( CNN ) -- When iReporter Carlos Ortega evacuated Galveston 's West End last week , there was a road , a row of houses and about 150 feet of sand between his house and the water . Now the surf laps about 30 feet from his door . iReporter Carlos Ortega says there 's `` not an inch that is n't damaged '' in his Galveston , Texas , neighborhood . Hurricane Ike devastated the Texas city over the weekend , and Gov . Rick Perry said it could be weeks before residents could return . `` There 's substantial structural damage , obviously ... ( no ) electrical power , '' he said . `` It 's going to be a while . '' Ortega , a professor at the University of Houston , and his partner walked about six miles down the beach on Sunday and said there 's `` not an inch that is n't damaged . '' iReport.com : See Ortega 's home before and after Ike . He said one beachfront house was knocked off its stilts and was lying on the ground like an amusement park funhouse . A dead cow washed in front of another home . `` It was pretty depressing and devastating to see how everything was just torn up , '' he said . `` People 's lives and houses were just torn up . '' All but two of the houses on the `` front row , '' nearest the beach , in their Bermuda Beach subdivision were destroyed , he said . `` You would n't know there was a house there . '' `` The house across the street from us is completely gone , and there 's no trace of it , '' he said . The first floor of their house is covered with 3 to 4 feet of sand and debris , including huge chunks of asphalt from the road that ran in front of the house . `` We do n't keep anything of value down there , '' he said , because people expect to get high water occasionally . There were some windows out on the second level , but they did not have much water damage . Ortega said the storm washed a Jet Ski out of the garage and dumped it about five blocks away . iReport.com : Have you been home after Ike ? Share your story . It still worked , Ortega said , but was stuck in the sand . Ortega rode out the storm at his house in Houston , which also suffered some damage . `` The expectation was that it was going to be like three years ago when the last storm ( Rita ) came through , and it was so much worse , '' he said . iReporter Matteu Erchull stayed on Galveston Island during the storm . `` I think everybody downplayed the severity of the storm , including myself , '' he said , adding that he did n't regret staying . iReport.com : Ike passes over Galveston iReporter . After the storm , he put on his fishing waders and helped rescue some of his neighbors . `` Some people literally hid in their attics . Right after the storm , you go into these areas , and they were just helpless , '' the former Eagle Scout said . `` They were just waiting . '' Nearly 2,000 people who did not evacuate have been rescued along the southeastern Texas coast , said Steve McCraw , director of the Texas Office of Homeland Security . On Sunday , a Galveston County sheriff 's official said three bodies were pulled from storm wreckage in Port Bolivar , bringing to 10 the number of reported deaths in Texas linked to Ike . Erchull said he got through the storm OK , but most of his stuff was ruined . `` I lost everything . Water rose up to about 10 feet . Got into everything and flooded everything I had , '' he said . He said he tried to wash his clothes , but he just could n't get the smell out . `` The smell was just this really musky moldy wet smell , it 's really hard to explain . Imagine leaving your clothes accidentally in the washer for 10 days , it 's just disgusting , '' he said . Erchull said there 's no power on the island , and the National Guard was going door-to-door asking people to leave . He went to Dallas , where he was up all night telling his friends what had happened and what to expect when they get back . `` It 's hard to tell people that there 's not much to go back to , '' he said .
Galveston residents may not be able to come home for weeks . iReporter Carlos Ortega says beachfront houses are gone in his neighborhood . iReporter Matteu Erchull rode out storm and lost everything . Are you cleaning up after Ike ? The National Weather Service has issued a hurricane watch from the Texas coast northward through Louisiana as Hurricane Ike, which is expected to make landfall on Friday night or early Saturday morning, moves into Texas.