By Howie Katz
Before and after photos show damage in Jamaica
Hurricane Melissa caused catastrophic damage to Jamaica and Cuba, leaving some areas unrecognizable.
If a Category 5 Hurricane were to strike Houston-Galveston, it would cause similar damages, but on a much, much larger scale than that experienced in the Caribbean. That is because the Ike Dike proposed in 2009 by Texas A&M professor William Merrell has not been built.
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The Ike Dike was torpedoed by environmentalists who claimed that the proposed flood gates at Galveston would interfere with the migration of marine life, and by a Rice University group who proposed protecting the petro-chemical complex along the Houston ship channel instead.
The environmentalists disregarded the fact that the flood gates would be closed only during the approach of a hurricane and the Rice group disregarded the fact that the Ike Dike also would have protected their beloved petro-chemical complex.
So far Houston-Galveston has not been hit by a Melissa strength hurricane, but how long can our luck last? When it does hit us, we will curse those damn environmentalists and Rice eggheads.
2 comments:
That much wind and that much water is incredibly powerful. At least now they know it is coming. The great Galveston disaster happened well before that sort of thing was available.
Hurricane Harvey was bad enough. I worked my ass off after that storm. 16 hour days weren't uncommon. Now that we are both retired, we will evacuate much earlier.
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