Texas May Take Homes Now Sitting on Post-Ike Beaches

News is going from bad to worse for some Texas homeowners. Hundreds of beachfront homes damaged by Hurricane Ike—and even some left spared—might be condemned thanks to a state law making it illegal to build on public beaches, the AP reports. The homes didn't move, but as Ike tore through, the beaches did; the storm redrew tide lines and redefined what's public and what's private.

Nothing's final yet, and owners won't have an answer for at least a year. "If that did happen, it would break our hearts," one homeowner said. But not everyone's sympathetic. "We're talking about damn fools that have built houses on the edge of the sea ... against every advice anyone has given," a former state senator said. (More Hurricane Ike stories.)