Video of Gilchrist Tx - 1-1/2 years after Hurricane Ike

Here's a link to a YouTube Video I shot while I was riding my bicycle down Hwy 87 through Gilchrist Tx - what had been a Gulf of Mexico seaside community of 1000 permanent residents and probably 5 - 10 times that many in tourists, fishermen and vacationers during the summer peak.... that is, before the September 2008 arrival of Hurricane Ike.... now you'll see what's left:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6tKsQh7Oog

I remember as a kid - 6 - 7 years old - riding down Hwy 87 toward Gilchrist and Rollover Pass.  The sides of the road from the edge of the Gulf of Mexico on the south side to the edge of East Galveston Bay and the Intracoastal Canal on the north side were literally covered with cabins, beach homes, trailer and RV Parks, stores, businesses, bait shops - you name it... it was there... it was a city.... a community... a seaside retreat....

Now it's a deserted battlefield.... with the remains of leaning, broken and twisted beach house piers / support poles and bulldozed together piles of debris.... a battlefield set on water....

A 20' tidal surge pushed through and over Gilchrist Tx on September 15, 2008 and in the passing of Hurricane Ike through this community, the fate of Gilchrist Tx was decided....

It would no longer be...

And with its passing....

And my viewing of it as it is now....

I realize how life and lives and entire communities and landscapes and shorelines can be radically and permanently changed...

Even lost forever....

By one tragic event....