dallashistory

Well, Carlie and i are going to see/experience or something a bit of Texas history. Our 35th Anniversary is Monday, and we decided to go down to Galveston and spend a couple of days in the Galvez. Take a look at the island, see how it has (or hasn't) recovered, maybe eat at Guido's one evening. And - take it easy...


Will report upon return.

Enjoy, be safe and we look forward to your update

We'll report when we get back. And have every intention of enjoying things - and staying safe. oh yes, every intention of that.

Happy Anniversary. I' am looking forward to seeing your impressions of the island as compared to mine a few months back.

Pictures! Please?

awh wrote:Pictures! Please?

No guarantees, but i will take an electric camera.

The Houston Chronicle had a piece about the coast. I suppose a lot of it is behind the scene that Cylde and Miss Carlie willl see.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hur ... 82913.html

The state of the bay
Nearly one year after Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc across Galveston Bay, the ecosystem is slowly recovering. But will it ever be the same?
By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Aug. 22, 2009, 10:10PM
1 2 .
Smiley N. Pool Chronicle
Ship traffic through Galveston Bay and into the Gulf of Mexico has largely recovered nearly a year after Hurricane Ike, but the picture for the bay's waters and wildlife remains murky.

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Extensive damage will persist for years RELATED REPORT
Wetlands recovery could restore storm buffer Photo gallery There's progress, but work remains on Galveston Bay.


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The shards of ruined lives still litter the waters that feed the northernmost lobe of Galveston Bay. Along the banks, among the green ash, willows and cypress, are washers and refrigerators, roofs and siding.

Shortly after sunrise, crews leave the Wallisville Locks on skiffs for a long, grim day of pulling debris from the estuary. Piles of trash grow on barges. The pace is slow.

The garbage eventually will be hauled away, and most, if not all, of Galveston Bay will be cleaner than before Hurricane Ike's 17-foot storm surge swept bits of boats, houses and shipping containers into the shallow, murky waters.

Nearly one year after the storm, there is little question among environmentalists and scientists that the bay — the recreation center of the Texas coast and one of the nation's most productive fisheries — will recover, as it has after past hurricanes.

But will it thrive? That's hard to say.

Galveston Bay was already under stress from decades of development, subsidence and pollution.

The beleaguered ecosystem now could face a future with higher sea levels and more intense storms that some scientists believe will result from global warming. Those forces could erode natural defenses, such as dunes and wetlands, and lead to greater damage from hurricanes.

Damage extensive
“The bay is definitely resilient,” said Bob Stokes, president of the Galveston Bay Foundation, an advocacy group. “For years and years, we've had hurricanes come through the system, and the bay has recovered. But the more human-made pressure we put on the system can make it more difficult for the bay to rebound.”

A hurricane's rains and winds can flush the algae and sediment that build up in the bay, helping over time to restore its productivity as a nursery for shrimp and other fish.

But it's only a year since Ike plowed into the upper Texas coast, and the bay is still a mess — one that might take a generation to fix. The damage includes:

• • Tons of debris on land and underwater, including nearly 70 boats pulled out of the bay by contractors for the Texas General Land Office.

• • Swaths of pastures and protective marshland as far as 20 miles inland poisoned by the storm's surge of salty Gulf water. The readings for some freshwater marshes ran as high as 30 parts of salt for every 1,000 parts of water, almost as salty as natural seawater.

• • Sharp declines in the population of alligators and turtles, among other species, because of the saltier-than-usual waters.

• • Thousands of acres of oyster beds buried by storm-driven sediment that will need 20 to 25 years to recover.

• • Dozens of commercial and recreation facilities that remain unusable, including fishing areas and boat launches on the Texas City dike.

• • As much as 300 feet of beach vanishing in places along the Gulf. Some natural recovery has occurred along the Bolivar Peninsula and the west end of Galveston Island, but not much, said James Gibeaut, a coastal geologist at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Erosion still a concern
The recent development boom along the upper Texas coast could impede the recovery because dams and jetties are stealing much of the sediment that used to naturally rebuild marshes and barrier beaches.

“We're still very much in an erosional state,” Gibeaut said. “It's not something that will turn around. We won't have natural beach growth.”

Some scientists said it will take months and even years to fully understand how Ike affected the bay's complex ecosystem, which is home to an astonishing array of life.

Consider that the storm washed countless household cleaners, pesticides and other chemicals into the bay. Those containers will decompose and foul the water with toxic compounds.

Consider that the storm washed countless household cleaners, pesticides and other chemicals into the bay. Those containers will decompose and foul the water with toxic compounds.

Of all the impacts from Ike and earlier storms, man-made pollution “is the only thing that the critters haven't adapted to,” said Jim Lester, vice president of the Houston Advanced Research Center and a Galveston Bay expert.

While scientists continue to pore anxiously over data on the bay's water quality, this much is clear: It could have been worse.

Officials attributed about 180 oil spills to Ike, none of them considered major. The bay averages 200 to 300 spills a year.

Galveston Bay was spared in part because the storm's late eastward drift over Galveston Island at landfall pushed the brunt of the surge over the Bolivar Peninsula and a bit farther up the Texas coast. The worst of the storm missed Harris County and the heavily industrialized Ship Channel.

Ike, from a biological standpoint, wasn't a unique hurricane, scientists said.

What's different is the larger human footprint on the Galveston Bay system.

These days, the three-county region that surrounds the bay is home to more than 4 million people, a major port and several refineries and chemical plants. More than 60 percent of Texas' wastewater flows into the bay.

By some estimates, Ike caused $15 billion in damage just to the three counties — Galveston, Harris and Chambers — along the bay.

Galveston County, for one, has seen booming growth in recent years. Its population is projected at nearly 300,000 by 2030, up from about 200,000 in 1980.

“If there wasn't a human element here, a hurricane would be a non-issue,” said Stokes, the bay foundation president.

The problem isn't so much that the bay area has grown, but where it has grown. The rise of resorts, trophy houses and subdivisions along the shoreline have caused the loss of coastal habitat that absorbs a storm's energy.

A bay on the brink
Jim Blackburn, a Houston-based environmental attorney who wrote The Book of Texas Bays, said that Ike's damage would have been far greater had there been more development in mostly rural Chambers and Jefferson counties, east of the bay.

Instead, the prairie and marshlands were able to hold the floodwaters and weaken the surge. Although some places remain too salty, they will recover, too.

“The natural function of flood storage and abatement is one of the most overlooked” in planning, Blackburn said.

Future development should occur farther away from the shoreline, he said, considering the likelihood of a hurricane ravaging the area again.

Blackburn and others said their concern over coastal development is not simply about environmental righteousness. A bay on the brink is a place that's unusable for boaters and fishermen.

matthew.tresaugue@chron.com

Well, you can sure tell Galveston took a hit. We were in The Galveston Bookshop (300 block of 23rd, half a block closer to the harbor than Post Office) and it has recovered, but they marked the door frame where the water reached - a bit over 7 feet. There are things that haven't recovered yet - ground floor of Rosenberg Library, for example. The Library just re-opened its second floor. The Railroad Museum in the old Union Station at the foot of Post Office (Shearn Moody Plaza) hasn't opened yet. It took am awful hit, I know.

I guess the saddest thing we saw, and one that hit us immdiately, is going down Broadway. The palms are mostly still there, and have green crowns, but they don't look healthy. Oleanders along Broadway all look to be recent plantings, but there are blossoming oleanders in th median. EVERY tree, other than the palms, we saw along Broadway was - dead. The only green was some mistletoe. I felt like crying.

Murdock's is being rebuilt, looks like it will be finished soon. The Pleasure Pier (site of the Balinese Room)is - a few pilings and that's it. The Flagship is closed and whether it is being worked on isn't clear. Medical area is still something of a mess. Lots of signs about things being closed, etc.

The Galvez, however, was up, running and a great place to stay, even if it did cost us $135/night. But - how many times do you celebrate your thirty-fifth wedding anniversay?

Clyde Howard wrote:The Flagship is closed and whether it is being worked on isn't clear.

It is my understanding that it is beyond repair, and will be demolished soon. My understanding is the plan is to replace it a boardwalk, like Kemma and Atlantic City. It will of course also get wiped out in the next "really big one."

Just looking, I'd have guessed (especially given its age) that it was beyond economic repair, and so the news isn't surprising.

As far as "the next big one" doing any replacement in, probably so. BUT - Murdock's lasted a long time and so did the Pleasure Pier (and for that matter, the Flagship), and it had been a good while prior to Ike since the Island got hit squarely. Of course, could have another one come roaring in this season, or not for thirty or forty years. Just have to wait and see - but ain't no way I would put money into an expensive structure sticking out from the Seawall.