Fund the Ike Dike

After tempting Mother Nature for far too long, our elected leaders need to finally take action.

Early on the morning of Sept. 13, 2008, a Saturday, a huge Category 2 hurricane christened Ike roared ashore at Galveston, announcing itself with 100 mph winds and a storm surge more than 12 feet high. After it played out days later, Hurricane Ike accounted for 43 deaths in Texas and would cause an estimated $30 billion in damage. It was the third-costliest storm in U.S. history.

More than 2.6 million Southeast Texans without power, some for weeks. Thousands of homes flooded. At least 35,000 trees destroyed on Galveston Island. Homeowners’ assistance delayed for years. Those were among the many lingering effects of Ike, but arguably the longestlingering effect has been a perpetual storm of talk for a dozen years. Houston and our Texas Gulf Coast neighbors might hold the record for the longest-running public works discussion in Lone Star history. Realizing that Ike — or Hurricane Harvey, for that matter — could have been incomprehensibly worse had they delivered a direct hit on Greater Houston, particularly along the Ship Channel, we started talking about a plan to keep future storms at bay immediately after the coast cleaned up and dried out. We’re still talking.

To be fair, we’ve done more than talk. We’ve studied. We’ve modeled. We’ve analyzed. We’ve written. We’ve argued.

Certainly, we need to be careful and deliberate, but after a dozen years of tempting Mother Nature after she gave us fair warning, it’s time to act. It’s time to build the system originally dubbed the Ike Dike. Championed by the man who named it, oceanographer and Texas A&M-Galveston professor Bill Merrill, the ambitious plan would extend Galveston’s seawall, build a similar structure along Bolivar Peninsula and construct massive floodgates at the entrance to Galveston Bay.

We can’t continue pressing our luck, knowing as storm clouds gather every hurricane season that one of these days a hurricane with the potential for devastation greater than the Great Storm of 1900 might hit the Houston-area bull’s-eye. With climate change inducing more and more cataclysmic weather events, our luck may run out sooner rather than later.

Now, at last, the political climate seems to be shifting, in Austin and in Washington. Legislation sponsored by two Houston-area Republicans, state Sen. Larry Taylor of Friendswood and state Rep. Dennis Paul of Houston, would establish a regional district that could levy taxes and issue bonds to build and maintain a coastal barrier. Paul’s House bill, we’re happy to note, includes Republicans and Democrats as co-sponsors.

Made up of members from Harris, Galveston, Chambers, Jefferson and Orange counties, the Gulf Coast Protection District would be the “local sponsor” for the coastal barrier project — essentially, local skin in the game that shows the feds our region’s commitment to the project. The district would be able to raise funds, coordinate with the Army Corps of Engineers and ensure local interests are represented in the decision-making process. Creation of the district is a vital first step in the long planning and construction process still ahead.

There’s cause for hope in Washington, too. The new administration is determined to rebuild, restore and revitalize America’s infrastructure, and a Gulf Coast Protection District is tangible evidence that Texas is serious about protecting lives and property — and the national interest.

Environmentalists have raised concerns about the plan, but we’re persuaded that the Ike Dike addresses their objections. The incalculable environmental devastation that would result from a hurricane assault on our unprotected coast is the much greater threat.

The entire coastal barrier project, including ecosystem restoration extending southwest to South Padre Island, is expected to cost $26 billion, much of it funded by the federal government. The dunes and sea gate account for $14 billion to $18 billion of that total. Once fully constructed, the Army Corps of Engineers estimates the project will save $2.2 billion in storm damages every year.

“This project will pay for itself time and time again,” Taylor told a state Senate committee last week. “Once we get it built, it’ll be there for the next 80 to 100 years.”

Or we could still be talking, although it’s doubtful we have 80 or a hundred years to drone on. The Legislature must pass HB 3029 and SB 1160 this session. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz must make sure funding for the Ike Dike is included in whatever federal infrastructure bill gets to President Joe Biden’s desk. And in every political campaign, Texans along the Gulf Coast must remind candidates and officeholders that our patience has run out for politicians blowing in the wind.