From the sea-swamped neighborhoods of Galveston to the pine-covered hills north of Houston, people across Southeast Texas awoke Saturday to a stunning tableau of devastation caused by the passage of Hurricane Ike, the first hurricane in a quarter-century to score a direct hit on the state's most populous region.

A B Monroe gets a ride from the Louisiana National Guard after water surrounded his home as a result of Hurricane Ike in Lake Charles, La., Saturday, September 13, 2008. (Photo: Alex Brandon / AP)

    The official insistence that it could have been much worse - Ike's late eastward drift lessened a storm surge that had been predicted as apocalyptic - was little consolation to residents whose homes were wrecked by water, falling trees and winds that gusted in places well in excess of 100 mph. Or even to those facing an indefinite stay in a hot, dark home that emerged unscathed.

    The full extent of the property damage as well as the human toll was still coming into focus late Saturday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff could not yet put a dollar amount on damage, except to say that it would likely rival some of the "legendary" damage figures of storms past.

    "By any measure, it was a huge storm," Chertoff said.

    While government officials did preliminary surveys from land and air to get a sense of what lies ahead, search-and-rescue crews immediately began to comb through inundated areas along the coast to find out what happened to the estimated 140,000 people who had defied mandatory evacuation orders and stayed home.

    For all the misery - during the hurricane and after - Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said people should think of how bad it might have been.

    "I cannot tell you how I feel our community has been blessed," Emmett said. "We have avoided a lot of the tragedies we have seen in other places."

    In Galveston, ground zero for Ike's assault, the wreckage surpassed that of any storm in recent memory. Ten buildings burned to the ground, another seven collapsed because of wind - including two apartment buildings - and huge portions of the island remained under water and by Saturday evening had not been reached by emergency personnel.

    Gov. Rick Perry said the search-and-rescue operation was the largest ever undertaken in the state, involving 57 helicopters and more than 1,500 people on the ground.

    "If you're in an affected area, we are on our way to help you," the governor said.

    His spokeswoman, Alison Castle, said there had been 940 rescues of people stranded in homes, vehicles or other places. Most of those took place in Galveston and Orange counties, she said. How many people might still be isolated or missing is not known.

    Perry also urged Texans who had evacuated to wait for official word before returning home. He said residents who ignored the warning to evacuate Galveston would be allowed to stay but could not return if they left. Authorities said they would only allow emergency personnel to go to the island.

    White calls for federal help

    So far only two deaths have been attributed to Ike, which barreled ashore on Galveston Island around midnight and spent the rest of the night pounding Greater Houston before heading into East Texas. The number of fatalities could rise, however, as emergency workers get to areas not reachable by roads.

    Most of the region, encompassing perhaps 5 million people, from Brazoria County into Louisiana, was without power Saturday. There was no word on when to expect its return.

    Water supplies also were less than certain. The city of Houston issued a directive to boil water because of low pressure and to conserve supplies.

    Faced with a populace without air conditioning or even the ability to pump a gallon of gas, Houston Mayor Bill White called on the federal government to help restore power to the nation's fourth-largest city and the home of much of its petroleum refining industry.

    "This should be a national priority," White said. "All the national resources should be brought to bear to try to get the power up in our community."

    White also is seeking federal help in obtaining fuel to keep the Texas Medical Center in operation and resources to help CenterPoint Energy restore electrical power to about 2 million Houston customers.

    Among the manifold things unknown in the immediate aftermath of Ike's visit was any idea of when conditions would get better.

    Electricity repair and debris removal crews quickly began a round-the-clock effort that could take weeks to complete. Gas tankers and grocery supply truckers were heading into the area, though without power many stations and stores are in no position to receive them. For obvious reasons, people who evacuated under order are not being allowed to come home yet, and those who stayed are subject to strict curfews in most jurisdictions.

    Likewise it is uncertain when the region's major industry, oil and gas refining, would come back online. The good news is the eye of the hurricane veered slightly east of the center of Houston and also the nearby refineries, which account for about one-fifth of the nation's petroleum refining capacity. But the process of assessing damage was just beginning, and even those unhurt may remain shuttered for days.

    The U.S. Energy Department said 14 Texas refineries in Port Arthur, Houston, Texas City and Corpus Christi remain shut down, and lingering winds hindered company efforts to assess damage with flyovers.

    Nearly 2.5 million fled

    Whatever the urgent matters of the next few days, Saturday's first order of business was getting to people stranded, injured or perhaps killed by the storm. The rescue effort stretched from Brazoria County to Louisiana and will continue today.

    "We hope it's a small number," Chertoff said of potential hurricane deaths. "But we're going to have to wait and see. There may be people we find who didn't get out and will be in the rubble."

    He said 2.2 million Texans and approximately 130,000 Louisiana residents evacuated their homes on Ike's approach. More might have left except for the experience of the Hurricane Rita evacuation in 2005. So many people fled then, and evacuation planning was so poor, that freeways became parking lots and trips that might have taken a few hours became a sweaty - and in some cases fatal - nightmare.

    Officials were determined not to let that happen this time. Not only was planning greatly improved, but White, Emmett and other officials pointedly told people not in mandatory evacuation zones to stay put.

    Despite a harrowing night when Ike roared ashore, White said people should try to maintain some perspective about their lives, as difficult as they may be in the short run.

    Dodged the very worst

    "We are going to be faced with a very long several days and couple of weeks," the mayor said. "I urge our citizens to remember this: If you're in good health and alive in the greatest city, in the greatest state in the greatest country, then things are not so bad. You did not suffer the worst fate."

    Not so bad indeed, despite damage that will run into the many billions of dollars. Although the warnings that sent many people packing were largely proved right, Ike's final eastward push at landfall meant that the brunt of the dreaded storm surge slightly missed Galveston Island.

    Ike's landfall put its powerful northeast quadrant - and thus the largest surge - over Bolivar Peninsula and a bit farther up the Texas coast. This meant the storm surge along Galveston's Seawall peaked at just above 12 feet, well below the forecast level of 15 to 20 feet, with even lower levels on the more vulnerable west end of the island.

    Ike's easterly track also spared much of Harris County from sustained hurricane-force winds. That said, Houston still got a taste of what might have been had Ike remained on its projected path.

    Quirky winds left mark

    Because of the storm's odd configuration, the winds were significantly higher just a few hundred feet off the ground, reaching category 4 levels, which explains why Ike ripped the roof of Reliant Stadium but not the much more modest homes nearby. And it explains why downtown's streets were littered Saturday with glass from Chase Tower, the second tallest U.S. building west of the Mississippi River.

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    Chronicle reporters Kristen Hays, Carolyn Feibel and Eric Berger contributed to this report.

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