GALVESTON, Texas -- Residents and business owners who hoped to go to Galveston to take a look at the damage to their homes and businesses won't get a chance to go in for at least a week, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.

"The look and leave is suspended," City Manager Steve LeBlanc said. "It's done. We're not going to have a look and leave. We have had meeting after meeting evaluating every option that we could think of. It's best, because of our situation, because of the infrastructure, to not implement it."

The city started the look-and-leave program on Tuesday but quickly rescinded it when there was an influx of traffic to the island.

"It didn't work," LeBlanc said. "We've looked at varying forms of that and we just don't feel at this point we can implement it, so it's over with."

Emergency workers, insurance agents and contractors who are helping with the city's restoration are being allowed into the city.

There is a bright side --- it may not be too much longer before residents can go back for good.

"I want you, the citizens, to know that I share your frustration, your anxiety about your homes and your property," Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said. "By staying away and being patient, you are making it possible for us to get you home in a week or so instead of the months it would take if the city's infrastructure were more overwhelmed at this point. As your mayor, I am committed to protecting your life and property and keep you safe. That is what I am doing. My commitment to you, the citizens of Galveston, is to get you back home as soon as possible."

The city has had some restoration of power and water.

"We cannot drink it. We cannot cook with it. We cannot let our pets drink it," Thomas said of the water. "We do not have enough water yet for adequate fire protection."

CenterPoint Energy crews have been on the island working to restore power. The University of Texas Medical Branch Hospital was the first customer in line to get electricity.

The only hospital on the island is getting some power, but not enough to care for the 60,000 residents of Galveston Island.

"UTMB is back on," LeBlanc said. "They do have some problems. They did have some damages, so they can't accept full power. Everything around UTMB neighborhoodwise has power. Fish Village is on."

CenterPoint Energy said it would take 7 to 10 days for the core of the city to have power.

"The West End is a longer story," LeBlanc said. "The damage on the West End was very severe and I don't have a time frame to tell you."

Galveston schools will be back up and running shortly after residents are allowed to return.

"We've done a full assessment of all of our buildings," Superintendent Lynne Cleveland said. "We did have quite a bit of water damage, but overall they're in great condition. We feel like we can have them up and running three days after the city's infrastructure is in place."

Roughly 15,000 residents defied forecasters' warning of "certain death" to ride out the storm on the barrier island, and many remained there despite the repeated urgings of officials -- worried about threats that include mosquito-borne disease -- to get out.

There are clear signs of life returning to Galveston. Cell phone service had largely returned, and for the second day since the storm hit, a Kroger store on Seawall Boulevard was open. The scene was almost festive, as workers grilled fajitas for employees who had removed enough spoiled food to fill 16 dump trucks. No meat or dairy products were available, but most other items were.

Galveston Police Chief Charles Wiley said since Ike hit, authorities have seen only 11 cases of looting -- a rate he called "phenomenally low."

"It's really some young people who've probably been left on the island or been located on the island and have very little to do," he said.

Ike's death toll in the U.S. stood at 56, with 22 in Texas. A utility worker clearing downed lines in north of Houston was crushed by a falling tree Wednesday, the Montgomery County sheriff's office said.

Galveston County Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik said Thursday that three more deaths were attributed to Hurricane Ike.

Pustilnik said one victim drowned when the storm surge went through his house. Another was an alcoholic who died after he was deprived of alcohol. Toxicology tests were pending, but Pustilnik says he may have died from seizures.

The third new victim had Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease and died because medical care stopped, Pustilnik said.

He said it it's still unclear whether there will be many or few more bodies found.

"It's very much unknown," he said. "There are large parts of the county that haven't been searched. Just like in Katrina and Rita, debris has to be sifted through."

The Lynchburg Ferry and the Washburn Tunnel remain closed due to the effects of Hurricane Ike. Officials said both the ferry and the tunnel will re-open for service following evaluation and repair.

The tunnel suffered damage when the pumps could not handle the massive storm surge from the ship channel. The ferries suffered damage as a result of being forced by tidal surge.

To the northwest in Houston, traffic on the downtown streets of the nation's fourth-largest city picked up Thursday, nearly a week after the massive Category 2 storm plowed ashore on Galveston Island. CenterPoint Energy said it had restored power to nearly 900,000 homes, approaching the point where more people in Houston would be with electricity than without.

"If I could make a wish for a single magic bullet to move us forward, it would be to get the power lines fixed," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.

Chertoff was in Southeast Texas for the second straight day, watching over the federal relief effort that has delivered hundreds of trucks of ice, water and food to the region's more than 5 million people.

To help ease the recovery, federal officials urged private lenders Thursday to cut some slack to financially strapped homeowners after earlier issuing a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures. About 7,000 homeowners with FHA loans in Ike-damaged areas were in foreclosure or on the cusp, HUD said.

"A lot of times, after a disaster, people come back, they have expenses they didn't count on," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston said as he stood alongside Chertoff. "We want to make sure they have breathing room before they have to worry about mortgages (that) will become an additional challenge for them."

Flight control of the International Space Station was to return to the Johnson Space Center on Friday, NASA said Thursday. The space center shut down a few days before Ike's strike.

Officials said the home of Mission Control incurred only minimal damage from the storm. While the space flight center was closed, the duties had been passed temporarily to backup facilities near Austin and in Huntsville, Ala.