The Port of Galveston ’s Board of Trustees of the Galveston Wharves and Port staff sincerely hope that the passengers and their families had a great cruise. The Port understands that the passengers, crew and other cruise ship workers are concerned about their vehicles that may have been parked at the Port’s parking lots or other parking locations on Galveston Island during Hurricane Ike.

To the best of our knowledge the parking lots could have had over 7 feet of salt water in them, which would have placed most engines underwater. Many vehicles floated around in the parking lots. Therefore, most of the vehicles will probably not be in drivable condition.

At this time, only emergency personnel and work crews are allowed on Galveston Island , because most of the Island , including the Port’s property, does not have utilities. In spite of not having utilities on the Island, Port personnel, who are off the Island , are able to receive telephone calls and e-mails through offsite connections.

You are respectfully, requested to e-mail parking@portofgalveston.com or call (888) 838-7678 with the following information:

Name:
Phone Number(s):
e-mail Address(es):
Vehicle model, color and license tag:

The Port is not responsible for any damage that may have occurred to your vehicle while parked in the Port’s parking lots. A vehicle owner should contact his/her insurance carrier to report a damage claim. Claims adjusters may e-mail or call the Port’s 888 telephone number if they are on the Island and need to see a vehicle.

Sincerely,
Port Management

Second, the aerial video provided doesn’t show squat in terms of the cars that were parked in the official cruise lots. The only thing I can find in terms of aerial shots of the lot post-Ike is at the NOAA website. http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/ike/geo-C25885961.jpg (two lots at very top of image)
Those aerial shots are very clear, and I can almost pick out my car if I could only recall the colors of the cars I parked next to. While some of the cars still seem to be parked neatly, many others are completely sideways and/or shoved up against a fence or other cars in bizarre configurations. This clearly indicates that there was sufficient water in the lot to cause quite a few cars to float around. (We don’t all own mega-trucks or even SUVs for that matter.)

I’d like to be hopeful that my car somehow survived the flooding and the impacts from floating cars and debris. But at the same time, that hope doesn’t get me into a car and back to daily life. And I don’t want my insurance company to cling to that hope, either. I need them to total the car so I can buy a new one and move on.

http://www.click2houston.com/video/17480828/index.html

Seems to me like they just do not want to deal with the hassle of bringing the owners back.