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Texas City Levee

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Texas City Levee This presentation is intended to provide some basic information about 3 subjects: First, Why might a flood protection system be needed for the urbanized, eastern part of Galveston Island? Second, What might a flood protection system be? Third, Why not just tag along with other big projects and just let someone from somewhere else tell Galveston Island what Galveston needs to do and what they are going to allow Galveston to do? The Galveston “Ring Levee” A Critical Investment in Galveston’s Future Goals of the Galveston Ring Levee •Provide bay-side flood protection for the City of Galveston. •Essential to protect Galveston from flooding, even if Ike Dike is built. •Enhance Galveston’s relationship to Galveston Bay. •Encourage investment in Galveston by decreasing the risk of flooding Major storms impact Galveston on a regular basis This is the aftermath of the 1900 Storm 12 10 8 Column 1 6 Column 2 Column 3 4 2 0 Row 1 Row 2 Row 3 Row 4 The response of the citizens of Galveston to protect the city from battering storm waves was the first of multiple phases of the Seawall. This was Hurricane Ike. 12 10 8 Column 1 6 Column 2 Column 3 4 2 0 Row 1 Row 2 Row 3 Row 4 Flood waters occur on a regular basis from the north side, bay side of the island. This picture is from Hurricane Carla in 1961 which went inland on Matagorda Island by Port O'Connor, some hundred miles away. Hurricane Ike Flood waters in 2008. Computer simulation in 2005 about different flood levels by Johnson Space Center Office of Emergency Management Hurricane Carly is a made up name Just slightly less than Hurricane Ike flood level of approximately 13.5 feet on the east end of the island. Note how dry Texas City is. Just 2 feet more surge than Hurricane Ike. Note Galveston is almost completely underwater. Note that Texas City is dry. Texas City Levee Orange line is the Flood protection system The Texas City Flood Protection System includes earthen embankments (levees). They have put roads on top of some. There are Gates where the levees cross roads and train tracks, that are closed during major storm events. Moses Lake is used as a retention lake. Note the closed gray gate which can be opened. This diagram is from the Washington Post, done after Hurricane Rita. Noting the differences between Galveston and New Orleans, Galveston is normally above sea level, while New Orleans is below sea level. New Orleans is always in a bathtub. Galveston is not in a bathtub since water will normally flow down hill, north to the bay along streets and storm sewers. In Galveston, gates (red) would be closed only during major flooding events to keep out flood water from the bay. Water from rain or overtopping the Seawall would be ejected from the city into the bay by big pumps. An overview of Galveston Bay to show how big the bay is with 600 sq. miles Following is the US Army Corp of Engineers published a “Texas Coast Hurricane Study” feasibility report in 1979 which listed a Galveston Ring Levee as one of the best cost/benefit ratios and most feasible engineering tasks with fewer negatives. Shows a “Ring Levee” location Following is the city of Galveston Long Term Community Recovery Plan of 2009 devoted 3 pages to a “Galveston Ring Levee”. Galveston Levee Recovery Value: Moderate Project Champion (when identified – sponsor is a “local public body” – 30% cost must be borne by sponsor) Background The City of Galveston is a barrier island community subject to hurricanes from the Gulf of Mexico. The most widespread and costly damage inflicted by these storms is flood damage generally caused by the wind-driven storm surge and the wave action associated with storms. While Galveston has a seaward-facing seawall that has proven its value in protecting the city from storm waves, it is unprotected from hurricane flood damage from Galveston Bay, as evidenced by Hurricane Ike (Sep 2008). Storm surge during this storm was driven into Galveston Bay causing it to inundate the island from its bay side. Statistically, Galveston is affected by hurricanes approximately once every 2.5 years. The island is hit directly approximately once every 10 years. Extremely severe storms hit Galveston roughly once every 25 to 50 years. Historical recorded storm surges associated with hurricanes have reached 14.2 ft in the storm of 1900 (killing an at least 6,000 people, making it the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history), 12 feet in the storm of 1915, and 15 feet for Hurricane Carla in 1961. In Hurricane Ike, the storm surge elevations were approximately 10 feet on the western end of the island and approximately 13 feet on the eastern end. Construction of the 17-foot Seawall on the southern facing shore of the City began soon after the 1900 hurricane hit Galveston. During Hurricane Ike, the Seawall functioned as designed and protected the southern part of the City from the wind driven waves as it did during previous storms since 1900. Unfortunately, Ike caused a huge mass of water to come from the bay and flood the island from the north, where there is no flood protection system in place. This flooding caused much of the island to be inundated, causing the majority of the damage to the island. The estimated cost of the damages caused by Hurricane Ike are in excess of $22 billion, making it the third most costly hurricane in U.S. history. Included in this estimate are the costs of the devastating damage to essential infrastructure such as the wastewater treatment plants and the potable water distribution system caused by Ike. The threat of disease and disruption of service resulted in the island residents not being allowed back to their homes for over 12 days, which caused additional damages from extensive mold growth and spoiled food. A substantial proportion of the island’s residences are undergoing or awaiting repair at the time of preparing this plan, six months following the storm. Goals • To protect the health, welfare and property of the residents and businesses of the densely populated area of Galveston Island from storm related floodwaters. • To encourage investment (commercial, residential, medical, educational, infrastructure, governmental, and utilities) in Galveston by decreasing the risk of flooding with a structural flood control system. Additional Benefits: • Enhancing land values (and subsequently increasing the tax base) • Reducing losses of income by residents and businesses • Reducing emergency response and recovery costs during and following storm events • Complementing other recovery and development projects for Galveston Project Description This project calls for the construction of a levee around the more densely populated eastern portion of the island. It is an effort to minimize the exposure to flood damages during large-scale storm events and protect the lives and property of the residents of Galveston. The proposed levee system would protect the City on its bay side and connect with the eastern and western ends of the existing seawall. The project proposes to enhance the existing storm protection provided by the seawall by constructing a levee/floodwall system encircling the City (Figure 1). Depending on its final engineering and alignment after thorough study, the system might include both earthen levees and concrete floodwalls, pump stations, gates, interior storm water outlets and other features to control floodwater intrusion and removal from the city. Galveston Long-Term Community Recovery Plan 112 Figure 1. Proposed Galveston Levee system and existing Texas City levee shown with 15.8foot storm surge and the resulting flood protection. Potential additional benefits of the plan to other developments for Galveston Island are also indicated. The exact course and components of the system would be determined by a detailed feasibility and engineering study. The community recommends that this study be initiated immediately. The issue of storm related flood protection is not a new one and is one that the community and federal agencies have considered in the past. In 1979, the USACE released a report entitled “Feasibility Study – Texas Coast Hurricane Study”. This report preliminarily studied the effects of hurricanes on five Gulf coastal areas in Texas including the Houston-Galveston Area. The report contains a Galveston levee plan that closely resembles the measures conceived in the project described here (Figure 2). The 1979 plan contains a brief economic analysis of the project including the potential benefits associated with it. All of the analysis provided is based on 1970s data and would need to be updated to current figures for any new levee plan. The updated plan should include the knowledge learned over time including the success of the Texas City levee system during Hurricane Ike. The 1979 plan proposed a levee/seawall based protection system that encompasses the eastern end of the island and includes approximately 7.8 miles of earthen levee and approximately 4.7 miles of concrete floodwall (predominately through the port area). In addition, the report recognized that the system would need to accommodate the roads, railroads and other infrastructure that would be impacted. This plan was identified at the time to be the most feasible when compared to several other plans for protecting larger areas of the island and Galveston Bay (up to 127 miles of coastline) because it provided the highest benefit-cost ratio (2.4 compared to 1.1) and had the fewest environmental, engineering and management challenges. Further study and discussion should take place with the USACE to determine current feasibility. Figure 2. Recommended Galveston Levee plan resulting from the 1979 USACE study.
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