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Photo credit: USGS
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USNORTHCOM is the organizational unit of the US military that
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href="http://www.northcom.mil/News/2008/091308I.html">Religious
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Yikes indeed! I figure around 200+ houses just wiped clean away in that one picture.
I have seen about a dozen photos of coastal damage and assuming I was looking at the foundations and supports for hundreds of dwellings, I am amazed by the absense of huge piles of debris inland.
Where did that massive amount of material go? Was it washed out to sea?
John McCormick
More before and after comparisons are at the USGS site from which this pair were drawn. It's frightening to contemplate the results if the eye were to have made landfall 15 or 20 miles further west. Had that happened, I'm not so sure Galveston's 17 foot seawall would have helped. As it is, almost all the piers along that seawall, some of which have stood for more than half a century (I know because I used to visit them as a kid in the 1940's and '50's), were obliterated.
Holy schnIKE. That is the definition of "wiped off the map" in an indisputable way. I can't believe how little news there is lately about the aftermath. I guess the stock market roller coaster trumps natural disasters.
Those pictures are just another reminder of why people should not build homes on barrier islands.
Interestingly, one of the houses that remained standing from Ike was one that was rebuilt in 2006 to withstand a Cat5 hurricane.
So building standards (and codes) can make a huge difference.
Of course, a big enough storm surge will wipe out anything in its path, but a lot of the houses that fall apart do so due to wind -- because they are under-constructed or simply poorly constructed (no hurricane ties holding the house to the foundation, holding the roof to the house, etc).