GALVESTON, Texas -- Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc on Galveston, knocking out every creature comfort and making the island virtually uninhabitable, KPRC Local 2 reported Sunday.

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"Galveston has been hit hard," Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said. "We have no power. We have no gas. We have no communications. We're not sure when any of that will be up and running."

Thomas said residents who evacuated should not even think about coming home now.

"Do not come back to Galveston," she said. "You cannot live here at this time."

"It is pretty obvious that there is substantial and long-term damage done to Galveston Island," Gov. Rick Perry said.

The West End was particularly hard hit.

"The devastation was horrendous," Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said. "I counted at least 30 homes that were out in the water. I saw homes that were picked up off the piling and set down alongside the piling. I saw massive erosion that's occurred and tons and tons of debris."

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LeBlanc said he did see one positive thing.

"We saw cattle that survived," he said. "Must have swam around all night, but they swam and were out and walking around. That's the only life I saw on the West End of the island."

LeBlanc said it was not known if anyone stayed on the West End despite a mandatory evacuation order.

He said three bodies had been found, but the deaths have not been directly linked to the hurricane yet.

Perry said the state has made arrangements for residents who did not evacuate to be able to go to shelters around Texas.

"We have about 2,000 that stayed that still want to leave," LeBlanc said. "That ought to send you a strong message not to come back."

Perry said he has requested that the federal government provide full individual reimbursement for evacuees.

Nearly 2,000 people in southeast Texas were rescued by air, land and water after Ike made landfall.

"Priority one is search and rescue," Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw said. "Thus far, 394 by air have been rescued and overall, 1,948 citizens down here have been rescued."

"There's not a square foot of Galveston Island, and for that matter southeast Texas, that will not be searched and, when people are found, rescued," McCraw said.

Heavy morning rains hampered rescue efforts in the hardest-hit areas of the Texas and Louisiana coasts, but crews worked around the clock to go door-to-door to find any survivors of the massive storm. Those plucked from flooded homes were being loaded onto a fleet of buses, bound for shelters farther north.

Hundreds of residents were wrapped around a high school in Galveston, some carrying pets, overstuffed duffel bags and medication as they waited to board a coach bus to a shelter. Some didn't know where they were going, and even more didn't know when they could return.

Ldyyan Jonjocque, 61, waited to board a bus while holding the leashes of her four Australian shepherd dogs. She said she had to leave two dogs behind in her home. She wept when she recounted officers having to rescue her in a dump truck.

"I have nowhere to go," she said.

On one side of the Galveston peninsula, two barges had broken loose and smashed into homes. Everything from red vinyl barstools to clay roof tiles littered the landscape. The second floor of some homes sat where the first had been before Ike's surge washed it out, and only framed remained below the roofs of others, opening a clear view from front yard to back.

LeBlanc said CenterPoint Energy is working to restore power at the University of Texas Medical Branch Hospital, but it will take at least a week.

"They're in line first," LeBlanc said.

Perry remained optimistic that the island will return to normal one day.

"Hurricane Ike threw us a hard punch but didn't dent our spirit," Perry said. "Galveston Island will be back better than ever and is one of the great gems of the Gulf coast."

President Bush planned to travel to Texas on Tuesday to express sympathy and lend support to the storm's victims. He asked people who evacuated before the hurricane to listen to local authorities before trying to return home.

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