By Peggy O’Hare
The Houston Chronicle
SURFSIDE BEACH, Texas — Surfside Beach volunteer firefighter Adam Devaney wasn’t trying to do anything dramatic or attract fanfare when he photographed the storm-ravaged island’s scars from Hurricane Ike. But his pictures attracted so much attention that they’ve drawn 170,000 hits on the Internet.
“I know how stressful it is, not being able to get back,” said Devaney, who lost his childhood pictures and a used car to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. “When you don’t know what’s going on — when you can’t get back and see your property."Devaney, 34, who moved to the Brazoria County seaside town from New Orleans last year to help run a beach house rental and construction business, set out to photograph the island strictly to help residents worried about their property after the storm.
Access to the photos is free and requires no registration. The city of Surfside Beach also has a link to Devaney’s photos on its Web site.
Devaney, who has taken photographs as a hobby for about 10 years, said he did not zero in on the most dramatic damage, but rather tried to document the entire landscape. He estimates he has photographed about 95 percent of Surfside Beach since Ike’s landfall.
He will try to photograph the beachside communities of Treasure Island and San Luis Pass later this week at the request of some homeowners. He tried to enter Treasure Island on Tuesday, but was turned away by Brazoria County sheriff’s deputies, who are keeping the area off limits, due to severe storm damage.
Surfside Beach Mayor Larry Davison said Devaney provided an important public service by uploading his pictures online, which helped lessen homeowners’ anxieties and reduced traffic flowing into the village.
Devaney said he has taken about 800 photographs of Ike’s wrath, but uploaded only half of them to his Internet site. He will try to post the others in the near future.
He took the first pictures Friday morning as firefighters used a large dump truck to make last-minute rescues of residents stranded in their homes by floodwaters engulfing the entire island.
All firefighters had to leave Surfside Beach by noon Friday, but Devaney resumed taking pictures when he returned at daybreak Saturday.
“When we got back over here and saw so much still standing, that was a very positive thing,” Devaney said. “The idea more so was to show how much was standing, rather than what fell down.
“I wasn’t trying to scare people or anything like that,” he said. “That was really the most important thing — to show everyone as much of the island as quickly as possible so everyone could rest easier.”
Surfside residents have been grateful and appreciative of Devaney’s pictures — some even made donations to the Fire Department because of his efforts.
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle