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APGALVESTON, Texas (AP) — There's a grocery store open for business on Galveston Island. Cell phone towers are connecting calls. More lights are coming back on at night. But for all the little signs of recovery in this barrier island community thrashed by Hurricane Ike nearly a week ago, Galveston just "isn't ready" for residents to return. Not even for a quick look around at their battered homes and businesses, officials said Thursday as they pleaded for tens of thousands to wait at least another week before trying to come home.
"By staying away and being patient, you are making it possible for us to get you home in a week or so, instead of the months it would take if the city's infrastructure were more overwhelmed at this point," Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said.
The roughly 45,000 people who fled Galveston Island are among the more than 1 million who evacuated the Texas coast as Ike steamed across the Gulf of Mexico. Gov. Rick Perry said 22,000 people are still living in more than 200 shelters, and he joined Thomas on Thursday in asking for patience. "I absolutely understand they want to get back to their homes ... I'd like to get back to the mansion," said Perry, who's been living in temporary quarters since his official residence burned down in June.
Galveston Island remained closed, as did the worse-off Bolivar Peninsula, where the storm's surge washed entire neighborhoods into the sea. Search teams pulled out of both areas this week after sweeping every house, authorities said.
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