Posts Tagged bridge city
Trip to Bridge City
My wife, my 2 daughters, 2 grand kids and I made a trip to Bridge City today to go see mom and dad. Moms birthday was on July 17th and they are getting moved into their new house this weekend. Its been 10 months since hurricane Ike passed through and the recovery process is still in full steam.
A lot of the FEMA trailers have been moved out, but there are still a lot in place. What is really sad is to see all of the “For Sale” signs in the front yards. Some people have given up and moving to higher ground. But those are the real Bridge Citians.
80 years old and starting over
80 years old and starting over, that was the sad reality of the facts. There was no denying that around 5 feet of flood water had gotten into the house and there was no denying that the couple did not have flood insurance. The hard wood flooring that everyone had liked so much, after the water went down the flooring swelled and split the walls. There was so much pressure generated from the swelling wood floors, that not only did the walls split, but some of them were pushed off the concert slab.
Having lived in Bridge City for most of their lives, neither the husband nor the wife had ever heard of the type of flooding that was on the way. Hurricane Ike was like a dark cloud in the distance, almost like a bad dream, but this dream was real. For decades Southeast Texas had avoided the critical strike of a major Hurricane.
In 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River.
In August of 1992, Hurricane Andrew was working its way towards Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. But the wind currents turned Andrew to the North, and Andrew Made landfall around Morgan City, Louisiana.
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the New Orleans area.
Hurricane Ike Aftermath
These pictures were taken in Bridge City, Texas after Hurricane Ike made landfall in Galveston, Texas. Using Google Earth, and measuring from where these pictures were taken, its estimated that 20 miles inland, there was about a 14 – 15 foot storm surge. This is not a scientific measurement, its just an estimate.
How the storm surge was estimated – my parents house is is about 4 feet above sea level and they got over 9 feet of water in their house. This picture was taken 3 days after Hurricane Ike made landfall and the flood waters had receded about 7 – 8 feet.
Bridge City Texas Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike Video Series – Part 1
On the morning of September 13, 2008, the eye of Hurricane Ike approached the Texas coast near Galveston Bay, making landfall at 2:10 a.m. CDT over the east end of Galveston Island. People in low-lying areas who had not heeded evacuation orders, in single-family one- or two-story homes, were warned by the weather service that they may “face certain death” from the overnight storm surge.
In regional Texas towns, electrical power began failing before 8 p.m. CDT, leaving millions without power (estimates range from 2.8 million to 4.5 million customers).
September 11, 2008 – parts of southeast Texas have started calling for a voluntary evacuation.