HOUSTON (AP) — Fourteen years after Hurricane Ike ripped through thousands of homes and businesses near Galveston, Texas — but mostly spared the region’s oil refineries and chemical plants — the U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to authorize the most expensive project ever recommended by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect against the next raging storm.
Ike erased beachfront neighborhoods, causing $30 billion in damage. But with so much of the nation’s petrochemical industry in the Houston-Galveston corridor, it could have been even worse. That close call inspired marine science professor Bill Merrell to first propose a massive coastal barrier to protect against a direct hit.
Now, the National Defense Authorization Act includes authorizations for a $34 billion plan that borrows from Merrell’s idea.
“It was quite different than anything we had done in the United States and it took us a little while to come around to it,” said Merrell of Texas A&M University at Galveston.
The House passed the $858 billion defense bill by a vote of 350-80. It includes major projects to improve the nation’s waterways and protect communities against floods made more severe by climate change.