years.

With very few restaurants or fast food chains reopened in Black neighborhoods, an owner of a mobile Bar-B-Que station set up on a corner in the Third Ward to feed his neighbors.

“I have damages to my own roof with a lot of water leaks but I wanted to help others,” said Bubba Jadel, 55. “This was unlike anything I have seen in this city. The way those winds tore up Houston. It will be years before we are back to normal but something else may come by then.”