Ike's US Toll Hits 51

The U.S. death toll from Hurricane Ike has climbed past 50 but appears to have leveled off in Texas.

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Search teams have pulled out of Galveston after having scoured the entire island for survivors.

While rescue crews are leaving, the roads leading back into coastal communities are clogged with nearly 20 miles of traffic despite orders to stay out. Transportation officials said emergency crews and trucks hauling resources badly needed on the island are among the vehicles stuck in the jam.

Much of the confusion stems from a decision Tuesday to allow people onto the island to take a look at their property and head back out. That decision has been suspended.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is in Texas to check on recovery efforts.

Houston Mayor Bill White is unhappy with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying supplies aren't coming in fast enough in the days since Hurricane Ike blew through.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett has personally taken over coordination of efforts to hand out relief supplies.

FEMA said it will start paying for 30 days of hotel expenses for people whose homes are too damaged for them to live in.

Near Galveston, about 250 residents of the hard-hit Bolivar Peninsula refuse to leave. The Texas attorney general's office is exploring how to legally force them out, saying they're concerned about a lack of utilities and the spread of diseases.

County Judge Jim Yarbrough, the top elected official in Galveston County, said those who defied warnings that they would be killed if they rode out the storm on the Bolivar Peninsula are a "hardy bunch" and there are some "old timers who aren't going to want to leave."

Local authorities said they are prepared to do whatever it takes to get residents to a safer place.

Authorities may never know if people who tried to weather the storm were washed out to sea. So far, there are no confirmed fatalities, but Yarbrough and other officials said they didn't think that would hold.

Authorities confirmed a total of nine deaths in the Houston metropolitan area, all from post-storm debris-clearing work, house fires or carbon monoxide poisoning by generator use.

Three-quarters of Houston was still without power Tuesday, and residents still waited in line for hours on end for distributions of food, water and ice.

And even though officials offered no timetable for when Houston would have power again, a flow of people who fled Ike were cramming their way back onto freeways toward the city despite orders to stay away.

Problems continued at the 22 supply distribution centers that had been set up in Houston. White said many were not getting supplies quickly enough and most were running out of ice.

White eased Houston's curfew, now from midnight to 6 a.m., but urged motorists to stay off the streets after dark.