Aerial tour focuses on hurricane protection
Helicopter trip is part of an effort to prepare for next big hurricane
GALVESTON — The fragility of the narrow strips of sand that form Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula came into sharp focus from the seat of a Black Hawk helicopter Wednesday.
As four Black Hawk helicopters crammed with federal and local officials flew down the Bolivar coastline, a voice came through the passengers’ headphones: “This area was flattened during Hurricane Ike. None of these houses survived.”
The helicopters on loan from the 1st Air Cavalry Division at Fort Hood took officials along the coast and inland to Houston and the Addicks and Barker flood-control reservoirs to give an aerial view of the areas most in need of protection if another Ike-size hurricane barrels into the Houston area.
Afterward, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers invited local officials for the first time to participate in an annual hurricane preparedness exercise. The Corps is preparing to deal with the next hurricane even as it moves forward with a $10 million study of a proposed hurricane storm-surge protection system that is expected to cost billions.
“Nothing is more important than readiness and being able to move to the sound of the guns, so to speak,” Brig. Gen. David
Hill told participants before they boarded the helicopters. Vulnerabilities visible
After flying over the most vulnerable areas along the coast, Hill said the flight gave him a perspective he couldn’t get from a map. “You understand the vulnerabilities of the Bolivar Peninsula because you’ve flown over there and seen it,” he said.
The flight made it clear to Lavern Young, the regional operations director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, how easily a storm can cut off the coastal communities from the mainland. “What you see from the air is the access to the island,” Young said.
In the end, the flight was not as important as pressing business.
Galveston Mayor Jim Yarbrough and Galveston Port Director Michael Mierzwa skipped the flight because of scheduled meetings and decided to attend the Corps’ disaster planning meetings afterward.
Officials from FEMA, the Port of Galveston, the Harris County Flood Control District, the city of Houston, the Port of Houston, the Texas Department of Emergency Management and the U.S. Coast Guard met at the Corps’ headquarters in Galveston for a session on lessons learned from Hurricane Ike.
Lessons from Ike
Hurricane Ike struck Sept. 13, 2008, roaring up the Houston Ship Channel and wreaking nearly $30 billion in damage.
Officials, including Yarbrough, are scheduled to reconvene Thursday for a four-hour table-top hurricane exercise to test preparedness.
Between 60 and 75 officials from the HoustonGalveston region will view a video laying out an Ikelike disaster and then begin reacting as if they were dealing with a real disaster, said Mike deMasi, emergency management chief for the Corps’ Galveston District.
DeMasi said this is the first year the Corps is involving local agencies in its disaster response training, and it will likely do so every few years from now on.
The session will give local and federal officials a chance to meet so they will know who they are dealing with if disaster strikes, he said. “We’re tying in the locals so we can put a face to the name,” deMasi said.
“You understand the vulnerabilities of the Bolivar Peninsula because you’ve flown over there and seen it.” Brig. Gen. David Hill, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers