2023-11-12 12:00:00
(Galveston, Texas) On the face of it, life in Galveston has it all.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The small island in the Gulf of Mexico, in the very south of Texas, is lined with beaches where you can sunbathe while watching the oil tankers pass by on their way to the neighboring port of Houston.
PHOTO MARC THIBODEAU, THE PRESS
Diana Ward, a Texan vacationing in Galveston, scans the horizon from one of the island’s beaches.
During the passage of The Pressin September, Diana Ward scanned the horizon, comfortably seated in a chair stuck in the sand.
Although the water is not always of the highest quality, his family returns regularly to the town of 50,000 inhabitants, and it is not the risks posed by the occasional passage of hurricanes that are likely to dissuade him.
“The last time we came, a few years ago, we had to leave a little early. A tropical storm had just been declared a category 1 hurricane,” relates the 52-year-old lady, who lives in the center of the state.
Members of his family, who lived in Galveston, were less fortunate in the past and had to urgently relocate further north due to a hurricane that destroyed both of their cars.
It was a traumatic event for them. It’s impossible to live in Texas without being affected by hurricanes, either directly or through people you know.
Diana Ward, 52-year-old Texan
PHOTO MARC THIBODEAU, THE PRESS
TJ Bath and Dan Hawkins, who say they are well aware of the island’s tragic history, are happy to retire in Galveston.
The passage of devastating storms is also not likely to disturb TJ Bath and Dan Hawkins, who take daily energetic walks on the beach near an amusement park mounted on stilts.
“People especially think about the risks during hurricane season,” note the two retirees.
PHOTO DAVID J. PHILLIP, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
A house on stilts on a Galveston beach as the hurricane approaches Ikein September 2008
They notably experienced the hurricane Ike, which caused significant damage to the island in 2008 while sparing their own home. “We are insured against flooding,” he said.
The duo considers themselves happy with the situation since more and more insurance companies tend to exclude risk areas for extreme weather events.
In the case of Galveston, the risk of destruction has been present in people’s minds for more than a century, well before the question of the impact of greenhouse gases was on the agenda.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE GALVESTON AND TEXAS HISTORY CENTER
Some houses survived the hurricane of 1900.
The island’s homes were in fact almost entirely destroyed in 1900 by a hurricane whose arrival had only been announced late, at a time when surveillance resources were embryonic.
A hurricane pushing a storm surge nearly 5 m high submerged everything, killing 6,000 to 10,000 people, a toll that made it one of the deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States.
The Galveston and Texas History Center has several period photos in its archives that give an idea of the scale of the tragedy.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE GALVESTON AND TEXAS HISTORY CENTER
Black workers were drafted, sometimes against their will, to help collect the bodies of Galveston’s many victims of the 1900 hurricane.
Several show bodies lost among mountains of debris.
The victims were so numerous that the authorities decided to pile hundreds of corpses on a barge and weigh them down to make them disappear at sea.
“A certain number, however, were brought back to the island’s beaches by the waves. Ultimately, the authorities decided to burn many of them in open fires,” notes Joseph Pellerin, professor of regional history met in Old Town Galveston.
The island, before its destruction, was extremely prosperous, particularly due to its role in the cotton trade. The development of the port of Houston deprived it of its central role, but did not prevent the reconstruction of homes and businesses, notes Mr. Pellerin.
A 5 m high wall was built over several kilometers to curb the storm surges that could occur with new hurricanes, and the entire island was raised accordingly, a mammoth task.
The tactic, the historian notes, worked well for decades, but other storms have since caused significant damage.
PHOTO MARC THIBODEAU, THE PRESS
Local historian Joseph Pellerin shows how high the water reached in downtown Galveston during hurricane flooding Ike.
During the hurricane Ikein 2008, the water bypassed the protective wall on both sides and flooded the island “from the rear”, notes the historian, showing a plaque on one of the houses in the city center indicating that the flood level was approaching the second floor.
« Ike was a category 2 hurricane with a category 4 storm surge. We had never seen that,” notes Mr. Pellerin.
Professor William Merrell, who teaches marine sciences at Texas A&M University in Galveston, remembers the day well because he took refuge in a historic building in the area owned by his family.
“Watching the water rise, I said to myself that the Dutch would never have accepted such a situation,” relates the expert who began working on an ambitious mobile dike project inspired by the Netherlands aimed at protect Galveston and the entrance to the bay leading to Houston.
A colossal project worth 80 billion
L’Strong Poweras it is called in English, provides for the use of two enormous swing doors that can be closed to withstand the storm surge of a hurricane, metal panels that can move up and down, as well as reinforcement and an extension of the existing wall in Galveston.
The water level in the region, which could rise by another 50 cm by 2050, according to certain studies, combined with the predictable gain in power of hurricanes, makes it essential, according to him, the creation of an infrastructure of this nature.
The presence along the sea route leading to Houston of a major petrochemical complex which could transform, in the absence of adequate protection, into a veritable “American Chernobyl” makes the development of the system particularly crucial, its supporters point out.
The cost of the mobile dike, estimated at more than 80 billion, is however likely to dampen the efforts of the authorities.
PHOTO MARC THIBODEAU, THE PRESS
Oceanographer William Merrell began work on a seawall project that could protect Galveston and surrounding areas after being caught in hurricane-related flooding Ike in 2008.
I put forward the idea [de la digue mobile] in 2008, we are in 2023 and we are still in the development stage.
William Merrell, professor at Texas A&M University in Galveston
The US Congress recently approved the project, which is to be carried out by the US Army Corps of Engineers, but has not yet specifically set aside any money for this purpose, notes the researcher.
PHOTO VASHA HUNT, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Texas Governor Greg Abbott
The attitude of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is reluctant to recognize global warming and its impacts, is not likely to facilitate the process. The politician supports the project, but shows no eagerness to mobilize local resources to make it a reality.
A return to the fortresses of the Middle Ages?
“Whether we recognize global warming or not, it is impossible to deny that water levels are rising and temperatures are increasing,” says Mr. Merrell, who shrugs when asked if it will be necessary eventually abandon places like Galveston.
A port town in the region, Indianola, was abandoned at the end of the 19th century by its 5,000 inhabitants after being hit twice by hurricanes, but it seems difficult to envisage a repetition of this scenario, according to the researcher.
Ports will continue to exist in the future and the people who operate them will continue to want to settle nearby, notes Mr. Merrell, who raises the possibility that several coastal installations deemed essential will eventually be protected against the elements.
People who persist in living in a risk zone could come and take refuge there in the event of a hurricane, a bit like serfs did “in the Middle Ages” by taking refuge in their lord’s castle in the event of an attack. .
TJ Bath thinks that the planned dike is a good idea even if he agrees that the bill of several tens of billions may seem considerable.
“It’s not just about protecting Galveston. It’s also to protect the entire petrochemical industry that sustains Houston,” he says.
“Infrastructure projects are always expensive anyway. We are behind the Dutch who have been doing things like this for decades,” underlines the retiree.
Diana Ward also believes that the dam project is a good thing, since “the water will continue to come”, even more so with global warming, she says.
The Texan has no intention, whatever happens, of putting an end to her visits to the island.
“Why would we?” It would be like letting the weather win,” she says.
Learn more
5.3 Average annual number of natural disasters resulting in damages worth more than US$1 billion (CAN1.3 billion) in Texas. No other U.S. state has a higher total.
Source : National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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