Galveston, Texas officials selling out their citizens and their past
It is one thing to feel saddened by humanity’s lack of foresight when it comes to Global Warming. But when leaders ignore basic history in order to profit is when you start to realize that the term “blood money” no longer carries with it much stigma.
To wit: The Republican-led Galveston City Council will agree to allow a development which will sever the area’s sea wall, which was created more than 100 years ago following the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, in terms of lives lost.
Basically, the Council commissioned geologists to study the effect of the development on the area, then after not liking what the geologists had to say, ignored the report and will proceed anyway.
Critics: Galveston development goes against logic
Leaders of this fast-eroding barrier island — the scene of the deadliest hurricane in American history — are about to approve nearly 4,000 new homes and two mid-rise hotels despite geologists’ warnings that the massive development would sever a ridge that serves as the island’s natural storm shield.
City officials “are choosing not to see anything that gets in the way of their precious tax dollars,” said study co-author Tim Dellapenna, an assistant professor of marine geology at Texas A&M University.
The master-planned community, including a marina and possibly a golf course, would span more than 1,000 acres from the Gulf of Mexico shoreline to the backside overlooking Galveston Bay.
It would urbanize the island’s sparsely developed center and would lie outside a concrete seawall that protects the older section of the city from storm surges — a barrier built because of a deadly lesson in 1900.About 8,000 people died then when a hurricane-fueled wall of water washed over Galveston, destroying what was then Texas’ largest city and one of the leading mercantile centers in the South. The Great Storm, as it is known, remains the worst natural disaster in national history in terms of lives lost.
Determined to overcome nature, Galveston’s surviving residents embarked on an extraordinary campaign to rebuild. They used tons of dredged sand to raise the entire city’s elevation and erected the 17-foot seawall, which now extends along the southeastern shoreline for 10 miles.
Galveston leaders, who have been struggling for years to revitalize the island’s decaying older side, are approving the new developments too quickly, according to people who say the barrier island’s fragility seemingly has been forgotten.Scientists estimate Galveston is moving about one quarter-inch closer to the water every year because of rising sea levels and a slow sinking of the surface caused by oil extraction. The West End, unprotected by the seawall and just a few feet above sea level, is especially vulnerable.
Now waves splash the base of the wall.
This is not an area oblivious to the damage hurricanes can cause and not only from experiences a century back. Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas had 80 buses at the ready for evacuation purposes. And following Katrina, the rebirth of Galveston was conjured up by many of how a city could recover.
Yet now, they are willing to roll the dice on the work of their forefathers - for a buck.
Susan Warren brought up the issue in a cheerleading article about Galveston for the Wall Street Journal. While Warren brought up the issue, she cast it aside, finishing with:
But that doesn’t seem to be deterring people. I understand. My husband and I are thinking of building our own summer home on the Texas coast. My children will never experience Galveston the way it was, but they can still see some of its history, explore the sand dunes and chase fiddler crabs on the beach. To us, some things are worth the risk.
Just last year, on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s rampage through the Gulf Coast, President Bush said:
“You know, commitments in politics sometimes mean nothing. I made a commitment that means something.”
There was little doubt then, as there is now, that the President was just plain lying. But such actions are the norm for a man who is ruled by ideology and secrecy. But 100 years ago, politicians and citizens came together to protect future generations from the fate they suffered. They made a commitment that meant something. Today, Galveston’s current leaders are throwing away that commitment to increase tax revenue and line the pockets of developers.
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it goes the saying. It appears Warren, the Galveston City Council and the developers will make sure that residents of Galveston find out what their ancestors went through, as they are not just ignoring history, but openly defying it.
–WKW