Sabine Pass resident unsure of post-Ike future

The Port Arthur News

September 24, 2008 11:54 am

— By Amy Moore
The News staff writer
SABINE PASS — Bob Chumley walked around inside his Sabine Pass home with rubber boots on Tuesday.
As he walked, chunks of dried mud fell off his feet and mixed with the wet mud still on the floor of his home.
“Hopefully we can save it,” he said of the house he shares with his wife Suzette.
Chumley, a retired teacher and principal, said before evacuating from Hurricane Ike, he and his wife lifted their couch onto a table and stacked their belongings onto the couch to keep them away from any flood waters that would rise.
The couple did the same thing in their shed with the lawnmowers - but their efforts were in vain.
“It didn’t do any good. We got back and it was strung all over the place,” he said while taking a break from cleaning his house of Ike damage.
The furniture was thrown around and covered in at least four inches of mud as the over 14 foot storm surge from Ike brought in salt water and mud that settled in window sills, cabinet tops and even the bathtubs in the Chumley’s home.
A water line stopped at the ceiling in the home and left behind grass and debris stuck to the walls that washed in from Ike, ruining the contents of the house.
“Everything we’ve got left is in two cars and a pickup truck,” he said.
Suzette said the devastation is heart-breaking and like nothing she’s seen before.
“It’s like the death of a community,” she said. “It’s just extreme sadness. So many families are wiped out with nowhere to go.”
Luckily for the Chumley’s, the couple is staying with family in Nederland. Unsure of how long they’ll be without their home, the couple said they spend most of their days cleaning their Sabine Pass home so they don’t wear out their welcome.

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