PROTECTING THE TEXAS COAST BY BREE ANA MOORE, Galveston District
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aftermath,” said Rea, who is now the chief of Emergency Management at the Galveston District. “So many families lost everything; it made me realize how imperative it was for the Corps to work at a solution to protect the Texas coast.” Texas’ entire Gulf Coast historically averages three tropical storms or hurricanes every four years, generating coastal storm surges and sometimes bringing heavy rainfall and damaging winds hundreds of miles inland. Future projections suggest increases in
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SHARON TIRPAK
s Alicia Rea drove through the streets of Galveston, she wept for her community at the destruction left from Hurricane Ike – virtually every house in her neighborhood was flooded. At the time of Hurricane Ike in September 2008, Rea was an operations manager in the Navigation Division with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District. “Although our home was damaged and riddled with mold, many others were in worse condition, and it was devastating to witness the
During the annual meeting of the I-STORM Network June 6-7, 2019, in Venice, Italy, members of the project management team for the Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Feasibility Study at USACE Galveston District tour the Mose System barrier at Lido Barrier Inlet; the barrier is a system of mobile gates installed at the lagoon inlet that is able to temporarily isolate the Venetian lagoon from the Adriatic Sea during severe storm surge events, thus ensuring acceptable water levels. Pictured are (left to right) Tom Smith, Sharon Tirpak, Himangshu Das, and John Winkelman.
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