A Step for the Ike Dike

Last week, Harris County agreed to join the Gulf Coast Community and Recovery District. Harris County joins Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers, Jefferson and Orange Counties which had agreed months ago. The creation of this district means that they can launch a study of "ways to protect communities and the Houston, Galveston and Texas City ship channels from storm surge" (Galveston Daily). Importantly, it can study the feasibility and effectiveness of Bill Merrell's Ike Dike. Merrell, a professor at Texas A&M University at Galveston, proposes "extending Galveston’s seawall to the island’s West End, erecting a similar barrier on the Bolivar Peninsula and installing giant gates at the entrance of the Houston Ship Channel that would keep storm surge from pushing into Galveston Bay" (Galveston Daily). The first meeting of the coalition should be in mid-March. While this study is only the first step in a string of many steps to actually build the Ike Dike, Texas Impact will be tracking it's progress.

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