Only one house in the coastal town of Gilchrist in Galveston County, Texas survived Hurricane Ike and remained standing after the storm passed the area last week.

The home of Warren and Pam Adams was elevated 14 feet above ground by strong wooden columns which helped it withstand Ike's 110 mph winds and avoid floods that wiped out all other homes in the beach.

The couple was tearfully glad to see their home intact Thursday, when they visited to salvage items, but lamented that other homes were gone.

"It looked like somebody had dropped a bomb," Warren Adams, 63, told CNN. "If my house wasn't there, I wouldn't have been able to recognize where I was even at."

Adams said the house was actually a replacement for the one destroyed by Hurricane Rita in 2005. It was built in 2006 at a cost of $600,000. A helicopter pilot's aerial photo of Gilchrist showing the lone surviving house created a sensation on the Internet after it was contributed to CNN.