Seven months before Hurricane Ike struck Texas, Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas was honored for the city's efforts to create a better disaster plan after Hurricane Rita caused panic on this island town, diverting from the city just hours before landfall.

Armed with slide shows and documents, Thomas and city staff explained why they deserved to be recognized by the National Council on Readiness & Preparedness, a group associated with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Evacuation zones and a chain of command clearly were defined in Galveston's plan. Contracts were in place to bus residents in need of a ride to Austin. Other contracts were negotiated for repairs and debris removal. Up-to-the-minute weather information was at their disposal.

But during the entire Feb. 13 presentation, which included everything from how to evacuate pets to how to manage media inquiries, there was no direct mention of how to resurrect more quickly Galveston's water and sewage treatment systems, parts of which are 100 years old.

As with every hurricane that has hit Galveston - and there were 11 between 1880 and Ike that struck within 75 miles of the island, including the 1900 storm that decimated the city and killed 8,000 - there's always a new lesson.

And with Ike, one of the biggest lessons will be how to quickly restore water and sewage service.

"Galveston will sit down and we will review our hurricane plan," Thomas said late last week. "We'll look at our water system, we'll look at our sewer system and what we can do that is more protective of our systems than we have today."

Galveston's water and sewer treatment systems, particularly the 30th Street pump station that services most of the island, became the barrier that kept most of its 58,000 residents from returning quickly after the storm. Not debris. Not an outbreak of infectious disease.

Hours before Ike's eye hit on Saturday, Sept. 13, electrical service to the island shorted as anticipated and the city's natural gas provider - Texas Gas Service Co. - shut off service, as a safety precaution.

"I do feel that Texas Gas had a very good reason to shut off the valves," Thomas said. "The gas meters were shut off for the protection of lives."

But that shutdown also silenced the gas-powered pumps at 30th Street, a plant with a main water tank that dates back to 1888 and contains nearly 50-year-old gas pumps.