Survivors who did return to their island home waded through not only mounds of toxic debris, but also a dense and seemingly endless bureaucracy that threatened to stifle recovery before it even began.Scores of private interviews expose the politics of recovery, the destitution of loss, and the revelry of rebirth. Award-winning Galveston County Daily News reporters Leigh Jones and Rhiannon Meyers deliver the story of one of America's largest hurricanes through the voices of those who lived it.In 2008, Hurricane Ike swept the Gulf of Mexico into Galveston, submerging 75 percent of the city, shredding entire buildings to splinters, and turning out rich and poor alike from their beloved island home.