A disgusting, smelly, dead mess

 On Clear Lake, Texas – We got a chance to go out on a boat this afternoon to get a view of Hurricane Ike's destructive path from the angle of the water. It also allowed us to see some places you couldn't reach by car because so much water and debris has been pushed in from Galveston Bay.

Clear Lake is sort of a protected inlet off Galveston Bay, we got to the mouth of the bay but it was too rough to go out there in the 26-foot motorboat we were in. 

We went out on the water to try to get an idea of the environmental impact of Hurricane Ike on Clear Lake and it's a mess.

AP

Boats line the road in Clear Lake, Texas after Hurricane Ike on Sunday.

We saw thousands of dead fish floating on the surface of the water. It smells terrible. When the wind is blowing, it's not so bad. But when the wind is calm – the smell of dead fish, raw sewage and gasoline just fills the air and is totally overpowering.

It is all from sewage systems on land, boat sewage systems, plus all of the gasoline. You can see that gasoline slick shine on top of the water in areas – that rainbow look you see when you have petroleum products on the water. It's turned the water a chocolate brown and it's killing fish by the thousands.

VIDEO: Texas tormented by the stench, and cost, of Ike's devastation

We saw all these dead fish floating on the surface. We also saw dead animals – what looked like dead otters, rabbits, and lots of dead birds.

The worrisome part is that the birds, ducks, and pelicans are eating the dead fish because it's easy pickings and they don't realize that those fish have been poisoned.

So the fear is that all of those birds will soon die as well.

I'm not an environmental expert, so I don't know what the long term impact is. But in the short term, it's a disgusting, smelly, dead mess.