Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Wildlife artist, Albert Faggard, stands near the open truck of his car, holding a framed painting of a bird.

That’s a Belted Kingfisher. They’re, they’re common around here and up in Anahuac.

Faggard, who lives in Gilchrest—a town his grandfather helped to settle—lost everything in Hurricane Ike.

And there’s six generations of family history completely erased.

He and others took shelter on High Island to brave the storms and wait for help.

[air boat] The great state of Texas’ game wardens were the first people to his this island to relieve us an bring us water and MREs and start checking on us. And that says a lot for, uh, the Texas Parks and Wildlife and the game wardens.

Gilchrest is Faggard’s family home, and he plans to continue the legacy.

I’m sure we will build back down in Gilchrest; we’ve been doing it for almost a hundred years. And this ain’t the first rodeo down here. [motor running]

We’ll have another story on the aftermath of Hurricane Ike tomorrow.

We’ve got debris everywhere. It’s an ecological disaster.

We have additional information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…our thanks to Karen Loke for her help with this story… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Hurricane Ike's Aftermath: Albert Faggard Play Now | Play in Popup | Download