Galveston County Daily News, Jan. 11, 2009 This is testimony presented last week by Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas to a special Texas House committee looking into the damage caused by Hurricane Ike. "We must seek regional solutions through state and federal action to threats that pose regional destruction. We must act swiftly and in unison. ... Is Galveston worth saving? Yes. How? By taking a regional approach, by permanently securing our coastline, expanding our transportation network and investing in the health of Texas, our absolutely essential medical facilities that are the underpinnings of the University of Texas Medical Branch with its top rating in scholarship, research and health-care delivery."