Bolivar residents floated to survive

TEXAS CITY — Bolivar Peninsula communities were covered by the storm surge from Hurricane Ike's early Saturday landfall, and residents told harrowing stories of how they survived by floating until the waters receded.

Texas National Guard helicopters flew many of the evacuees from across the county to a staging area at the Texas City school district's Stingaree Stadium parking lot, where they were loaded onto buses bound for Austin.

Two military helicopters landed at 3:50 p.m. and unloaded about a dozen people and their pets.

While waiting to board a bus, Kathi Norton and her husband Paul Norton said they endured the storm surge from their Crystal Beach home about two blocks from the seaside.

"We got a late start to get out Friday, and there was two feet of water," Kathi Norton said. "There was no way we could get out, because rollover pass was flooded."

As the waves pounded on the Nortons' home standing on 14-foot stilts, they felt the floors buckle.

About midnight, the couple left the home and they watched as it rolled over onto their flagpole.

"We floated on staircases, anything we could get a hold of," Kathi Norton said. "We floated until about 4 a.m. Roofs were coming at us. It was not a pretty picture."

As the water receded, the Nortons, who lived on Gulf Shores Drive, waded in waist-deep surf to the Crystal Beach post office. They said few homes and none of the businesses withstood the storm.

"My husband made me wear a life jacket inside our house," Norton said. "Thank God for that or I couldn't be here."

The Nortons boarded Texas National Guard helicopters, which flew them to the Brazoria County airport, but there were no evacuation buses set up there, Paul Norton said.

"Then they flew us to Texas City," he said. "They did a great job."

Nigel Heinrich, one of the evacuees, said he endured the storm from his Gilchrist home on the peninsula.

"It's all gone," he said. "We lived on the bay side, and we walked to High Island. There are only about two or three houses left. Everything's totally wiped out. High Island's in pretty bad shape, too."