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“Ike Dike” Proposal to Protect Houston/Galveston from Storm Surge
Marine scientist William J. Merrell, Ph.D. and many other Galvestonians are still recovering from Hurricane Ike, the third most destructive hurricane ever to make landfall in the U.S. (1-2) The storm came ashore on Saturday, September 13, 2008, and swamped Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula in storm surge 10 to 16 feet deep. Among the thousands of structures inundated and ruined by the surge was the University of Texas Medical Branch (Hospital) at Galveston. The storm surge threatened the BSL-4 (biosafety level-4) Galveston National Laboratory where scientists perform research on the most deadly microorganisms on earth. (3-5)
Levees and seawalls that have been constructed in various parts of Galveston County generally protected businesses and homes during Hurricane Ike. Unprotected parts fared poorly. “Texas City, protected behind a levee, didn’t flood, although 21 feet of storm surge slammed into the levee. But in Bolivar Peninsula, which is unprotected, almost 70 percent of the 5,200 structures were washed away by a storm surge,” noted a county judge. (6) In 1979, local governments shelved a recommendation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a ring levee system around Galveston because of its $94 million price tag; however, Hurricane Ike has caused around $29 billion in damage. (6)
Dr. Merrell advocates extending the existing 10-mile-long Galveston Seawall to the east and to the west and adding strategically-placed colossal floodgates to protect Galveston Bay and the Port of Houston from the twenty-feet-plus surges caused by future hurricanes. He calls his idea “Ike Dike.” He and his colleagues have posted their ideas online. (7)
Dr. Merrell’s idea may sound unconventional to many Americans, but other countries have built similar coastal barrier systems to mitigate the impact of acute episodic sea encroachments onto human-settled landscapes. For example, the Dutch between 1950 and 1997 built the colossal “Delta Works” to protect Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, against North Sea storm surging. (8-9) The British likewise have built “Thames Barrier” to protect London against North Sea storm surge. (10) The Italians are building the “Venice Tide Barrier Project” to protect Venice from the rising tides of the Adriatic Sea. (11)
Following the catastrophic Galveston Hurricane of 1900 (the deadliest disaster in U.S. history), in which at least 6,000 people perished, city survivors initiated construction of the 10-mile-long, 17-feet-high and 16-feet-thick Galveston Seawall. Builders completed the first segment of the seawall in 1904 and added additional lengths between 1904 and 1963. (12) The seawall sits atop pine pilings driven 40 to 50 feet into the sand of the barrier reef island. Riprap (huge blocks of granite) protects the base of the seawall from erosion, which can undermine the competency of the seawall.
The components of the Ike Dike proposed by Dr. Merrell are extensions of the existing Galveston Seawall 18 miles westward to the West End, i.e., San Luis Pass, and 35 miles eastward with construction of a seawall on Bolivar Peninsula, from Bolivar Roads to High Island. Huge floodgates at Bolivar Roads, San Louis Pass, and the Intracoastal Waterway would close as a storm drew near. (7) The layout of the Port of Houston is described as follows: From the Gulf of Mexico, deep-draft vessels enter Galveston Bay between Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island. The entrance extends from the Gulf of Mexico through a pass formed by jetties which extend east-southeastward from Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula to Bolivar Roads. Bolivar Roads is located between Bolivar Peninsula on the east and Galveston and Pelican Islands on the west. The 800 ft (244 m) wide Galveston Bay Entrance Channel begins approximately six nmi east-southeast of the easternmost point of Galveston Island. From its seaward entrance, the channel is, in turn, called the Outer Bar Channel, the Inner Bar Channel and Bolivar Roads Channel as it passes through Bolivar Roads. It becomes the Houston Ship Channel in Galveston Bay. (13) The “Galveston Gates” will be the costliest component of the Ike Dike (and the biggest tourist attraction), says Merrell. He cautions that they must not impede navigation and must allow water circulation into the bay under normal conditions, but must close quickly when a hurricane approaches to provide a 17-feet-higher-than-sea-level barrier across Bolivar Roads. He fashioned his ideas after the Dutch floodgates that protect Rotterdam, Netherlands. (8) The system would cost billions of dollars. (7)
Brit Ian White, writing for the Galveston County Daily News on February 21, 2009, notes, “As an all-embracing superstructure that would protect all and not just a few, it’s easily the most logical answer to the area’s storm-surge susceptibility. Fortunately, the idea has been noticed by people who matter in bringing such suggestions to fruition, including political movers and shakers who could make or break it by allocating or denying some of the funding for it. “Today, that funding can be measured in billions. If — and that’s the biggest word in all of this — the dike is built, the construction period will probably be measured in decades rather than mere years. At the end of that time, billions could well have become trillions, such is the way with public works. Whatever the amount, it will be well worth it, as evidenced by the costs of cleaning up after the hurricane that has leant its name to the proposal.” (13) However, why should Houston/Galveston alone receive state and federal dollars to build Ike Dike—a local project—when “virtually the whole of America’s Gulf Coast seaboard is at risk of inundation by hurricane surges. If there is to be a dike, its two ends may need to be a long way from San Luis Pass and High Island,” adds White. (14) Kevin Reece, writing for the Houston News on March 10, 2009, notes “as bad as Ike was, if it had hit 30 miles to the west, the entire oil production of the Port of Houston, might have been underwater too.” Furthermore, Reece says, Experts agree, “Mechanically, the project could be done. They say that you could build a massive flood gate across the ship channel and another one across San Luis Pass.” Though extremely costly, the system would still only cost one-tenth of the cost of Hurricane Ike’s damage to date. Finally, “experts say that the political will, at this point, does at least have a pulse. It has supporters on the Governor’s Commission for Disaster Recovery and Renewal,” a panel of 32 public and private individuals created by Texas Governor Perry in November 2008. (15-17) During a January 2009 meeting, Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas urged the panel to “not think of Galveston as a single entity, but rather as a regional resource.” (18) A flood protection system similar to the Delta Works in the Netherlands would service the region. (8)
Global warming is a fact. NASA says, “It is very likely that rising temperatures will lead to more frequent heat waves, and virtually certain that the seas will rise, which could leave low-lying nations awash in sea water. Warmer temperatures will alter weather patterns, making it likely that there will be more intense droughts and more intense rain events. Moreover, global warming will last thousands of years.” (19) The key here for Houston/Galveston is “bigger, more destructive storms” and “coastal damage from high sea levels” and “thousands of years.” (19)
The state of Texas is grappling with its ever-increasing vulnerability to storm surge caused by hurricanes. Recovery from Hurricane Ike, which badly wounded Galveston only six months ago, will last another three to seven years, according to estimates. Construction of a coastal barrier system is one solution to mitigate the undesirable effects of hurricane and rising sea level hazards along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Notes:
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