Inside the Moon
Spotting Rip Currents A3
Surfing the Storm A4
The
Issue 583
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
June 18, 2015
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
Tropical Bill and the Storm blew through town this week on a two-day engagement. They only know two songs; Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head and Green Grass and High Tides. We Islanders spent the better part of Bill’s engagement answering phone calls. “Are you alright?” “Well, I think so. Do you know something I don’t know?”
Smoke on the Water and Fire in the Sky Controlled burn on spoil island will announce the approach of the Fourth of July fireworks show
“Well, the weather guy said you guys were hit by a hurricane.” “Oh, that. Well, we live at sea level whatever falls from the sky runs right into the ocean. Our flooding comes mostly from busted water pipes.” “But 60 mile an hour winds!?” “That’s a weak northern.” Nothing gets the weather wonks worked up like a tropical storm. Every time it rains in Edna they put The Island under Defcon 3. Such is life.
Skeeter Dance After months of standing water we are starting to see the mosquitoes cloud Island air. We have been wondering when the Skeeter Hoard would put in an appearance. With all the standing water it’s a wonder they haven’t been carrying off small Island dogs. We want to give a shout out to city crews who for the past few months have been dropping antimosquito pellets into Island storm drains. When it rains the drains fill up with standing water and become host to mosquito parties which usually fill the air with a cloud of mosquitos. The pellets have been very effective in keeping the mosquito population down and we Islanders love having to practice our Skeeter Dance. Anything that reduces the viscosity of the surface of standing water throws the mosquitoes off their reproductive game and the pellets have been a big help. One Islander suggested that wearing polyester is a good mosquito repellent because it’s like wearing a plastic bag and doesn’t give off a heat signature to attract the little buggers. That may or may not be true but hey, dude, you’re wearing polyester and sweating into your socks. Maybe it’s not the heat signature the skeeters don’t like, maybe they just don’t want to be around anyone wearing polyester. We’re just saying…
Snapper Season It has been said by folks wiser than us that anybody can mess things up, but if you want to create a hot mess you must involve Big Government. Never was that more true than when it comes to the rules for this year’s ten-day season for recreational fisherpersons to catch red snapper in federal waters. A few years ago the feds, in their infinite and desultory wisdom came up with some numbers that they believe are the optimal sustainable levels for red snapper in Gulf waters – nine miles or more offshore. Suffice it to say there is great disagreement between the feds and the states along the Gulf Coast. The federal season for private anglers in federal waters ended last week with the commercial season extended to July 15. In Texas waters – nine miles out or less – Texans can keep four snapper each and fish all summer. We won’t get into details on the size of keepers in state and federal waters, we’ll just say this; when it comes to rules for snapper in federal waters the feds are like a baby with a hammer. They flail about with arbitrary rules which don’t
Around continued on A6
Island Blast
If you see smoke on the water and fire in the sky on Thursday or Friday, June 25 or 26, don’t call the fire department because they will already be there.
Last year’s second annual Island Blast 4th of July Fireworks Show got a little extra boost in the “fire” department when the falling embers from the show set the spoil island across from the launch site on fire. The launch site at the end of Whitecap is just across the channel from the spoil island, which has now grown back lusher than ever, and to prevent that from happening again organizer Jerry Watkins in conjunction with Flour Bluff Fire Department Deputy Chief Fire J.P. Hominick and Zambelli Fireworks, which puts on the show, have made arrangements with city and state authorities to do a controlled burn at 6:30 a.m. on the Thursday or Friday before the show. The exact day will depend on weather conditions.
Sports A8
Texas 200 A7
Turtles A16
Live Music A18
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Photo by Miles Merwin
First Storm of 2015 Hurricane Season Glances Off The Island Tropical storm Bill blew across The Island this week bringing high tides which closed area beaches to vehicular traffic and giving surfers three days of unusually good waves. Bill made landfall dropped 12 inches of rain on some parts of the Upper Texas Coast sending waves crashing into the seawall in Galveston. Here on The Island water levels reached halfway up the Michael J. Ellis Seawall and pushed up over Island beach access roads and to the dune line from Port Aransas to the Padre Island National Seashore. The 60 mph winds which Bill packed up the coast never materialized in our area and the first rain bands of the storm, which were heavier in Port Aransas than on Padre Island, passed through the area before dawn on Wednesday and were gone by early afternoon.
On Packery Channel the highest water reached to within three feet of the top of the jetties and filled marsh flats around the island with tidal water. Winds from Bill were minimal.
The National Hurricane Center has predicted a light 2015 Hurricane Season due to the presence of the El Nino system in the Pacific Ocean.
Park Road 22 Motion authorizing the City Manager or designee to execute a construction contract with J.S. Haren Company of Athens, Tennessee in the amount of $196,000 for the City-Wide Lift Station Repairs Section 4 Lift Station Odor Control for the total Base Bid.
We look forward to the fix but as for now, stinking is believing, so until further notice roll up your windows and hold your nose.
Traffic Accident Causes Sinkhole on Whitecap
How it began The 4th of July parade began 16 years ago as the brainchild of
Fireworks continued on A6
Hurricane History Notable Storms That Hit the Gulf Coast in June and July Editor’s note: The arrival of Tropical Storm Bill this week the hurricane season is on the minds of Islanders. June storms in our area are rare but do happen. Here is a look back at June storms over the years.
Hurricane Audrey 1957 Audrey was first detected over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico on June 24. It moved slowly northward as it became a tropical storm and a hurricane the next day. A faster northward motion brought the center to the coast near the TexasLouisiana border on the 27th. Rapid strengthening in the last six hours before landfall meant Audrey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. The cyclone turned northeastward after landfall, becoming extratropical over northern Mississippi on June 28 and merging with another low over the Great Lakes the next day. The combined system was responsible for strong winds and heavy rains over portions of the eastern United States and Canada. No reliable wind or pressure measurements are available from Audrey’s core at landfall. The main impact was from 8 to 12 ft storm surges that penetrated as far inland as 25 miles over portions of lowlying southwestern Louisiana. These surges were responsible for the vast majority of the 390 deaths from Audrey. Damage in the United States was estimated at $150 million.
Hurricane continued on A15
A week after our story on the Cruiser Pump Station/Stink Factory which has been fouling the air along Whitecap for years we got this missive from city hall. 38. 15-0563 Engineering Construction Contract for CityWide Lift Station Repairs Section 4 and Lift Station Odor Control located at Whitecap Boulevard and
Took out the fire hydrant Then on Saturday evening a driver going westbound on Whitecap jumped the curb and took out the
Whitecap continued on A3
A Little Island History
A Look Back at Hurricane Ike
Editor’s Note: This week’s near miss by Tropical Storm Bill reminds us that while a mild hurricane season is predicted for 2015, it is an active hurricane season if the only storm of the year hits your house. Before Hurricane Ike turned north and slammed into the Houston area it was headed straight for The Island and many of us ran for higher ground. It pushed tides over the top of the Michael J. Ellis Seawall and left a sand deposit between the Packery Channel Jetties that two subsequent dredgings failed to remove completely and which is still a factor in maintaining the channel depth. This look back was done by U.S. Army engineers with a focus on how a storm surge effects structures along the coast. The entire report can be found on the website Port Aransas resident Dr. Richard Watson. By Nicholas C. Kraus, Ph.D., and Lihwa Lin, Ph.D. U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory On Saturday, 13 September 2008, Hurricane Ike made an earlymorning landfall near Galveston, killing scores of people in Texas
Flood damage by surge on structure facing the Gulf of Mexico, but more than 1,500 ft (450 m) from the beach. and other U.S. states (as well as in Haiti and Cuba). The hurricane caused billions of dollars of damage to property, reduced the tax bases of several counties and cities, blocked federal navigation chan¬nels of national interest, and ultimately led to the loss of thousands of jobs. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported that about 1.9 million people evacuated prior to Hur¬ricane Ike.
Texas Coast, defined for this story runs from the Sabine Pass to the city of Freeport.
2008 Hurricane Season for Texas The eye of Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston at 2:10 am local time (Central Daylight time) on Saturday, 13
History continued on A5