Ike Dike (proposed Texas Gulf Coast flooding barrier)

Hurricane Ike damaged the city of Galveston and much of the Texas Gulf Coast in September 2008. A 55-mile barrier along the Texas Gulf Coast was soon proposed to prevent flooding from another devastating hurricane such as Ike.
 
The proposed barrier was dubbed the “Ike Dike” by at least January 15, 2009.
 
   
Wikipedia: Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike (pronounced /ˈaɪk/) (September 1-14, 2008) was the third most destructive hurricane to ever make landfall in the United States. It was the ninth named storm, fifth hurricane and third major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. It was a Cape Verde-type hurricane, as it started as a tropical disturbance off the coast of Africa near the end of August, then tracked south of Cape Verde and slowly developed. On September 1, 2008, it became a tropical storm west of the Cape Verde islands. By the early morning hours of September 4, Ike was a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) and a pressure of 935 mbar (27.61 inHg). That made it the most intense storm in the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Ike made its final landfall over Galveston, Texas, United States as a Category 2 hurricane on September 13, 2008 at 2:10 a.m. CDT.
 
Ike was blamed for at least 195 deaths. Of these, 74 were in Haiti, which was already trying to recover from the impact of three storms earlier that year: Fay, Gustav, and Hanna. In the United States, 112 people were killed, and 34 are still missing. Damages from Ike in US coastal and inland areas are estimated at $24 billion (2008 USD), with additional damage of $7.3 billion in Cuba, $200 million in the Bahamas, and $500 million in the Turks and Caicos, amounting to a total of $32 billion in damages. Ike was the third costliest U.S. hurricane of all time, behind Hurricane Andrew of 1992 and Hurricane Katrina of 2005.
     
KHOU-TV Houston, TX
Could Galveston’s proposed Ike Dike work?
12:03 AM CST on Thursday, January 15, 2009
by Allison Triarsi / 11 News
GALVESTON—The storm of 1900 prompted Galveston to build a wall. Built by humans and mules a hundred years ago, that same seawall withstood Hurricane Ike. It just wasn’t long enough. 
 
“We’re looking at something that won’t just protect Galveston, but will protect the Bolivar Peninsula all the way to High Island,” said Dr. R. Bowen Loftin of Texas A&M’s Martime Engineering Department. “We especially want to protect the Galveston Bay ecosystems and the industry along the ship channel.” 
 
Loftin is talking about protecting the Gulf Coast with the Ike Dike, which is a proposal to lengthen the seawall by over 60 miles.
     
Brains and Eggs
Saturday, January 24, 2009
A sad report on Galveston and Chambers County
(...)
One of the more intriguing issues discussed during the day was the so-called Ike Dike. This is a proposal to extend the existing Galveston seawall from High Island to Freeport. Preliminary costs are estimated at around $4 billion, which is a lot of money, but when compared to $29 billion in damages it looks like a bargain. My friends in the environmental community are greatly concerned about the environmental impact of such a project and rightly so. However, hurricanes also do a great deal of environmental damage to the bay system. In any event, it will be fascinating to follow this issue.
     
Houston (TX) Press 
The Ike Dike: a Dutch perspective
Netherlands has been fighting sea for centuries
By BILL KING
Copyright 2009 Houston Chonicle
July 11, 2009, 7:02PM
No one really knows exactly how long the Dutch have been fighting back the North Sea. As early as 1366, the Dutch were using windmills to pump water out over levees at Kinderdijk (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Today, more than half of the country’s population, about 8 million people, lives below sea level.
 
Recently, I had the chance to tour some of the Netherlands’ defenses against the North Sea and compare their challenges and the solutions they have devised to the threat the Texas Gulf Coast faces from hurricane surges.
   
KTRK-TV Houston, TX
Would ‘Ike Dike’ prevent storm surge?
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 | 5:06 AM
By Erik Barajas
HOUSTON (KTRK)—There’s a new plan to keep a storm surge from pouring into Galveston Bay, like what happened during Hurricane Ike.
Right now, it’s just a design, but the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership is taking a close look at it.
 
The idea for the “Ike Dike” as it’s being called started as a suggestion by a professor at Texas A&M University, William Merrill. He essentially called for the extension of the Galveston Seawall in both directions, along with adding flood gates at the mouth of Galveston Bay.
 
The Associated Press
Texas mulls massive “Ike Dike” to prevent flooding
By JUAN A. LOZANO
July 14, 2009
GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — It has been dubbed the “Ike Dike” — a 55-mile barrier, 17 feet high, that would be built along the Texas Gulf Coast to fend off the sort of devastating flooding inflicted by last year’s Hurricane Ike.
 
The grand idea for what would probably be the biggest seawall in the nation faces some major hurdles itself, chief among them a price tag of up to $4 billion.
 
But with thousands of people still in temporary housing 10 months after the storm, many say it is time to find a permanent means of protecting Galveston and the rest of the Houston metropolitan area.