'Last house standing' an inspiration to neighbors

BOLIVAR PENINSULA — Pam and Warren Adams, owners of the last house standing in their section of Gilchrist on Bolivar Peninsula, hitched their generator to Christmas lights last week, stringing up hope in their devastated neighborhood.

Neighbors plan to fashion their own displays this weekend, around stark pilings on empty slabs, using lights powered by stored solar energy. The bulbs brighten spirits in a small town almost swept off the map by Hurricane Ike three months ago.

“One woman wrote me that she was coming back at dark from her property, where there’s nothing left but a slab, and they saw the lights,” Pam said. “She said, ‘It’s the first time in a long time I’ve seen my kids jump up and down and clap and holler — when they saw the lights on your house. It’s such an inspiration.’”

The Adams’ simple display of lights winding up stair rails and forming a Christmas tree shines out along the beach because so few signs of civilization remain there. Hurricane Ike’s storm tides were merciless to Gilchrist, a beach-front community along State Highway 87 east of Bolivar Point. Buildings were knocked off their foundations; some were swept onto roads; many were destroyed.

One photo, taken from a helicopter surveying the damage after the storm, showed an amazing image — an entire section of beach-front neighborhoods reduced to slabs, except for one house, quickly dubbed “the last house standing.” The house was featured on CNN’s Web site and in media reports.

“I went through survivor’s guilt so bad the first couple of weeks,” Pam recalled, speaking by phone from Baytown. “I thought people would hate me — that’s how bad my guilt was.”

But when Bolivar Peninsula was finally opened for residents to survey the damage, the reaction to the lone intact house surprised Pam. “People were honking and taking pictures and waving and tipping their hats,” she recalled. “That helped a lot.”

The Adamses had lived in the home 17 months. They had the structure built to withstand storms, after their first home on the site was destroyed by Hurricane Rita.

They named the new house “Fantasea” and painted it “in God’s colors — blue for the sky, yellow for the sun and white for the clouds,” Pam wrote on her MySpace page.

The colors remain on the exterior, but the interior suffered flood damage. The Adamses parked a recreational vehicle beside the house, and built a new stairway to replace the one swept away by the storm.

Last weekend, they were sitting on the deck past sunset, realizing the dark gloom settling on Gilchrist, where so few homes and lights remain. “It was so eerie with no lights,” Pam said.

So the couple bought Christmas lights, powering them by generator. It became a rallying point among the neighbors, defying the dark.

“We told them, everybody needs to put lights up — I don’t care if there’s just one piling,” Pam said. “We need to light up the peninsula.”

Pam, a field cost analyst for a company that does turnarounds and shutdowns in the petrochemical field, lives in a Baytown apartment during the week. She joins her husband at the RV on weekends, drawn there by the surprising community spirit in the midst of devastation.

“This whole peninsula totally surprised me — how neighbors have jumped in and helped neighbors,” she said. “You’d think we were all family.”

The Adamses will celebrate Christmas there at the RV and the house. Pam will put up a small tree and cook a traditional turkey dinner.

She thought about gathering the family at the Baytown apartment, but decided on a different course. “I don’t feel like I’m at home unless I’m at the beach,” she said.

She has a simple message for other families facing dark times this Christmas — “Don’t give up and have faith,” she said. “It can all be rebuilt.

“We can all come back. We’ve got to all come back.”