tony b, thanks for your response on our quest for information. i'd also like to commend you on your comment of not making this a political situation. i was interviewed by the port arthur news man who was out at the yacht club trying to find out how people were coping with the disaster. even though my boat faired very well, i was still affected by all of the destruction of my sailing buddies at payc.
i hope that when you go check your boat tomorrow, you will find it as you left it, like i did.
here is the interview with the port arthur news:
By Cody Pastorella
The News staff writer
Walking around any town or city that felt Hurricane Ike's wrath, you will find so much that's out of place. Welcome mats, signs, barbeque pits, boats, cars, the list could continue; but it's quite the opposite that makes the case of Mike Gill so intriguing.
Gill, who lives in Vidor, has docked his sailboat, ‘Deena Ann' at the Port Arthur Yacht Club, a marina at Pleasure Island where hundreds of various sized boats are docked, for four years now.
He has many memories with his two sons, their friends and his wife, Deena Ann, who the boat was named after. The family has made friends with other boat owners as well, as they have become more involved with the PAYC over the years.
The memories and the boat are two things Gill, who works at Total Refinery in Port Arthur, is very passionate about.
Gill said he just knew his boat was probably destroyed. He worried about his boat as much as his home in Vidor that he built with his own hands, the home he stayed in during both Hurricane Rita (2005) and Ike, which made landfall in Galveston on late Friday night.
Ike ripped up the Texas coast and certainly did not spare Pleasure Island, the PAYC or its marina.
Ike's surge tore boats to shreds, pushed them to land, pushed them into buildings and roads, Ike sank them and did just about every other form of unbelievable destruction to the sailboats in that marina.
Down the road, Ike put an RV park underwater. Ike killed birds, rats and snakes. Ike destroyed homes, buried roads and peers. From what it seemed, Ike spared only one man - Gill and the boat he loves.
More unbelievable than the amounts of wreckage was that Gill's ‘Deena Ann' was right where he had left it tied down on Friday morning.
Gill said he did not have time to move his boat like he wanted to.
"The mandatory evacuation came to late," he said. "I wanted to move it but by the time we were told to evacuate, officials did not even let you come down here."
Luckily for Gill, he made extra efforts and considerations when he tied down Deena Ann before Hurricane Gustav, which did not affect Southeast Texas.
But even with the three-quarter inch line and other special efforts Gill made in tying down his boat, the probability of his boat making it through the storm, was probably zero, especially when you consider the wreckage from the other boats, as many were smashed into one another or toppled underwater.
"If I had had the time, I would have moved it to Lake Charles or something," said Gill who has sailed to Galveston on several occasions.
As he walked up and down the mangled road that splits between different sections of the marina, Gill tried making sense of it all.
He offered a number of explanations of how his boat might have stayed in place. But in the end, he knew that once one boat breaks loose, that boat will cause another to break loose until it becomes like a domino effect.
Gill often broke his thought to tell stories of long nights spent with some of the other boat owners. He told their stories, their names, where they worked, where they had been sailing and Gill could not help but to get choked up because he knew how devastated his friends would be once they became aware of the outcome.
He understood the memories and what those memories mean to so many people.
"You know, my house is safe, my family is safe, and my boat," said Gill as he panned around looking at all the destruction. "Even my boat," he said while getting choked up. "I almost feel guilty because so many people did not get off like this.
"I love that boat, I just knew it wasn't going to make it."
i hope that when you go check your boat tomorrow, you will find it as you left it, like i did.
here is the interview with the port arthur news:
By Cody Pastorella
The News staff writer
Walking around any town or city that felt Hurricane Ike's wrath, you will find so much that's out of place. Welcome mats, signs, barbeque pits, boats, cars, the list could continue; but it's quite the opposite that makes the case of Mike Gill so intriguing.
Gill, who lives in Vidor, has docked his sailboat, ‘Deena Ann' at the Port Arthur Yacht Club, a marina at Pleasure Island where hundreds of various sized boats are docked, for four years now.
He has many memories with his two sons, their friends and his wife, Deena Ann, who the boat was named after. The family has made friends with other boat owners as well, as they have become more involved with the PAYC over the years.
The memories and the boat are two things Gill, who works at Total Refinery in Port Arthur, is very passionate about.
Gill said he just knew his boat was probably destroyed. He worried about his boat as much as his home in Vidor that he built with his own hands, the home he stayed in during both Hurricane Rita (2005) and Ike, which made landfall in Galveston on late Friday night.
Ike ripped up the Texas coast and certainly did not spare Pleasure Island, the PAYC or its marina.
Ike's surge tore boats to shreds, pushed them to land, pushed them into buildings and roads, Ike sank them and did just about every other form of unbelievable destruction to the sailboats in that marina.
Down the road, Ike put an RV park underwater. Ike killed birds, rats and snakes. Ike destroyed homes, buried roads and peers. From what it seemed, Ike spared only one man - Gill and the boat he loves.
More unbelievable than the amounts of wreckage was that Gill's ‘Deena Ann' was right where he had left it tied down on Friday morning.
Gill said he did not have time to move his boat like he wanted to.
"The mandatory evacuation came to late," he said. "I wanted to move it but by the time we were told to evacuate, officials did not even let you come down here."
Luckily for Gill, he made extra efforts and considerations when he tied down Deena Ann before Hurricane Gustav, which did not affect Southeast Texas.
But even with the three-quarter inch line and other special efforts Gill made in tying down his boat, the probability of his boat making it through the storm, was probably zero, especially when you consider the wreckage from the other boats, as many were smashed into one another or toppled underwater.
"If I had had the time, I would have moved it to Lake Charles or something," said Gill who has sailed to Galveston on several occasions.
As he walked up and down the mangled road that splits between different sections of the marina, Gill tried making sense of it all.
He offered a number of explanations of how his boat might have stayed in place. But in the end, he knew that once one boat breaks loose, that boat will cause another to break loose until it becomes like a domino effect.
Gill often broke his thought to tell stories of long nights spent with some of the other boat owners. He told their stories, their names, where they worked, where they had been sailing and Gill could not help but to get choked up because he knew how devastated his friends would be once they became aware of the outcome.
He understood the memories and what those memories mean to so many people.
"You know, my house is safe, my family is safe, and my boat," said Gill as he panned around looking at all the destruction. "Even my boat," he said while getting choked up. "I almost feel guilty because so many people did not get off like this.
"I love that boat, I just knew it wasn't going to make it."
