Paula Munoz said although the damage to the family's El Rey restaurant was worse than she could have imagined, they still planned to rebuild. "We spent 10 years paying off this place," she told KHOU. "We'll rebuild, and we'll do it here. Where else would we go? This is our life."

But there was some relief for Maria Patina, who was worried she had lost everything. When she saw her house was standing, she rushed inside, grabbed a statue of Jesus and said: "Thank you, God." Read KHOU's report on going back to Galveston

Crystal Beach, Texas
Frank and Dee Ann Sherman huddled in the attic of their beachfront home in Crystal Beach as Hurricane Ike ripped the house apart -- washing walls out to sea and lifting up what remained only to smash it down, KHOU said.  Watch the Shermans tell their amazing survival story »

Somehow the roof stayed on and they survived, but they are not being allowed back into the ruins, not even to retrieve the ashes of their dead daughter.

The couple said they were frustrated with complaints by people better off than them. "We see all of these people that are crying and moaning because they got some mud on their floor or their lights are out in Houston," Frank Sherman told KHOU.