[mou] Hurrican Ike news, habitat damage - and a question

[Erika Sitz]

Many on the list will remember Sue Levy who lived in Minnesota several years
ago, first in Duluth and then in Dakota County.  Sue now lives in Texas
about halfway between downtown Houston and Galveston.  Thankfully, she (and
her daughter, who lives near her) had no major damage to their homes and are
among the lucky ones to have power restored soon afterwards.  There was,
however, an area of terrible devastation within about a mile and a half of
her apartment, so she has many friends and members of her former
congregation who have suffered great losses.

And she knows, and expects the worst, the fate of the nearby birding areas
she loves. Here is an excerpt from an email I received this morning.

"I will grieve for the destruction on Galveston and the forty-miles long
Bolivar Peninsula - where the towns of Gilchrist, Crystal Beach and probably
Port Bolivar, about which there has been no news,  have simply ceased to
exist. Right now there is no access to the area except by boat or
helicopter, and no safe place to put a helicopter down. . . . The other
issue on the Bolivar Peninsula for me is that it's an area where our Audubon
Society has spent countless hours/years and years and raised millions of
dollars to create and protect habitat. We have turned it into a world-class
birding and wildlife habitat, and our work is gone. I am too numb to really
grieve for any of it, but I know that's coming. It's much too close to home.
For you birders, you should know that this is the second hit High Island and
the coastal sanctuaries closer to Louisiana have taken in two years. No
pictures yet, but it will be bad news. The people of High Island are still
completely cut off and without communications. They were on the "dirty" side
of the storm."

Right now the focus is on human loss, lives and property.  Sue says the
American Red Cross (along with that part of the Texas National Guard that
isn't in Iraq) are the most effective ones around and "they need financial
support".  So that's where we'll give now, but I expect that a plea for
donations will be forthcoming from Houson Audubon Society later.  I'll
forward anything that I receive to the lists for those who wish to help.

Does anyone know the impact of the hurricane on Aransas NWR and the Whooping
Cranes?  I  talked about it to Steve Weston and we suspect that due to its
distance it's probably not great.  But I don't know anything about where the
cranes feed and on what, or any other details, so it would be nice to hear
from someone about them.

Erika Sitz
Ramsey, north Anoka County
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