TEXAS CITY—
Recently, Texas City commissioners approved a $700,000 engineering contract to begin reconstruction of the Texas City Dike. It's the first step in rebuilding the landmark, which was damaged by Hurricane Ike's storm surge.The Texas City Dike took the brunt of what Hurricane Ike had to offer and it held its own, but it also came away with a lot of damage. Money is soon to be in place to fix what may be one of the most important elements of protection in the area.
"It was total devastation. Every structure gone, every building wiped out. We counted approximately 40 dead cattle. There were dead alligators, dead dogs, and pigs. It was an apocalyptic scene," said Tom Kessler, Director of Public Works for Texas City.
Over a year later, the Texas City Dike has been cleaned up, but it is still in bad shape and it will stay that way until money arrives from FEMA.
"It's at the final level of approval with FEMA. We don't quite yet have final approval in our hands, yet, but I suspect it will coming soon," said Kessler.
Not soon enough, though, for many Texas City residents, who want their landmark and fishing spot back. While the fishing may be good, it was during Hurricane Ike when we saw the nearly 100-year-old dike's true benefit. The Texas City Dike is far from what it used to be, but it serves as an important purpose, and during Ike it held its own, protecting one of the area's greatest assets: the Houston Ship Channel.
"It did its job. All the debris that blew over the Bolivar Peninsula, the dike trapped it and kept sediment out of the ship channel. It kept debris out of the ship channel. So within a week following the storm, the ship channel was open again," said Kessler.
The Texas City Ship Channel and the Houston Ship Channel both serve as vital parts of the economy and had the Texas City Dike not been there during the storm, it could have been devastating.
"I suspect there would have been a tremendous amount of shoaling and debris. I think it would have closed the harbor for weeks as opposed to days," added Kessler.
The dike was able to dodge a bullet this hurricane season, but Texas City officials hope to have the money in hand soon, and have the Texas City dike back up and running by 2010.
As for the wait, FEMA has been slow to turn over what is expected to be nearly $5 million in funding for the project. As of right now, the money is still not in the city's or county's bank account, but we are told it should be there soon and construction can begin. Officials have set an estimated completion date of fall of next year.
