We will when it gets funded. When might it get funded? Ummm…
If the Houston-Galveston region continues to boom for the next 60 years and sea level rises as scientists predict, a direct hit to Galveston from a massive hurricane could destroy an estimated $31.8 billion worth of homes, a new study says.
But Texas A&M researchers found that if the government builds a 17-foot barrier about 60 miles long from Galveston Island to Bolivar Peninsula, the potential residential destruction from a storm surge would drop to about $6 billion – a reduction of more than 80 percent.
The only problem: So far, Texas can’t get congressional funding to build the coastal barrier, a proposal that has been floated since Hurricane Ike threatened to make a run for Galveston in 2008.
“The numbers make sense,” said state Sen. Larry Taylor, a Friendswood Republican who has tried for years to get federal funding for a coastal barrier, estimated to cost up to $12 billion. “This investment is going to pay for itself time and time again.”
The cost-benefit numbers could change with additional data: The A&M study only looked at damages to homes and apartments from a storm surge – not flooding caused by rainfall – and excludes the potential harm to the region’s commercial buildings and its bustling ports.
[…]
U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, a Friendswood Republican, said some Republican lawmakers have pushed back against funding infrastructure as part of disaster relief, warning it sets a bad precedent.
Weber said he hopes to get the coastal barrier included in an infrastructure package if efforts to include it in disaster relief ultimately fail.
“This is foolish for us to just keep paying for these disasters over and over and over again,” Weber said. “How about something to prevent this from happening on the next go around?”
That story was from January, before the budget agreement that included disaster relief, but still no Ike Dike. I should note that the state has been officially asking for Ike Dike money since April, well before Harvey. But you know, there was Obamacare to repeal and tax cuts for millionaires to push and collusion investigations to obstruct. The Republicans have just had their hands full, you know? I’m sure they’ll get to it eventually. Hurricane season doesn’t begin for another four months, right? So there’s no rush.
Local state and congressional Texas Republicans will ask all day long for federal money for a dike to “do something” so they can “prove” to their base they are “doing something”, but it is hypocritical because those same congressional Republicans don’t want to really want to fund and spend money on a dike.
Even if the 1/1,000 chance they do get some money for something dike-ish in distant years, let the belly aching begin by the republican/libertarian beach front homeowners who will lose their beach front property or have it impacted visually. Lawsuits would tie up any plans for years to come.
Has any analysis been done to the $billions in negative ancillary environmental, tourism and other effects?
I suggest Abbot and other Republican “leadership” set up a “Surge Day Fund” that we can have ready and available. Similarly to the fantastic Rainy Day Fund that worked so well after all the rain we got this past summer with Harvey.
penwyth raises a question that is important: “Has any analysis been done to the $billions in negative ancillary environmental, tourism and other effects?” I’m trying to imagine Seawall Blvd with a 4 foot high wall blocking the view of the Gulf. It just does not compute and would eradicate my desire to visit Galveston, since I go there precisely for that expansive view. Every article on this subject discusses the “Ike Dike (can’t we find a better moniker?) in the same breath as the barrier gate at the entrance to Galveston Bay. In my mind, Bay and Ship Channel protection far outweigh the benefits of protecting Galveston Island real estate, and the gate would be the high priority item. Can’t we find a way to farm that project out to the Netherlands? They are vastly more competent and experienced in this type of engineering and planning than we are.