LEAGUE CITY — With damage from Hurricane Ike in Galveston County expected to be in the billions of dollars, officials Wednesday discussed $10 million in repairs to the seawall and other county structures.
County Engineer Mike Fitzgerald estimated damage to the 17-foot-tall Galveston seawall at $2.19 million.
The county’s hurricane levee, which extends west of Interstate 45 to La Marque and Texas City, also sustained $1.9 million in damage, Fitzgerald said, after Wednesday’s Commissioner’s Court meeting in League City.
The damage to the seawall included riprap and handrails, Fitzgerald said.
Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle said the storm displaced riprap on the levee and caused erosion.
Doyle said the levee sustained minor damage, with the storm blowing riprap — the rock at the base of the levee — as much as 6 feet up the levee bank.
“We’ve got to bring back the rock and take care of the erosion,” Doyle said. “If a hurricane equal to or less than Ike struck, the levee would do just fine, but we couldn’t leave it unattended. The county will have it repaired before next hurricane season.”
Fitzgerald also said the road surface of the Texas City dike sustained $5.6 million in damage.
“The 5.2 miles of the Texas City dike road were totally demolished,” Fitzgerald said. “The dike itself, the city owns.”
Doyle said the dike’s primary function is to protect the ship channel and must be repaired.
“The debris line was being sounded by boat today,” Doyle said. “The only reports I got were that there was substantial debris against the dike in the water.”
Doyle said he had no estimate on when the dike might accommodate commercial interests, such as bait camps.
Fitzgerald said Bayshore Park sustained $408,253 in damaged, but figures weren’t available for damage along the Galveston Bay shoreline from Bacliff to San Leon.
Fitzgerald said the storm damaged 4,873 structures, including 244 non-residences, in floodplains in the unincorporated areas of the county. Damaged structures totaled 1,900 on the mainland he said.
