Amy Kate Photography

So, I went back to my hometown, Winnie almost 1 month after the storm battered the Gulf Coast.  As we drove the 18 miles to the coast, we found our first photograph pretty quickly.

This alligator had been driven miles from his habitat in search of fresh water.  These men stopped to put the animal out of his misery because he would never make it back to a freshwater environment.  My mom and I continued down Highway 124, and just after the road ends in a sharp turn to the right onto 87 we found a car graveyard.

This RV caught our eye from the road, but as we tramped through the soft sand we started to notice other signs of life.

Household items were buried with the cars.

We continued our trip west towards Galveston.  Anyone who grew up in Winnie knows that you go over Rollover Pass to get to Galveston.  Rollover Pass is in the tiny town of Gilchrist, TX.  When my mom and I reached Rollover Pass, we had no idea we had already reached the small town.   We had passed a mere six houses on our way, and before we knew it we had traveled through the entire town.

The homes that made it through Ike in Gilchrist were built for a category 5 hurricane.  The place where I spent my summers at the beach was completely devastated.

This was as far west as we would make it.  To cross Rollover Pass you had to show proof of residency, rather that you were a former resident.  The bridge was in no condition for use.  The Canal City sign was erected to mark the neighborhood that existed there before Ike.

This is an exposed sand barrier.  It was placed underground to help prevent erosion, but Ike changed the face of the coastline in many ways.

This is my final frame of the day.  This is back in Winnie, and it’s my grandma’s house.  She hadn’t lived in the house for years, but her iconic Winnie Flower Shop sign was gone.