Texas vs. The Sea
Houston faces a significant problem. The Galveston-Houston metro area often gets devastated by large-scale hurricanes. Examples include Hurricane Harvey (Category 4) in 2017, which caused over $125 billion in damages and over 100 deaths, and Hurricane Ike (Category 2), which caused over $30 billion in damages. One major consequence of hurricanes can be storm surges. Storm surges, defined by the National Hurricane Center as an "abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted astronomical tides," can cause large-scale flooding, erosion, and contamination. Houston struggles with storm surges; just last month, four people were killed in a Houston storm.
Now, how is hard tech trying to fix the Houston storm surge problem? Enter the Ike Dike project, a coastal barrier, the brainchild of @AggiesByTheSea professor William Merrell chair of the marine and coastal environmental science department.
What does the project encompass? The project has the potential to be the largest U.S. civil engineering project in history: 17-foot retaining walls, raising the coastal highways, bolstering the current Galveston seawall, and extending it along Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula. The entrance to Houston would be protected by flood gates, plus the Galveston ship channels and San Luis Pass (which sits between Galveston and San Luis Island).
Currently, there is a long way to go until the project gets full funding. Thus far, the Army Corps of Engineers has approved $500,000 of the $57 billion estimated to complete the project over 20 years. If full funding gets approved, we will see a Hoover Dam-esque infrastructure effort.