Hurricane Ike - Storm Surge - Tortuga Dunes Development
Some people just don’t get it. Building a house on a barrier island is risky enough, and my opinion is that building a home on the gulf side of a barrier island is just asking for trouble. The Tortuga Dunes development is just such a project with homes only a thin dune away from the pure untamed fury of the Gulf of Mexico. There are no homes built in this area yet, and all those wishing to purchase out there should realize that that they’re probably buying a disposable house. If their insurance premiums aren’t higher than their mortgages, this only means that the rest of us are absorbing their risk into our premiums.
Hurricane Ike hit Galveston, a couple hundred miles north of here. The effects are still quite evident right here.
This water gushing upwards from a drainpipe is from just across the road where the Packery Channel has overflowed and water is pushing itself alongside the highway.
Here you can see waves coming right off the packery overflow. This area sometimes has standing water, sometimes not. I’ve never seen it actually connected to the packery before as it is pictured here.
This marsh area pictured behind the office normally does have water in it, although not quite this much. It is at sea level. Homes are to be build in an area right behind the line of dunes on the Gulf. I can only assume they’re building up the land well above sea level, but even if they are I’d still be concerned with the near instant erosion that is possible during a hurricane.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Hey! I was there in the red Jeep when you took these photos…. Well done. And I agree, it is idiotic to build homes in a location like this, but as long as there are folks with more dollars than sense, stuff like this will continue to be built. And taxpayers will continue to be forced to subsidize it’s repair and replacement when a storm blows and washes it all away……
September 16th, 2008 at 8:09 am
we will all pay for this as they will use government flood and windstorm insurance. these developers seem to be very, very greedy. Write your congressman with these pictures attached.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:50 am
I’m one of those folks you would consider with more money than sense and have made approximately $2M in the last 5 years buying and selling beach front property in the area. I currently have 2 homes in the port A area. Yes the insurance premiums are high, but it’s the dirt that’s valuable not the house - can be rebuilt.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I guess the Island House and the El Constantine were considered disposable when they were built also.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Aren’t we talking about what constitutes acceptable levels of risk here — some people gladly accept it and others think no one else should accept any.
One third of San Francisco was obliterated by the great quake out there and the Marina District was totalled. It is still and again the absolutlely most desirable address in San Francisco. EVERYONE wants to live there. On a sandy swamp. The entire area would be wetlands today under current definitions.
Galveston was erased by the 1900 storm. People are now living in those same spots and once again a lot of that area was obliterated last Friday. It will still and again be rebuilt and the cost of those lots will be higher still and will be the number one desired location for the islanders.
One of the greatest tourist attractions in the US is Yellowstone. Millions of people pay money each year to vacation, drive, camp, and play in an ACTIVE VOLCANO CALDERA that is WAY overdue for a major catastrophic eruption.
Surfers risk their lives and accept the high level of risk to cause nearly insurmountable grief to their families by surfing in a hurricane’s path all along the coast! And when they mis-judge one wave too many and wash ashore unconscious and with head injuries, who pays for their care? Whose insurance rates go up to compensate for that? Just so they could play in the ocean in a hurricane?
Serious auto injuries, that cost us all billions in insurance premiums would decline precipitously if we all wore safety helmets. Do we? Would we agree to if the government said we had to? Motorcyclists didn’t.
I don’t believe government insurance is available in many of these areas mentioned above, so the public likely will not be paying for any rebuilding of anything in the area above even if if ever is required and it may be one day, just like Galveston. Miami. Key West. Beaumont. Nassau. Yes, and even good old Corpus Christi.
And NOONE forces anyone to buy and build in any barrier island setting or in any higher risk setting — San Andreas Valley, Alaska, Caribbean, Florida coasts, the mud-slide prone hills of southern California, the earthquake prone valleys of northern California, the valleys surrounding Mount Rainier, Tokyo, New Zealand.
To my way of thinking if you can afford a higher annual insurance premium than your annual mortgage payment, if you even have a mortgage, more power to you.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
“I don’t believe government insurance is available in many of these areas mentioned above”
It’s called the Texas Windstorm Pool….. Government insurance. The ONLY windstorm insurance you can get on the Island. Or in 90% of Flour Bluff for that matter.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Pure GREED is what makes the dirt so valuable.
Human life is most precious! NOT the dirt, life is irreplaceable!
AC, I hope you are one of those “More Dollar than SENSE” people who donate lot’s to the Houston cause.
Have a BLESSED DAY,
September 28th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
HA HA…..you guys are a bunch of “HATERS”…
Those photos are so weak and have nothing to do with the homes sitting on the elvalated sand barrier, then on additon built 8-10 ft foundation for the home….
Give me a break..
October 5th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
No, as I stated clearly in my post these photos show the effects of a storm hitting 200 miles away. The areas the homes were built on would not have been effected. Zahn road was fairly well covered in water though, so people would not have been able to get to their subdivision without a 4×4.
While your at it, learn how to spell, or at least run a spellchecker.
I only approved your post to make fun of it.