17 feet high, 60 miles long from High Island to San Luis Pass, $4-6 Billion project to reduce storm surge for Galveston Bay. Really?
After examining the Tx A&M Master thesis that researched this idea, it bases much of its application on the Netherland's System, but they do not have 600 mile wide tropic storms or hurricanes in their area.
If the new seawall is to be built to High Island and San Luis, what about the areas outside of the wall, Port Arthur and Surfside-Freeport which also has refineries and Dow Chemical Plant.
Remember that historically massive hurricanes hit Galveston Bay area once every 25 years, what will be the cost-benefit ratio for spending $4 billion for a event that may happen once in 25 years?
Personal I believe the Ike Dike is a bad idea and a colossal waste of taxpayer money!
Whatever is decided, NO ONE should stay through a hurricane! If you can, leave. Get out of its way.
Avoiding Storms at Sea: This is an excellent video on MD School of Sailing youtube channel that discusses Tom Tursi's personal decisions on avoiding Storms at sea, a free, one hour video for anyone who plans to sail off the coast.
Long Term Impacts to the environment, look how passed hurricanes impacted our ecosystem
Farther up the coast, at San Luis Pass between Galveston and Freeport, Claudette significantly deepened the eastside channel of the mile-wide natural pass between West Galveston Bay and the open Gulf.
“Storms like this help maintain the freshwater-to-saltwater gradient, regenerate the nutrients and in turn, the entire food chain,” explains TPWD Galveston Bay ecosystem leader Rebecca Hensley. “All of the ecosystems and estuaries are affected. Storm surge and high tides flush into areas that don’t normally get saltwater intrusion. Simultaneously, with the rainfall, a lot of nutrients become available and essentially restart the estuarine process.”
Ike Dike Project Gets Financial Boost
King Ready to Launch 700-Year War
This is what the aftermath of Hurricane Ike looked like at our marina... 35 miles nw of Port Bolivar, TX
The new idea behind the like dike isn't to let people ride out the hurricane, there is still rain and wind to contend with. The ike dike is designed to prevent costly damage from storm surge AND give people more time to evacuate.
ReplyDeleteAlso, not only does the dike protect Galveston, it protects people on both sides of the bay. I'd rather throw my lot in with this then having to pay for clean up every 25 years
Thanks for your dissenting opinion...
ReplyDeleteBut that is a whole lot of my beer money and Fish-chips money going to taxpayersucker fund that will not work for the area plus cause a loss of our beaches like the seawall has done in Galveston proper. Texas does not own the beach land anymore since the TX Supreme Court has declared it unconstitutional so there we go to taking people's private land.
When projecting costs from government (think of it like a wedding or boat and triple it).
Hey I lost my roof in Hurricane Rita, replaced without government handout or insurance handout. When you live on the coast, that is what you must plan for.
When the Government says "I am hear to help", RUN!