Geography in Ike's max wind path

[Tim Vasquez]

As some of you may have already done, I did an armchair "survey" of the Bolivar Peninsula eastward with Google Earth. Interestingly it looks like a real no-man's land, which is fortunate. From what I can tell, there are no coastal residences at all between High Island and the outskirts of Sabine Pass (furthest right inset, Sabine Pass being just off the right edge of the map). I wonder if there's a historical reason why that area is so desolate, besides low elevation, which doesn't seem to stop other areas of Texas.

I did find a few weird structures out in the middle of nowhere, which I have highlighted. I can't imagine what the purpose of them are, but I'm guessing they're industrial and were probably not occupied.

I'm off to scour the news for any information on High Island, which appears to have been in the worst possible area... I've heard a lot about Bolivar and Crystal Beach, but practically nothing about High Island.

Tim

 

[B Ozanne]

One of those zooms almost looks like a fish farm/evaporation basin.

 

[Greg Higgins]

You might try Microsoft Live also as it seems to be more current than Google.

http://maps.live.com/?mkt=en-us

This link is for one of the structures you have identified above.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...0&scene=8947051&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1


Greg Higgins

 

[Jason Foster]

How about research

Could also be some research outposts. I noticed a NOAA research building in Galveston. Apparently there is a lot of fish and wildlife research in this area of Texas.

 

[Simon Brewer]

High Island is really cool geologically; it's a 'salt dome' at 30+ feet in elevation making it the one of the highest points on the entire Gulf Coast. I've been dreaming of chasing a strong hurricane there all year and nearly passed on Galveston to ride out Ike on High Island. No worry of storm surge there, but I never saw any structures that could hold up to a CAT 4/5 when I drove through town a few times.

 

[KenMcWatters]

As some of you may have already done, I did an armchair "survey" of the Bolivar Peninsula eastward with Google Earth. Interestingly it looks like a real no-man's land, which is fortunate. From what I can tell, there are no coastal residences at all between High Island and the outskirts of Sabine Pass (furthest right inset, Sabine Pass being just off the right edge of the map). I wonder if there's a historical reason why that area is so desolate, besides low elevation, which doesn't seem to stop other areas of Texas.

I did find a few weird structures out in the middle of nowhere, which I have highlighted. I can't imagine what the purpose of them are, but I'm guessing they're industrial and were probably not occupied.

I'm off to scour the news for any information on High Island, which appears to have been in the worst possible area... I've heard a lot about Bolivar and Crystal Beach, but practically nothing about High Island.

Tim

I haven't been along this stretch of Hwy 87 on the coast, but I agree it does look desolate. Probably this is because it's a narrow zone, basically a peninsula, no more than 5 to 7 feet above sea level, having little protection from storm inundation.

I was watching the Houston TV coverage as the first news helicopter surveys were made of the Bolivar Peninsula up to High Island. The land went from a sandy brown zone of almost total destruction along the coast to High Island, which was still green and seemed almost unscathed. Major buildings including a water tower were standing and didn't have much visible damage. This is confirmed by looking at the "after" aerial photos on the NWS site, where aside from scattered roof damage, the town of High Island looks ok.

I did some searching to find out about those sites you focused on with your map, Tim. The leftmost site is a natural gas compressor pumping station. This is confirmed on a topographic map (see the following link - http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm?mtlat=29.6253&mtlon=-94.19763&z=15). I couldn't identify the next one, but the third one from the left is Sea Rim State Park. Its website says it was still closed for repairs from Hurricane Rita, so who knows what further damage was done by Ike. I also couldn't identify the fourth site, but it is probably industrial to some extent. There appear to be a few houses there too, which is not surprising since it's only 3.5 miles SW of the community of Sabine Pass.