Former mayor of Galveston Thomas dies
Longtime leader’s handling of Ike was widely praised
As Galveston mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas led the city during Hurricane Ike in 2008 and in the long recovery from the storm’s devastation. She died after a long battle with cancer at age 80.
GALVESTON — Former Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas, who led the city during Hurricane Ike and in the long recovery from the storm’s devastation, died Wednesday after a long illness with a rare form of cancer. She was 80.
Thomas died about 2 p.m. at her home, said Trey Click, a family friend.
Thomas was one of the city’s most popular politicians, serving 12 years on the City Council as a council member and mayor. She was also a member of the Kempner family, one of three influential families whose members have helped shape Galveston throughout its history.
“She was the matriarch of our generation who helped lead our family in our philanthropic giving and in teaching us the true values of caring for others,” said Robert Lynch, her cousin and board president of the Harry and Eliza Kempner Fund.
Click, who worked closely with Thomas, said he was impressed by “how much she loved her family first and her city second.”
As mayor, Thomas guided the island city through two hurricanes. As Hurricane Rita strengthened to a Category 5 storm on a course headed straight for Galveston in 2005, Thomas declared a state of emergency and ordered an evacuation. Rita veered northwest hours before it could strike Galveston, coming ashore instead at Sabine Pass on Sept. 20.
Ordered evacuation
The evacuation order, combined with similar orders in the Houston area, led to an exodus of 2.5 million people, clogging roads and leading to at least 107 deaths.
Three years later and with the memory of the Hurricane Rita evacuation fresh in her memory, Thomas reluctantly ordered the evacuation of Galveston three days before Hurricane Ike struck Sept. 13, 2008, damaging 70 percent of the buildings in the city.
“I think about how when we were evacuating from Ike, how she took care of everyone,” Click said. Realizing that many wouldn’t evacuate without their pets, she ordered that pets be included in the evacuation order, Click recalled.
Nearly a third of the city’s inhabitants ignored the order, and many had to be rescued while several died. Thomas was criticized for barring residents from returning to the island for the first two weeks after the storm, fearing it would hamper recovery operations.
“She never wavered and she never lost her cool,” said Mary Jo Naschke, city spokeswoman during Hurricane Ike and a friend of Thomas. “Every time she came under fire I was right there. … She listened before she talked, she measured what she said.”
The City Council under Thomas had set up a borrowing contingency in anticipation of a powerful storm like Ike. This provided the city with instant access to emergency funds to keep the government running as it recovered from the deadly disaster.
“There would be no one other than she who could have helped lead us out of the devastation of Hurricane Ike,” Lynch said. “She was a leader for us all, in family and city, and someone who will be very, very hard to replace.”
A lifetime of service
A Galveston native, Thomas was elected to the District 4 seat on the City Council in 1998 and held office for three consecutive twoyear terms, the most allowed under the city’s term limits. She was elected mayor in 2004 and stepped down in 2010.
“Most people remember her as mayor, but she had a lifetime of tireless efforts behind the scenes,” Mayor James D. Yarbrough said in a written statement. “She truly was one of our heroes.”
She is survived by a sister, Penny Guttersen, of Greeley, Colo; two sons, Taylor Thomas, of Galveston, and Ian Thomas, of San Francisco; a daughter, Eliza Thomas Quigley, of Galveston; and two grandchildren.
Information on services was not immediately available.