Harvey vs. Ike
In Sept 2008 Ike made landfall in N. Galveston as a Cat 2 with sustained winds of 110 mph, a 950 mbar, and a surge topping the seawall of 17". Unfortunately the odds of a catastrophic surge, exceeding the damage caused by Ike, occurring in the the Corpus Christi/ Galveston Bay area currently appear to be very high. A 25 ft. surge could float tanks spilling up to 90 mm gal and damage refinery infrastructure not to mention the environmental costs. from https://www.bakerinstitute.org/media/files/files/874d3358/CES-pub-HurricaneProtection-111015.pdf Hurricane Ike came ashore at the point where Galveston Bay connects with the Gulf of Mexico, meaning that the worst of the hurricane storm surge (the “dirty” side of the storm) affected the less developed areas east of Galveston Bay. Nonetheless, although the peak surge was only 12 to 14 feet above mean sea level in Galveston Bay (compared to east of Galveston Bay, where a surge as high as 17 feet occurred) For the most part, the