Sometimes it's good to be the lucky one!
- Thread starter LumenAl
- Start date
tfeverfred
Well-Known Member
putz said:
There have been quite a few islanders that say this one was worse. Carla in '61 was bad. My mom was living in Port LaVaca at the time. She says these pictures looked like they could have been from there, due to the uncanny similarity.
So many people stayed on Bolivar and quite a few are feared swept out to sea. While it's easy to ridicule them for staying behind, one still shouldn't forget that lives were lost.
The media coverage of this storm had gotten to the point that it was becoming annoying at best. Finally, a return to normalcy on the local televisions has begun. Looking at the same footage of destruction was getting depressing for a lot of people. Galveston will be fine and bounce back. She always has and probably always will.
Coupefreak
New Member
tfeverfred said:
Excellent point Fred.
LumenAl
Member
I posted those pictures cause I thought it was incredible how one house defied all the odds and still stood... in the top picture, that was a community of over 1000 homes... now all but one completely gone... and same with the next two pictures... was just so very strange how they survived such complete destruction...
...it was certainly not my intention to disrespect any loss of life by the good people of the region.
...it was certainly not my intention to disrespect any loss of life by the good people of the region.
Lee_in_KC
Active Member
Report on CNN says that house was built after its predecessor was destroyed by Rita. The owners told the builder they wanted their new house to withstand a Cat 5 hurricane. Now the owners feel bad because their's was the only house to survive. Also, though the house structure survived, everything inside was totally trashed by the 26' waves that washed through it. Also also, the house may have to be torn down anyway because it is now too close to the state-defined beach, which has moved inland because of erosion from the storm.
TRoadster
New Member
I thought I heard something on the news tonight before I left for work that many homesowners many not be allowed to rebuild. You spend time and money for a beach house and then you can't rebuild. That would suck. But then on the other hand, should people be allowed to build so close to the ocean when billions of dollars are lost when a storm like this hits anyway. I won't think that they allow people to build a house across a fault line in California... even though I saw a show where a wine vineyard built a large building across a fault line and the building was slowing moving in opposite directions.
der Spieler
Member
I saw that same headline. I take the 'fool me once, fool me twice' approach. I think if a person builds in an area that is susceptible to damage like Galveston they should be allowed to. When an event like Ike happens they should be reimbursed for their loses. If they choose to rebuild at the same location and another Ike comes along then the burden of their loses should be on them. Why should we continue to pay and pay for the errors and poor judgement of others. I empathize with the people who lost everything in Galveston but they knew the risks.
I sympathize with the people up in Wisconsin who watched their homes slide into the Wisconsin River earlier this year. These people were denied flood insurance because their homes were supposedly above the flood plane. They tried to play by the rules and were denied and now have to endure the burden of hundreds of thousands in losses.
But this is America and we are the most generous people in the world so we will continue bailing and bailing. My $.02
I sympathize with the people up in Wisconsin who watched their homes slide into the Wisconsin River earlier this year. These people were denied flood insurance because their homes were supposedly above the flood plane. They tried to play by the rules and were denied and now have to endure the burden of hundreds of thousands in losses.
But this is America and we are the most generous people in the world so we will continue bailing and bailing. My $.02
TubT
Member
Texas law
Texas has a law to protect the citizens of Texas concerning beach ownership. In Texas, you cannot own anything seaward of the vegetation line. Many houses that survived Alicia in 1983 had to be torn down, because they were now in front of the vegetation line.
This sound cruel, but it's really not. Texas takes the stance that the beaches belong to everyone, and here, you can't keep people from using that beach. My grandfather lived in New Era, MI, just about 3 miles from Lake Michigan. Wealthy people, mainly from Chicago, bought up all the beach front property, built houses and fences, and made it so that we could no longer even get on the beach there. That is exactly what Texas has outlawed.
In this case, the beach itself may have moved back as much as a hundred feet or more. That's what happens on barrier islands, which Galveston is.
And just by the by, both Ike and Gustav were pretty puny compared to "Isaac's Storm," the hurricane of 1900 that killed at least 8,000 people in Galveston and still had enough force to sink ships after it had traveled completely across the U.S. and went back out to see over New England.
Texas has a law to protect the citizens of Texas concerning beach ownership. In Texas, you cannot own anything seaward of the vegetation line. Many houses that survived Alicia in 1983 had to be torn down, because they were now in front of the vegetation line.
This sound cruel, but it's really not. Texas takes the stance that the beaches belong to everyone, and here, you can't keep people from using that beach. My grandfather lived in New Era, MI, just about 3 miles from Lake Michigan. Wealthy people, mainly from Chicago, bought up all the beach front property, built houses and fences, and made it so that we could no longer even get on the beach there. That is exactly what Texas has outlawed.
In this case, the beach itself may have moved back as much as a hundred feet or more. That's what happens on barrier islands, which Galveston is.
And just by the by, both Ike and Gustav were pretty puny compared to "Isaac's Storm," the hurricane of 1900 that killed at least 8,000 people in Galveston and still had enough force to sink ships after it had traveled completely across the U.S. and went back out to see over New England.
blownt
Member
Carla in 1961 did not do near the amount of damage to Galveston that Ike did, although Carla came ashore as a Cat 4 storm. Carla came onshore much further west and south near Matagorda Bay. Galveston was on the dirty side and had winds of 88 mph from Carla. Much of the damage was done well away from the landfall site, as Carla spawned one of the largest hurricane-related tornado outbreaks on record at the time, when 26 tornadoes touched down within its circulation. One F4 tornado ripped through downtown Galveston, killing several (reports range from 6 to 12). Outside the protection of the seawall, structures on the island were severely damaged by storm surge. Damage was reported as far east as the Mississippi River delta.
Ike was only a Cat 2 storm but because of its huge size it caused a Cat 4 size storm surge. Being it came ashore just west of Galveston, the island caught the brunt of it's forces. That is why many of the town and structures made it thru Carla in 1961 and Alicia in 1983 but did not make it thru Ike. BTW Alicia was a Cat 3 storm with 115mph winds and not near the storm surge that Carla and Ike had. Most of the damage from Alicia was the 14 tornadoes it spawned in Galveston and the Hobby airport area as well as thousands of windos in downtown Houston office bldgs. The winds picked up gravel off nearby roofs and flew it into the windows. Since then most of the office bldgs have redesigned the roofing methods of the highrise bldgs in downtown Houston. I work downtown and there is still alot of window damage but not near what it was after Alicia.
Ike was only a Cat 2 storm but because of its huge size it caused a Cat 4 size storm surge. Being it came ashore just west of Galveston, the island caught the brunt of it's forces. That is why many of the town and structures made it thru Carla in 1961 and Alicia in 1983 but did not make it thru Ike. BTW Alicia was a Cat 3 storm with 115mph winds and not near the storm surge that Carla and Ike had. Most of the damage from Alicia was the 14 tornadoes it spawned in Galveston and the Hobby airport area as well as thousands of windos in downtown Houston office bldgs. The winds picked up gravel off nearby roofs and flew it into the windows. Since then most of the office bldgs have redesigned the roofing methods of the highrise bldgs in downtown Houston. I work downtown and there is still alot of window damage but not near what it was after Alicia.
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