GALVESTON COUNTY — Without a seawall or levee system, the island and mainland would have looked a lot like Bolivar Peninsula.
The concrete seawall on the island and the grass-covered levees surrounding Texas City worked to protect the island and the mainland from the same kind of devastating floodwaters that submerged the island during the 1900 Storm and Texas City during Hurricane Carla in 1961, said Mike Fitzgerald, county engineer.
“We did good,” he said.
Island homes directly behind the seawall and those on the East End of the island behind the seawall fared best, said Steve LeBlanc, city manager. Though 80 percent of the island was underwater at some point, those floodwaters seeped in from the unprotected bay side and West End.
“The seawall absolutely did its job,” LeBlanc said. “It’s 100 years old and it’s still saving us.”
Texas City homes and refineries were spared flooding by a levee system that reaches as high as 23 feet along Galveston Bay, Fitzgerald said.
Still, if Hurricane Ike was a test, the seawall and levee system passed, but not without a struggle. The infrastructure was built to withstand wind and flooding from a Category 3 hurricane. Hurricane Ike has been classified a Category 2 storm, but the tidal surge was closer to that of a Category 4 storm, Fitzgerald said.
The tidal surge, which lasted more than a day, took a heavy toll on the seawall and the levees. At one point, waves crested over the wall, and floodwaters tossed debris over the top of the highest point of the 23-foot levy, Fitzgerald said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported that the structural integrity of the seawall is fine. But the base of the seawall might have been undermined by the constant battering of high waves.
Boulders piled in areas along the seawall were washed atop Seawall Boulevard. The boulders, called riprap, are designed to protect erosion at the base of the 15-foot concrete structure, Fitzgerald said.
When the riprap washes away, the underside of the wall is susceptible to erosion. There is already visible erosion on the west end of the seawall. The ramp at the end of the wall leading to the beach goes nowhere. The beach is now five feet below the bottom of the ramp.
Still, if the seawall were collapsing or crumbling, Seawall Boulevard would have buckled by now, and it hasn’t, Fitzgerald said. Pieces of the sidewalk have fallen away, but that happened during Hurricane Carla, Fitzgerald said. The key now is watch for erosion near the wall and make repairs, he said.
Still, government officials praised the wall.
“The seawall is the mother of all storm water protection devices,” Jim Suydam, press secretary for the General Land Office. “It is clear that Galveston benefits from that decision made 100 years ago.”
On the mainland, parts of the levee system washed away, Fitzgerald said.
“The wave action gradually saturates the dirt and eats away at the levee, unlike the hardened concrete structure of Galveston’s seawall,” he said. Some of the levy’s riprap was tossed on top the levy slope.
The levee system, completed in 1982, sustained similar damage in hurricanes Alicia and Fay. Crews will repair the erosion in coming months, Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said the existing infrastructure served its purpose, but it’s clear from the damage that more areas should be protected. The bayside area of the island, north of Broadway, was submerged in floodwaters for at least 24 hours. Ike carved Bolivar Peninsula into two islands and a tiny peninsula. Areas on the West End were nearly cut, LeBlanc said.
“We’re happy with the performances of what we have, but do we want better? Yes,” Fitzgerald said. “But whether we’ll get them, that’s another story.”
Before Ike slammed into the island, Fitzgerald had a copy of a 1970s U.S. Corps of Engineers study sitting on his shelf. If it survived the floodwater that inundated his office, he plans to dig it out.
The study suggested that the island build a protective barrier on the bay side to protect the downtown areas and extend the seawall west to protect that end of the island.
“It just wasn’t financially feasible,” he said. “I’m not sure if it is now, either.”
