http://www.boston.com:80/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html


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posted: 1 HOUR 51 MINUTES AGO: Hurricane News, National News,(Sept. 18) - When Hurricane Ike crashed ashore in Texas with 110 mph winds, it left almost nothing behind in the small, coastal town of Gilchrist.
Aerial photographs taken after the storm revealed that the neighborhood that stretched for miles along the narrow peninsula had been swept away with just one exception: a single home left standing, seemingly untouched.
Destruction in the Hurricane ZoneSmiley N. Pool, Pool / Getty Images13 photos A single home stands in what used to be a neighborhood in Gilchrist, Texas. Judy Hudspeth claims it belongs to her sister, Pam Adams, and that it was rebuilt in 2006 to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)

Also See: Ike's Missing May Have Just Washed Away
Some viewers of surreal photographs showing the yellow house that remained amid the wasteland argued that it may be fake. In a debate on iReport.com, a woman named Judy Hudspeth jumped in with a stunning statement: "This is my sister's house. It is real," she wrote.
Hudspeth uploaded a photo of the home taken in May that silenced the skeptics. She explained that her sister and her sister’s husband, Pam and Warren Adams, rebuilt the home in 2006 after it had been destroyed by Hurricane Rita in 2005.
Hudspeth said they hired a contractor to build a structure that could withstand a Category 5 hurricane and watched over the process to assure it was done right.
The couple did evacuate before the storm and planned to return on Thursday to survey the damage.

Hurricane Ike Uncovers Mystery ShipAP www.aol.com
posted: 2 HOURS 46 MINUTES AGO MORGAN, Ala. (Sept. 19) - When the waves from Hurricane Ike receded, they left behind a mystery — a ragged shipwreck that archeologists say could be a two-masted Civil War schooner that ran aground in 1862 or another ship from some 70 years later. The wreck, about six miles from Fort Morgan, had already been partially uncovered when Hurricane Camille cleared away sand in 1969.
Shipwreck DiscoveriesGuy Busby, Press-Register / AP11 photos Archaeologists say the wooden ship uncovered by Hurricane Ike on a beach on Fort Morgan Road in Fort Morgan, Ala., could be that of a two-masted Civil War schooner that ran aground in 1862 or another ship from some 70 years later.

Researchers at the time identified it as the Monticello, a battleship that partially burned when it crashed trying to get past the U.S. Navy and into Mobile Bay during the Civil War.
After examining photos of the wreck post-Ike, Museum of Mobile marine archaeologist Shea McLean agreed it is likely the Monticello, which ran aground in 1862 after sailing from Havana, according to Navy records.
"Based on what we know of ships lost in that area and what I've seen, the Monticello is by far the most likely candidate," McLean said. "You can never be 100 percent certain unless you find the bell with 'Monticello' on it, but this definitely fits."
Other clues indicate it could be an early 20th century schooner that ran aground on the Alabama coast in 1933.