Galveston Island Booming, But Sinking

[WesternGulf]

Galveston Island booming, but sinking

GALVESTON, Texas, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- The economy of Galveston Island, Texas, with its 60,000 residents, is booming, but the narrow strip of land is sinking a few inches each decade.

The low-lying West End, beyond the protective seawall, will most likely suffer problems of subsidence, sea-level rise and coastal erosion the soonest, reported the Houston Chronicle Sunday.

"What I am afraid of is that people living there will one day look back and wonder why, if scientists knew changes were occurring to the island, they didn't do anything about it," John Anderson, an oceanographer at Rice University.

Roy Dokka -- who heads the Louisiana Spatial Reference Center at Louisiana State University -- has caused a stir in Texas by suggesting subsidence is occurring along the Texas coast at a rate similar to that of coastal Louisiana, which has accelerated to at least 5 feet per century.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?Stor...25-063203-3626r

[editor]

If his numbers are correct, Galveston is sinking .6 inches per year. That should be pretty noticable. Anyone notice anything?

[Talbot]

Well after Katrina, if the know this is happening, they'd better do something about it. They'd be pretty stupid not to do anything.

[Lowbrow]

What would you like to do?

[Talbot]

I don't know, I guess it would be pretty hard to fix the problem. But I am not an engineer, there are people paid to figure that sort of stuff out.

I would just hate to see something like what happened to New Orleans or another strong Hurricane wipe the city out again.

[MaxConcrete]

I drove along the west island today all the way to San Luis pass. I can verify that there is a lot of development in progress. The area between the highway and the Gulf is mostly urbanized already, but remaining vacant land is being developed with new subdivisions going in on larger tracts and remaining lots in older developments being built on.

I saw infrastructure going in for the new development described in the article between the highway and the bay. It was a little difficult to see due to a berm, but the channels mentioned in the article were visible.

There is also a street grid being built right at San Luis pass on the north side of the highway. This is the lowest and most hurricane-susceptible part of the island, but of course no one cares.

I was inclined to wonder: how strict are building codes in Galveston? Are these structures designed and built to survive a storm?

As the article mentions, this is game that ultimately victimizes the US taxpayer. Land gets developed, Galveston collects property tax revenue, hurricane comes and spreads desctruction, billions of dollars in disaster assistance comes from Washington, and Galveston comes out ahead in the game. I was in Pensacola in August and saw this scenario playing out with construction everywhere and huge beach-building operations in progess.

[DJ V Lawrence]

If his numbers are correct, Galveston is sinking .6 inches per year. That should be pretty noticable. Anyone notice anything?

Exactly how does an island "sink"? Is it the water level rising, are building weighting the land downward, or the land under the island moving way?

[RedScare]

Exactly how does an island "sink"? Is it the water level rising, are building weighting the land downward, or the land under the island moving way?

Yes.

Actually, it is more than that. The water level is rising slightly, the sand is washing away, the entire Gulf Coast is sliding ever so slowly into the Gulf. There is also the issue of land compacting as oil and water is pumped out of it, though Galveston hasn't used ground water in decades.

[The New Juniper]

I was inclined to wonder: how strict are building codes in Galveston? Are these structures designed and built to survive a storm?

Very selective in their enforcement. City folks will scream about little things, but then allow full scale development of an area that will likely be gone with the next category 1 storm that hits Louisiana, much less directly on Galveston Island. However, with huge increases on the horizon to the tax base, Galveston cannot afford to miss this "boom". Centex homes made a huge buy at the West End and they will have chopped it up and sold them off well before this coming hurricane season.

All of that having been said, look for this to spur even more develpment on the East end behind the seawall. Beach is beach and the Big Man isn't making any more beach front property. In fact, as we now see, it is actually shrinking.

[Montrose1100]

Since I first went there, I've noticed some points along the sea wall, there is no more beach, the water comes right up to the Sea Wall.