On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and other federal officials toured Galveston, Houston and other areas of Texas ravaged by Hurricane Ike when it made landfall Saturday. Chertoff says the first priority is to help people stranded by the storm and others in dire need of assistance. Officials are requesting federal help to get the local economy back up and running.
星期天，美国国土安全部部长切尔托夫和其他联邦政府官员视察了加尔维斯顿、休斯顿以及遭受飓风艾克重创的其他德克萨斯州地区。飓风是星期六登陆的。切尔托夫表示，当前的首要任务是帮助受灾民众。德克萨斯州政府官员要求联邦政府帮助当地尽快让经济恢复运转。
Galveston Island and other coastal areas took the brunt of Hurricane Ike and many areas look like war zones, with collapsed houses and buildings, flooded neighborhoods, and downed trees and power lines. As bad as it was, however, many officials say it could have been far worse had the storm stalled over the region or grown stronger than a Category 2 hurricane.
加尔维斯顿岛和其他沿海地区在这次飓风袭击中受灾最严重，很多地方看上去象战场一样，房屋建筑倒塌，居民区淹水，树木被吹倒，电线被刮断。不过，虽然看起来情形很糟，但是很多官员都表示，要是飓风风力更猛，持续时间更长，损失还会严重得多。
Texas Governor Rick Perry says people in the Houston-Galveston area responded well to the disaster.
德克萨斯州州长佩里表示，休斯顿和加尔维斯顿地区的民众对灾害做出了非常积极的反应。
"Hurricane Ike threw us a hard punch, but it did not dent our spirit," he said.
他说：“飓风艾克给了我们重重的一击，但是没有能够挫伤我们的精神！”
Still, the governor is clearly worried about the road ahead. He says refineries and other important energy infrastructure came through the storm. But the shutdown of many facilities and oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico is already having an effect on fuel prices nationwide.
不过，佩里州长显然很担心下一步的局势。他说，炼油厂和其他重要的能源设施都挺过了这次风暴，不过墨西哥湾很多设施和石油平台都被迫关闭，这已经给全美各地的汽油价格造成影响。
The hurricane's high winds buffeted a huge area hundreds-of-kilometers inland.
这次飓风影响了内陆数百公里的地区。
The storm blew out windows in tall office buildings in downtown Houston and left millions of people across the region without electrical power.
休斯顿城里许多高楼大厦的窗户都被风刮走了，数百万人家里停电。
There are long lines at the gas stations that have fuel and generators to power the pumps. Most people are seeking gasoline for their own portable generators, which they are using to run refrigerators and lights. But if businesses and offices remain closed, the economic impact of Ike will rise dramatically.
人们在加油站排起长队。绝大多数人都是等著买汽油，用于自家的发电机，为冰箱和照明供电。不过，如果企业店铺和办公区持续关闭的话，飓风艾克所造成的经济影响将大幅度上升。
Texas Governor Rick Perry says the federal government needs to do everything possible to help because this is not just a problem for his state.
德克萨斯州州长佩里说，联邦政府需要尽一切可能提供帮助，因为这不仅仅是德克萨斯一个州的问题。
"Here is what I want the people of America to understand - Texas has one of the, if not the most vibrant economy in America today. And at the heart of that was southeast Texas with Houston at the epicenter of that," he said. "So it is abundantly important that Americans give every support that they can to this reconstruction effort, to this recovery effort, because the future of America depends on a state like Texas and a city like Houston to get back on its feet as fast as we can."
佩里说：“我希望美国人民都明白一点，那就是，德克萨斯是当今美国经济发展最繁荣的几个州之一，而德州东南部的休斯顿地区又是这种经济发展的中心。所以说，美国人尽一切可能帮助德州的重建是至关重要的，因为美国的未来取决于德克萨斯这样的州和休斯顿这样的城市尽快复苏。”
Governor Perry hailed the pre-storm evacuation process in which hundreds-of-thousands of people left Galveston and other coastal areas in an orderly fashion days before the storm. As for the few thousand people who insisted on staying behind, he called them "hard-headed".
佩里州长高度赞扬了加尔维斯顿和其他沿岸地区成千上万居民在风暴来临之前，成功、有序地转移到了其他地区。他把坚持留守的几千名民众称为“顽固派”。
One of those who remained was Jacqueline Harris, who spoke to local television station KHOU.
哈里斯女士是坚持留守的人之一。她在接受当地电视台采访的时候说：
"We must have been out of our ever-loving minds to stay for it. But it takes a certain type of person to live on the island [ Galveston] and this is our home," she said. "If nothing else, the people who stayed behind can help people rebuild, to help others who have nothing. We are sharing water, we are sharing our toiletries, we are sharing coffee."
“我们当初决定留下来，现在回头看，真不知道当时是怎么想的！不过，住在岛上的人，一般都是挺有个性的；这是我们的家啊！但留下来的人可以帮助其他人重建，帮助那些眼下一无所有的人；我们现在把自家的水、卫生用品、以及咖啡等等，都拿出来和大家一起分享。”
The U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and many local government entities are engaged in search and rescue operations in the worst effected areas and are providing ice, drinking water and food to people in need.
美国海岸警卫队，美国联邦紧急救援署以及很多地方政府机构目前正在受灾最严重地区展开搜救工作，并且给灾民提供冰、饮水和食品。
Thousands of people with special needs or damaged homes have gone to shelters. But most are staying in their homes, waiting for essential services to be restored - something that may take several weeks in some areas.
那些需要特别帮助的或者是房屋遭到破坏的数千名民众，目前都住在临时避灾点。绝大多数人都在自己家里，等待基本服务设施的恢复，不过在有些地区，他们可能要等好几个星期。 |