DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — Post-hurricane reports continue trickling out of the upper Texas coast. The Houston Chronicle has this county-by-county summary. The AP has an interactive map of Ike’s path across the coast. Google has published a KML image overlay using satellite data from the NOAA Remote Sensing Division. Satellite before-and-after shots are almost unrecognizable.

The Big Picture has shocking and distressing photos showing just how bad the damage is. Coffins floated out of the ground, oil and chemicals spilled and spread, and entire communities were razed.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department reports extensive damage to several state parks:

Hurricane Ike delivered a powerful blow to Texas State Parks. Two coastal parks, Galveston and Sea Rim, sustained catastrophic damage. Structures and facilities at Sea Rim near Port Arthur appear to be a total loss. At Galveston Island, Ike caused heavy beach erosion and swept away the park headquarters building, restrooms, and shelters. [read more]

Twenty-three state parks are closed, including parks as far inland as Martin Creek and Caddo Lake, both of which I’ve birded often.

I can’t find any information about Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, but given that communities on all sides of the refuge were flooded and devastated, the refuge undoubtedly suffered from flooding and possibly also wind damage.

Last night, Winnie Burkett, Houston Audubon’s sanctuary manager, posted the following message on the Texbirds email list:

I talked to the Houston Audubon High Island caretaker, Houston Sliger this evening and he reported that the woods are full of warblers and gnatcatchers. He said that all High Island residents are being told to leave as there will be no services for at least a month.

He commented that the Boy Scout Woods board walk out to the wastewater pond over look was heavily damaged by waves!!!! There are dead cows everywhere and live cows walking all over High Island. I guess we will not be birding in the woods this fall.

She has also posted preliminary reports from other Houston Audubon sanctuaries.

The needs are huge — from immediate water and shelter needs for survivors to ongoing environmental and economic recovery, which will take years. So what can you do?

Humanitarian aid. You can donate to the American Red Cross, Convoy of Hope, the Texas Disaster Relief Fund, and other worthy charities assisting Ike victims. (And remember that though I’m writing about Texas, Louisiana and other US states have suffered damage too, and Caribbean nations like Haiti and Cuba have sustained catastrophic property destruction and loss of life.)

Houston Audubon. You can donate to Houston Audubon to help rebuild their sanctuaries, some of which are among the best-known birding sites in all of Texas. Look for the “Donate” link near the top of their site. Donations can also be mailed to Houston Audubon, 440 Wilchester, Houston TX 77079. Work and clean-up days will be scheduled this fall to help repair the sanctuaries. Consider volunteering your time. I’ll post more information as it becomes available.

Texas Ornithological Society. I haven’t heard any reports on coastal TOS sanctuaries, but with sites directly in harm’s way (e.g., Sabine Woods), there is undoubtedly severe damage. Donations toward recovery may be sent to Texas Ornithological Society, 6338 N New Braunfels Ave, PMB # 189, San Antonio TX 78209.

I’ll be making my donations later today. I hope that others of you will take action as well, especially if you’ve had the pleasure of birding this remarkable part of the world.

If you have more information or know of other ways to help, please let me know. I’ll try to keep the information coming.

DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — What’s left of Hurricane Ike has blown back out into the ocean that spawned it, but the devastation that it left behind is only now becoming apparent. Many communities along the Gulf Coast in Texas are badly crippled or totally destroyed by the storm.

Critical breeding grounds, wintering grounds, and migration stopover points for this hemisphere’s avifauna have sustained damage — but how much is not yet known. High Island, Bolivar Flats, Smith Point, Galveston Island, and other locations were hammered hard by the storm. Trees are damaged. Marshes are contaminated by pollutants. Erosion has changed the land.

Loss of human life appears to have been mercifully low under the circumstances, but many families have lost their homes and livelihoods. These are the people and economies that have welcomed and benefited from many thousands of birders who came to visit the patch of the world that they share with so many wonderful birds.

Most of them are displaced tonight. A few are still trying to hold on, a decision which to an outsider seems unbelievably foolish — but who can place himself in their shoes? A Galveston County judge has called for the removal of remaining Bolivar Peninsula residents, against their wishes if necessary.

“Health conditions on [Galveston] island are deteriorating,” reports the Galveston County Daily News today. Water is contaminated, mosquito populations have exploded, power is out, flood waters remain in some places, and search and rescue operations are ongoing.

The bridge connecting most of the Bolivar Peninsula to the mainland (at Rollover Pass) has been severely damaged, and some reports say that the ferry landing on the other end of the peninsula has also been damaged. For pictures, see Crystal Beach.

Nerves are fraying as people struggle to cope with the the disaster. Galveston’s officials have ordered a media blackout.

We don’t know the full extent of the damage yet, but it’s clear that the entire ecosystem has suffered a blow. Veteran Texas birder Ted Eubanks posted a call for support on the Texbirds email list tonight, and fellow bird blogger John Mariani also calls for assistance.

This week’s events are tragic, and we must all do what we can to help human victims and the coastal ecosystem recover. That means money and time, not just talk. I’ll post more details as they become available to me.

I can’t help but think back to the days when the entire North American continent was an ever-changing mosaic of habitats and landscapes. Fires, floods, and storms continually changed the land, opening up new opportunities for life even as old patterns and associations were destroyed.

But now that we have pressed and squeezed and strained the land so badly, one natural disaster can be catastrophic in a way that it hardly could have been before. Not only are millions of people and the industries that sustain them pushed right to the very edge, but we’ve cleared so many trees and drained so many marshes that damage even to small geographical areas can have devastating consequences for entire species, which now have nowhere else to turn.

I fear that unless we have enough courage and willpower to change our priorities — even our whole way of life — the consequences of these events will wax worse as we become ever more demanding.