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Galveston After Hurricane Ike


Gary

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Thought I would start up some discussion on what affect Hurricane Ike will have on Galveston in the coming months, and even years.

I'll start with the devastating loss of The Balinese Room... This was in my opinion the coolest and most unique venue in the country, and can never be replaced. How do you guys think this will affect the natives, and those of us that love Galveston and her history?

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I wonder if fresh memories of catastrophe will dampen the real estate market. From what I've read on HAIF over the last few years, things were really cooking down there, with new residential towers even going up. I wonder how those fared, and if people will think twice about buying or building high-profile buildings on the island.

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I wonder if fresh memories of catastrophe will dampen the real estate market. From what I've read on HAIF over the last few years, things were really cooking down there, with new residential towers even going up. I wonder how those fared, and if people will think twice about buying or building high-profile buildings on the island.

Cell phone service is down in Galveston, so I haven't heard from my parents since yesterday. At the height of the storm, water had topped out just a few inches above the top of the first floor door of their building in downtown Galveston. The second floor took no damage, though it might have if the ceiling height of the first floor commercial space had been lower.

Suffice it to say that all the stores in downtown Galveston were totally flooded out. I'm sure that a numer of businesses had flood and windstorm insurance, but since there were also a lot of low-budget mom and pop establishments, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if many of them were uninsured, not properly insured (i.e. didn't carry the right policies), or underinsured. And I wouldn't expect that many of them will have a business interruption policy, which can be critical to getting things operational again without becoming totally distressed. So I'd imagine that a lot of them are going to go away, at least before being gradually replaced with other businesses.

I would imagine that Randall Davis' Diamond Beach Resort, under construction at the very end of the seawall, did not fare well. It sucks to be him, but his loss will constrain the supply of new condominium units coming on line, and that will be good for the market down there. On the other hand, Palisade Palms was designed with a hurricane strike expressly in mind; I'll bet that those towers did well. So will it scare people away from doing big projects? Probably not from a physical risk standpoint. But insurance rates will undoubtedly go up, now. And after Katrina, it was the spike in insurance rates that really hit Galveston's real estate market and other low-lying coastal areas really hard.

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Funny that you mention the "mom & pop shops", I was just thinking how devastating this must be for them. I wonder if it will change the culture of the island since the chance is, that many didn't carry proper insurance, and can't afford to rebuild.

Niche, i hope your folks are ok.

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I wonder if fresh memories of catastrophe will dampen the real estate market. From what I've read on HAIF over the last few years, things were really cooking down there, with new residential towers even going up. I wonder how those fared, and if people will think twice about buying or building high-profile buildings on the island.

When it happened to Pensacola a few years ago, the old-timers couldn't afford to rebuild and the developers came in and snapped up everything. It completely changed the look, feel and appeal of of Pensacola forever. The richey-riches don't care about the risk. The cities themselves are desperate for money to cover their rebuilding needs and they want to appear to be quickly recovered and open for business. So they are easy prey for big money developers, even if they weren't before.

I expect that Galveston will soon become one of the rapidly increasing number of places where it's too beautiful for most of us to afford to be. It was already headed that direction and this will only serve to expedite things. Which is very sad.

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Funny that you mention the "mom & pop shops", I was just thinking how devastating this must be for them. I wonder if it will change the culture of the island since the chance is, that many didn't carry proper insurance, and can't afford to rebuild.

Niche, i hope your folks are ok.

They are. I got a garbled phone call from them a couple hours ago.

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I wonder if fresh memories of catastrophe will dampen the real estate market. From what I've read on HAIF over the last few years, things were really cooking down there, with new residential towers even going up. I wonder how those fared, and if people will think twice about buying or building high-profile buildings on the island.

I was in Galveston a month ago...there was a tower (hotel? condo?) going up, and I saw it was supported by HUGE concrete pillars in the center.

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Even though I find it funny that you got on my case about the "crunch time" thing (when it turns out, it was), I'm VERY glad your parents are fine.

I still adamantly disagree that it was "crunch time" at the point during which you made the comment (falls under the category of being the right thing for the wrong reason), I do appreciate your gladness. Thanks. :)

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My family's beach house in Bolivar is gone. My dad built it in 1962 and sold it when he retired in 1982 to his younger brother. Nothing visible from the NOAA satellite photo except a slab. We always knew we were at nature's mercy. It was a nice long ride while it lasted.

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My family's beach house in Bolivar is gone. My dad built it in 1962 and sold it when he retired in 1982 to his younger brother. Nothing visible from the NOAA satellite photo except a slab. We always knew we were at nature's mercy. It was a nice long ride while it lasted.

Sorry to hear that Plumber. Do you think your uncle will rebuild?

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My family's beach house in Bolivar is gone. My dad built it in 1962 and sold it when he retired in 1982 to his younger brother. Nothing visible from the NOAA satellite photo except a slab. We always knew we were at nature's mercy. It was a nice long ride while it lasted.

Sorry to hear that plumber2. I've lived in Houston all my life, grown up going to Galveston & Kemah, don't ever remember damage like this. Heard stories about how bad Carla was, so when they started comparing the winds of Ike to Carla, I knew it would be a bad one. Mother nature always seems to have the last word.

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Thought I would start up some discussion on what affect Hurricane Ike will have on Galveston in the coming months, and even years.

I'll start with the devastating loss of The Balinese Room... This was in my opinion the coolest and most unique venue in the country, and can never be replaced. How do you guys think this will affect the natives, and those of us that love Galveston and her history?

Link: http://balineseroom.net/historyofBalinese.htm

:(:(:(

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I'm pretty confident that Galveston will make a comeback. It may be a slightly different configuration of stores, restaurants, and bars, but they'll be of the same flavor.

The big question in my mind is what happens in Bolivar and other places that got almost totally wiped out. I sort of figure that as normalcy returns, the prices of the few remaining houses will get bid up pretty high, nearly to replacement cost, and that anything built hereafter on Bolivar will be built to such a standard as insurance rates are not insane (i.e. solid!). And since that takes money, that means that Bolivar could become a playground almost exclusively for the wealthy. ...or an infestation of trailers could totally doom it to the status of a downscale community of 'uncle-daddies' (as they're referred to by folks on the other side of the bay).

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Believe I read somewhere (& saw a picture) showing that the two souvenier piers were connected at the back by a rectangular building many years ago. Want to say it was all part of Murdocks Pier. Might have been a postcard. Can anyone confirm this? Always wondered why you could see old pylons underneath them. Thats a clue. There was also a walkway over & across the Seawall Blvd to the beach from the hotel. That was a very "happening" spot until the 1950's. Even Frank Sinatra visited (see Balinese history link above). My dad always pointed out the batterys/ bunkers that were positioned at Galveston seawall & Boliver peninsula.

Is that empty lot (aerial shot) above where the Buccanear Hotel stood?

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Balinese Room artifacts are being searched for:

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/kho...m.90c23d02.html

And the empty lot - not sure offhand what was there, but according to the link below, the Edgewater Retirement Community sits on the old Buccaneer Hotel site (one block west of the empty lot):

http://galvestonhistory.info/blog/?p=10

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Balinese Room artifacts are being searched for:

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/kho...m.90c23d02.html

And the empty lot - not sure offhand what was there, but according to the link below, the Edgewater Retirement Community sits on the old Buccaneer Hotel site (one block west of the empty lot):

http://galvestonhistory.info/blog/?p=10

The vacant lot is the site of the former Moody Civic Center. It was not used much recently so the city sold it to developers.

It was razed last year.

Note: The Moody family built it in the mid fifties and gave it to the city. It was used as a convention venue because both the Galvez Hotel and Bucanneer Hotel were Moody properties at the time. The Bucaneer was given to the Methodist church and the Galvez was sold in the ealy 60's. The Moody's also operated the Jean Lafitte Hotel downtown. Other hotels were built by competing Moody family members at that time, The Seahorse (Mrs. Shearn Moody Nueman), and the Jack Tar (W.L. Moody III).

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I'm wondering about Bishops Palace, and how well it fared.

According to an email from Preservation Texas forwarded by Historic Houston earlier in the week, the Bishop's Palace made it through the storm with minimal damage, but the bottom floor was flooded with close to three feet of water.

Hopefully someone will archive that website before it disappears.

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The vacant lot is the site of the former Moody Civic Center. It was not used much recently so the city sold it to developers.

It was razed last year.

Note: The Moody family built it in the mid fifties and gave it to the city. It was used as a convention venue because both the Galvez Hotel and Bucanneer Hotel were Moody properties at the time. The Bucaneer was given to the Methodist church and the Galvez was sold in the ealy 60's. The Moody's also operated the Jean Lafitte Hotel downtown. Other hotels were built by competing Moody family members at that time, The Seahorse (Mrs. Shearn Moody Nueman), and the Jack Tar (W.L. Moody III).

Thnx Plumber2 for the info. I remember the convention center (always seemed kind of empty), as well as the Buccaneer. Has anyone mentioned how the Galvez Hotel fared? The whole area (these places sat at) has such a rich history. Seen many old postcards of them, Jack Tar is one. I remember the little 2 story ship-shaped hotel always sitting around there, to the West. It's very old, too.

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I visited the Island about three weeks before the storm...took pictures of the HEB Pantry and all that. My family is considering going back over...how did the Elissa, the Peanut Butter Warehouse, the oil rig museum, the sunken metal tanker, the Train Museum, and the Pier all fare?

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I visited the Island about three weeks before the storm...took pictures of the HEB Pantry and all that. My family is considering going back over...how did the Elissa, the Peanut Butter Warehouse, the oil rig museum, the sunken metal tanker, the Train Museum, and the Pier all fare?

As I mentioned somewhere else, heard Elissa fared ok, minimal damage. Saw it on TV, against the dock. Would also like to know about the Train Museum.

PS Thnx Sevfiv for info. above, as well. Do hope some Balinese artifacts are found. I remember looking at HAR photos of a run-down Balinese Room a few yrs ago. Had no idea it had gone thru so much restoration. As usual, glad to have pics of the interior & exterior, as they are all we have left, sometimes.

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I visited the Island about three weeks before the storm...took pictures of the HEB Pantry and all that. My family is considering going back over...how did the Elissa, the Peanut Butter Warehouse, the oil rig museum, the sunken metal tanker, the Train Museum, and the Pier all fare?

The Elissa is actually in really good shape. Buildings downtown and along the docks all survived the storm but their first floors got flooded and are caked with mud. The sunken metal tanker (the S.S. Selma) isn't actually metal; it is a concrete ship. And I can't imagine how it might have moved from its location.

EDIT: The railroad and flight museums have a slide show posted here.

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