The Port of Galveston sustained some $100 million in damages from Hurricane Ike.

FEMA's Long- Term Community Recovery program worked with the City of Galveston to develop a plan to revitalize the port and increase its economic viability.

Craig Marston
Economic Development Focus Group 

Prior to Hurricane Ike the port of Galveston had some very old infrastructure built mostly during World War II and as such it was particularly susceptible to the damage from the storm. The storm caused more damage than you would normally expect within the port. 

Bernie Curran
Director of Administration 
Port of Galveston

The surge that was coming in, the possibility that we would have had a twenty foot surge, on this property that we are standing on. It didn't turn out to be twenty-one feet at this location, but we had at least 5 feet of water above the dock. Many of the facilities, like the one we're standing now was constructed in 1927, some of them prior to 1912. So the infrastructure of the port, which is very important to the city is old and needs to be remodeled or modernized, improved upon, and definitely repaired.

Craig Marston
Economic Development Focus Group 

Existing facilities, there's not much upland property, because it buts right up against downtown Galveston , and we've got some property on Pelican Island, a hundred acres that is undeveloped, that would be ideal for it. This is the port of Galveston, the lower portion of the map is actually Galveston Island, and the upper portion of the map is actually Pelican Island, which is a spoil island that developed from digging the channels and around the Galveston/ Houston area. You've got a ship repair facility located here on port property, you've got Texas A&M, Port Galveston located here, and so as you can tell from the map there is a lot of undeveloped property here that can be utilized as excellent access to water and it's currently not generating economic returns for the city. One of the problems with taking a discreet area and wanting to develop it is that there is a lot of interaction with other agencies. On Pelican Island the access to it is by a very old bridge, and it's a bridge that was damaged during the storm, and it has its own reporting structure and there's a separate government agency that oversees that, and so what are project intends to do is bring together all the different stakeholders that would have some say or some piece of developing this board to ensure that all of their capital improvement plans are consistent.

Betty Massey
Chairwoman, Galveston Community
Recovery Committee

Without FEMA as sort of their shaping structure, I'm not sure how we would have gotten through this process. They brought organization, they brought technical expertise, they certainly brought knowledge, funding sources, they brought just the sheer clerical piece of keeping this committee organized and in communication with one another was not something we as a community we could adsorb. I mean our planning department was stretched as it was with the number of permits and inspections and that kind of thing.

Craig Marston
Economic Development Focus Group 

This is an opportunity for us to get all the stakeholders together, under the opuses of this being a FEMA project identified that's been important for Galveston. This would not have happened on its own with the community, it certainly would not of had this widespread involvement and it wouldn't have been as well organized. We wouldn't have made as much progress as we did so it's an excellent purpose.

FEMA's Long-Term Community Recovery Program Helping Communities Come Back Better, Safer and Smarter. 

For more information visit www.fema.gov