Galveston Residents Get Green Light to Return to Island

City officials invite residents to return Wednesday, but not all who enter may stay

09/23/2008
By Eileen Schwartz, Tonie Auer and Debra Wood

Beginning at 6:00 a.m., on Wednesday, Sept. 24, residents of Galveston will be allowed to enter the hurricane-battered city, most for the first time since Sept. 11, when Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas called for a mandatory evacuation of the entire island. But not all who return will be permitted to stay.

“We are committed to public safety,” says Mayor Thompson. “Infrastructure is not where we want it to be, but we can’t keep our citizens waiting any longer.”

The mayor spoke during a Sept. 20 town hall meeting in Galveston, which was televised with power from generators. She was joined by officials from across Southeast Texas.

It has been less than two weeks since Hurricane Ike made landfall Sept. 13 as a Category 2 storm. One of the largest storms to hit Texas in decades, Ike wrought havoc in the southeastern portion of the state and well inland. Rebounding from the storm’s effects and rebuilding may take months if not years.

The U.S. death toll is still unknown. So far, an estimated sixty-one fatalities—including 30 in Texas--are blamed on the storm.

Hundreds of thousands of Texans, meanwhile, remain in the dark as utilities continue to make repairs to distribution lines and power plants. Galveston, which was in the midst of $2 billion in development projects citywide, is still virtually paralyzed.

Two Cities, One Seawall
Galveston city manager Steve LeBlanc, speaking at the Sept. 20 meeting, says that anyone with property behind the 10-mi-long, 17-ft high Seawall can “come home, stay, start assessing and rebuilding.”

 For those with properties west of the Seawall, the homecoming is less inviting. “Come, look and leave,” he says.

On the 24th, those returning can expect to see two Galvestons, LeBlanc says. The one behind the seawall and one west of the Seawall. “Behind the Seawall, you will have limited water and power.”

The city’s water system is compromised and operating off generators. Water, sewer, natural gas, and electricity services restored to areas behind the Seawall is described by officials as “very limited.”

West-end residents and business owners are advised that they may re-enter the city, assess property, gather important belongings and leave no later than 6:00 p.m.

But the core of the city, LeBlanc says, will have substantial power back by week’s end. “Pump stations, water treatment plants will be operational in the second phase, which we are working on now.”

The city remains under strict water conservation measures, ordinances against  outdoor burning and a curfew.

Sewer service to Galveston is described as “intermittent.” CenterPoint Energy, Houston, has made restoring power to Galveston’s treatment plants and pump stations a number-one priority. CenterPoint crews in Galveston are focusing on restoring power to areas that were protected by the Seawall, but crews are working  throughout the island.

Some power restored; two plants still offline
Power was restored to the University of  Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, but it remains closed to all but disaster medical assistance teams.

In Houston, CenterPoint Energy had restored power to 66% of its customers as of Sept. 23, but 767,000 remained without service.

As of September 22, Entergy Texas in Beaumont had restored power to all but 54,000 customers.

Two Entergy plants remain offline—the Sabine, an 1,800-MW gas-fired power plant in Bridge City, Texas, and River Bend Station, a nuclear generation facility in Louisiana. It required new siding on the turbine building. Once that repair is completed, the company says it will begin regulatory checks and inspections for a gradual startup. Repair work is progressing on Sabine, says Entergy spokesperson David Caplan.

Public health
Galveston Island residents and business-owners, meanwhile, are told to expect for debris and mosquitoes. Everyone entering the city is advised to bring gloves, masks, and boots, and to boil water until further notice.

“Wherever there was a flood--and that’s most houses--there is a risk of infection,” Mayor Thomas says.

Proper disposal of debris is also a concern and is being handled at the local level by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, says agency spokesman Terry Clawson. The TCEQ is performing field assessments for public water systems, wastewater treatment plants and landfills, and continues to contact systems in the affected area

“[Galveston’s] systems aren’t working,” says Clawson. He says the primary concern is contamination by fecal coliform. “Drinking water is disinfected wherever it comes from and the public water systems’ disinfection systems have to be working.”

To get past the boiled-water notice, the city will perform bacteriological sampling downstream of the public water system from the plant as it goes to people’s homes and businesses, he adds.

Under normal circumstances, getting samples and results takes several days, he says. “It’s worse in a situation like this because the labs are inundated with samples,” he says.

The city of Galveston is also dealing with leaks.
           
The city plans to install two motors at the 59th Street Pump Station. As of Monday, replacement motors for the 30th Street Pump Station were en route to the island. Installing the motors will allow four pumps to operate.
           
Cost of loss a matter of conjecture
While many businesses and homes were destroyed or impacted by the hurricane, the cost of repairing the damage is still a matter of conjecture.

Gov. Rick Perry at a press conference in Austin on Monday said it is “too early for a price tag” to be put on the damage. But he wasn’t going to wait around for FEMA, either. “Experience tells us that many Texans are not eligible for federal reimbursement,” he says. Perry announced that the state launched the non-profit Texas Disaster Relief Fund (visit www.texasdisasterrelieffund.org)
           
Boston-based catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide Corp. estimates that insured losses to onshore properties in the U.S. from Hurricane Ike could be between $8 and $12 billion.

Terry Clower, associate director for the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas, agrees with Perry. “We don’t really know how long it may take to get operational before any of the damage can be assessed. The adjustors and engineers are not able to get into all the areas to assess the damage on the large structures.”
           
“Thousands of buildings will have to go through testing to determine that they’re safe and make sure there are no structural issues,” Clower said. “But there is no way to really know how long it may take to get operational.”

Three cruise ships are scheduled to enter Galveston’s cruise terminal, which will re-open Oct. 1.

“As soon as we get the lights turned on, we’ll really be on the road home,” Mayor Thomas says.

Not quite business as usual
But for many, business as usual had not returned to the region. Jerry Nevlud, president and CEO of the Associated General Contractors of America, Houston Chapter, says that several members are still trying to get their offices up and running. The AGC office remained in the dark as did many of its members’ headquarters.
           
“Things appear to be coming back, but it will be gradual,” Nevlud says. “Our members are still trying to figure out what needs to be done.”
           
The Port of Houston survived the storm with little damage, says spokesperson Maggi Stewart. The only problem was a lack of electricity at the terminals.

The JPMorgan Chase Tower in Houston lost 487 panes of glass from the first through 40th floors during the storm. Glass on the higher 35 stories was not damaged.

“We don’t know the cause but speculate that it could have been a tornado due to the isolated area of destruction,” says Kim Jagger, director of corporate communications for Hines of Houston, the building’s owner and property manager.
           
The five-sided tower, built in 1982, reopened and was operational on September 17, with many of the windows covered with plywood, Jagger says. Cotton Construction of Waller, Texas, and Munters of Houston are completing the $7 million restoration. 

The $7.1 billion expansion of the Motiva Enterprises’ Port Arthur facility sustained some damage, says Shea Daugherty, spokesperson for the Bechtel/Jacobs Joint Venture responsible for the project. It is a partnership between Bechtel Corp., which has an office in Houston, and Jacobs of Pasadena, Calif. The team has called essential craft personnel to make repairs. Work resumed on the project on September 22.

Karen Othon, spokeswoman for the Houston District of the Texas Department of Transportation, reports one bridge, the Rollover Pass in Galveston County, with severe damage. Construction of a replacement bridge will be needed, at a cost of about $2 million. Bridge plans are 90% complete, and tentative emergency letting was expected by the end of September.
           
Thirteen Texas State Parks remain closed due to Ike, down from 37 closures. More than 5,900 evacuees took shelter at 64 state parks outside Ike’s path, says Tom Harvey, spokesperson for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Othon reports damage to the Galveston Island Ferry landings on both the Galveston and Port Bolivar sides. The Bolivar Peninsula, now an island, is cut off on all sides. TPWD has placed a game warden team as part of a recovery effort led by Chambers County on Smith Point, where much of the debris from Bolivar Peninsula communities washed ashore. Dozens of game wardens continue to support local jurisdictions with law enforcement patrols, looting prevention and related assistance in various parts of East and Southeast Texas

In many of the hardest hit areas, structures were saved by newer building codes that call for roofs that can withstand 130 mph winds.

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