September 26, 2008
Year 13. Issue 320 Photo by Eric Molnar
Get Ready For The Island’s Tastiest Event
Taste of The Island set for October 15th Mark your calendar for the Taste of the Island Fiesta 2008 on Wednesday October 15th! This annual event is held at the Padre Isles Country Club from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. and will have a few changes this year to make it even more memorable. Expect outstanding food and beverages as always from your favorite Island, Port Aransas and Flour Bluff restaurants. Also enjoy free caricatures, door prizes plus a DJ and Mariachis to entertain. Golf carts will bring you from your car to the door to enjoy the Fiesta Fun! The silent auction can be found indoors this year so plan to shop. Plenty of seating under tents and around the pool will make this a delightful evening. There’s also a new way to get tickets...purchase on-line any time at www.padreislandbusiness. org for $25 or at the usual venues including HE-B, Frost Bank, Value Bank, American Bank, First Community Bank and Isle Mail & More. We are collecting silent auction donations and sponsorships are still available. The Taste is a great way to promote your business and be a part of the FUN! Don’t miss out on this special night...all your friends will be there! More information? Call Gladys at 816-1243.
Port Aransas Community Theatre Looking for Actors/Actors Singing thespians sought Port Aransas Community Theater announces auditions for its January production. This original musical, entitled Fourth of July features patriotic music and requires a cast of six: two adult males, two adult females, one male teen and one female teen. All cast members must sing well. Auditions will be held at the Port Aransas Community Theatre, 2327 State Highway 361, Port Aransas, on October 6, 7,and 8th. All auditions will begin at 7 p.m. Please come prepared to read and sing. Performances are scheduled for Thursday through Saturday beginning January 8th and continuing through January 31st with a Sunday matinee February 1. If you have questions please contact writer/ director Larry Paton at 361 949-2860.
Deadline for all Moon matter is Monday of the week of the paper not Wednesday or Thursday or Friday. Photo by Eric Molnar
Art Center for The Island 3rd Saturday Sale Join the Art Center for the Islands for its 3rd Saturday Sale, September 20th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., when over 50 artists offer 10%-50% off their work. This is a perfect opportunity to pick up something special for yourself or as a gift. There are unlimited choices that are perfect in many categories. Let art of all kinds bring you or someone you care about joy, and get a special discount at the same time. Go by 323 N. Alister in Port Aransas and get a deal, or call 361-749-7334 for more information.
Looking For Books At Bargain Prices?
Visit the Janet F. Harte Library at 2629 Waldron Road in Flour Bluff, October 3-12 for a great selection of books at bargain prices. All proceeds will be used to purchase new materials and support various programs. Donations of materials in good condition are appreciated. For library hours, call 937-6569.
Hatchling Turtle Art Returns to Art Center for The Islands The Art Center for the Islands will host to another fabulous “Hatching” of new Turtles for Turtle Trail 2008. On Friday, September 19th, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The Art Center is located at 323 No. Alister in Port Aransas. Many of the Art Center’s own are debuting their turtle art. Among them are Tiddle Caylor, Monique Dix, Norma Gafford and Bonnie Hodge. Also slated for the turtles “coming out party” are creations by Deb Gioia, Pamela Rosser, Brandon Smith, Stacey Amos Holden and Kat Jones. This “Hatching” features not only great art in the beautiful gallery, but fine wine from Australian vintner Lindemans. Thank you to the Port Aransas IGA for this special treat. Tickets for the Great Turtle Release Auction to be November the 8th are on sale now. Come out to meet the artists, and see the always unique and inventive art that they have created on an aluminum turtle.
Photo by Mary Craft Vincenzo De Paulo uses seashells like this one to create his cameo art
This is an aerial of Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula near Galveston before Hurricane Ike. The story below compares the damage done there to what might have happened had the storm hit The Island.
Lessons From Ike by Kevin Brown Editor’s note: This story was sent to us by Kevin Brown, a reader and member of the Padre Island Yacht Club. We found it interesting and thought we should pass it along. We all took a risk when we moved to The Island, and we have been very lucky so far. The paths of Ike, Katrina, and other major storms deviated from early predictions, and hit somewhere else. Nevertheless, when Ike was in the neighborhood, the water in our canals covered the PIYC and other decks. The rising water at the club cut off electricity to the docks, and cost us around $500 in repairs. Had it risen another 5 ft. (actually 64”...... Yes, I measured it!), most of us on The Island would have been paddling in our kitchens. And that was a Category 2 storm hitting almost 200 miles away! Ike has done significant damage to the Galveston area, especially the unincorporated area of Crystal Beach, on the Bolivar Peninsula. This peninsula is remarkably similar to our island. Our local paper showed us some before and after pictures of Crystal Beach, but neglected to do any investigative journalism, and give any analysis relating the plight of the unfortunate residents to what could happen here. What can we learn about our own island from the events at Crystal Beach? The Similarities Both are barrier sand bars, about the same width, and the same average height above sea level, around 3-4 ft. Crystal Beach homes are (were!) mainly elevated on stilts near the beach, or, as in our development, built on mounds towards the Intracoastal Waterway, and in the canal areas. Crystal Beach has highway 87 running parallel to the gulf beach, very similar to our Park Rd. 22. To the west of 87, there are canal developments that open to the intracoastal, (ICW). Is this starting to sound familiar? Hwy 87 was 3000 ft. from the beach, and 1.1 miles to the ICW. In
the section Bob Hall Pier to Whitecap, Park Rd. 22 is 2000 ft to the beach and the ICW is 2 miles. Cruiser is only 2700 ft from the beach. The Differences Crystal Beach has no area protected by a seawall, as we have near the Holiday Inn. Airborne laser measurements (lidar) show the dune area on Crystal Beach to have been only around 3-4 ft, effectively there were no dunes. Look at the Google Earth image of the dune front at Crystal Beach. These are exactly the same houses as shown on the front page of the Caller Times. What happened in Crystal Beach? Very few of the homes remaining in Crystal Beach show any wind damage; it was the surge that got them! The type of house destroyed in Crystal Beach is more typical of Port Aransas than our development. It is interesting to note that the surviving house arrowed in the Caller Times was built sometime after 2006 when the Google Earth pictures were taken. Most other houses were decades old. This probably shows an effect of stricter modern building codes. The aerial photographs taken by the USGS after Ike show significant erosion from the beach over Hwy 87, and survivors report wading through chest deep water along Hwy 87. (see http://www.khou.com/video/topstories-index. html?nvid=282612). I have not been able to find accurate information on the height of the storm surge on the ICW side of the Bolivar Peninsula, where the canal front homes are located; however, aerial photos show them to be intact, but with debris in their lots. Tide meters on Galveston Bay went off-scale, and failed, at 10 ft. Local Houston TV news has reported 14 ft. It was reported in our local paper that in Galveston, south of Crystal Beach, homes were flooded by the surge coming from the bay side of the island. The famous sea wall might have stopped the big waves, but not the water. It sounds LESSONS FROM IKE continued on B2
An Islander Makes a Cameo Appearance in Naples by Mary Craft mkay@aol.com
I recently traveled to Italy, and was surprised to find how few people there spoke even limited English. I carried my phrase book around but I learned quickly that knowing how to ask a question does not mean you are going to understand the answer. It is difficult to appreciate the culture, its people and its humor when you do not understand what is being said around you. For example, the last leg of my flight to Europe was from Rome to Naples. There was a three-hour delay and Alitalia kept moving us from gate to gate. The announcements were made in Italian and I simply followed the crowd. They were all Neapolitans because Naples is not a tourist destination, which is another story. The group started to get restless and vocal. The young ticket agent kept looking down at the computer punching keys. From my viewpoint I could see he was just hitting keys at random to appear to be checking on the status of the flight. A more mature agent appeared who happened to have an attitude and the crowd went after him. There was shouting and hand gestures, none of which I understood.
Occasionally everyone broke into laughter when one of the elderly gentlemen would make some jibe at the agent who obviously did not find it funny. A couple of younger passengers started taking pictures of the agent with their phones which made him go ballistic. The agent went towards them yelling and waving at the phones because he was upset about the picture taken. Well, needless to say everyone started taking his picture with his or her phone whether it had a camera or not. Just when the irate agent marched off to get the polizia, we were prompted to board the plane. Upon landing in Naples, the entire cabin cheered loudly. My Islander friends Mo and Erlene who are stationed in Naples were waiting for me when I arrived and were a welcome sight. Although I had already been awake for thirty-one hours of travel, I stayed up three more hours chatting in their beautiful villa. That may be why I never experienced jet lag. The next morning we took a local bus to downtown Naples, which was a very disappointing NAPOLITAN CAMEO continued on page B2