Two Blackhawk helicopters Tuesday afternoon airlifted 18 refugees from the area east of Galveston, where Ike made landfall early Saturday.
Most of men dropping onto the tarmac at Galveston's airport were Vietnamese-American shrimpers who rode out Ike in the Houston Ship Channel's turning basin.
Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough said Tuesday that the holdouts on Bolivar Peninsula will be required to leave in the next few days. Officials are prepared to impose martial law if needed to empty the barrier island scraped clean by Ike.
