Pictures of IKE

[Rick Hurst]

Check out these photos.

The short - but eventful - life of Ike - The Big Picture - Boston.com

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[Ted Menelly]

Picture 11 is a very serious picture.

Kind of like the old movie the last man on earth.

The entire ocean front is missing altogether.

Those are some serious pictures

Thats a lot different than the flood of Katrina with the homes being under water. Damn there just are not any homes in some places.

[Jerry Peck]

Picture 11 is a very serious picture.

How about Photo 13?

Like the house in Photo 11, one lonely house by itself, yet at opposite ends of the destruction spectrum:

In Photo 11, there is *nothing*else left around it.

In Photo 13, there is *everything* else piled around it.

[Jeff Spencer]

I just got back from evacuation and, miraculously, the lights are back on. I was blessed with essentially no damage other than a consistent 8-inch pile of sticks and leaves from one end of the yard to the other. My satellite dish was spun 180 degrees, one light on the garage turned sideways, one fence picket broken and one hinge on the hot tub enclosure broken. I guess I'll have to wait for my FEMA card to get it all fixed????

Contrast that with Surfside Beach, located about 7 miles northwest of where I live. The devastation is unbelievable. Reviewing pictures posted at Flickr: adamdevaney's Photostream I can identify at least a dozen houses I inspected in the last year, all of them extensively damaged. On at least 5, I cautioned buyers about concrete curbing installed around pilings, which for those not accustomed to coastal construction, is a sure sign the pilings were rotted at grade. Keep in mind as you look at the pictures that we ended up on the "clean" side of the storm with onshore winds that were between 90 and 98 mph, but with a storm surge that exceeded 15 feet.

While I sympathize with many over their losses, their zeal to own beachfront property in many cases overcame common sense -- they ended up investing in structures that could not withstand a minor tropical storm, much less a hurricane with a 15 foot storm surge. Below are some pictures of the last house I inspected a week ago Tuesday before evacuating -- asking price $258,000. It is located on Chocolate Bayou about 6 miles inland. I can't get back into the area to see if it is still standing but hopefully mother nature forced the decision before my client foolishly commited a large portion of his life savings for this retirement residence, as the pictures and anything I told him did not dissuade him from buying at the time of inspection.

Jeff

[Eric Shuman]

While I sympathize with many over their losses, their zeal to own beachfront property in many cases overcame common sense -- they ended up investing in structures that could not withstand a minor tropical storm, much less a hurricane with a 15 foot storm surge.
Jeff

Jeff, not only that, but many of these people built their homes directly on the beach or directly adjacent to it and under Texas law, once the beach is eroded to a certain extent, the homes are left in the public right of way and cannot be re-built and the land is forfeited, and unlike emminent domain, they are not likely to recieve any compensation from the government for the ceded property. Of course any one who purchased homes or built homes in these zones were required to sign a document prior to closing that acknowledges that this is a possibility.

I too sympathize with these folks and their losses, and I don't care much for gov't seizing private property, but I would never purchase property in these zones knowing the risk and frequency of hurricanes on our coastline.

Another point somewhat relative to our industry is that there is a good chance that the homes that have withstood the storms are likely newer homes that were built under newer more stringent codes designed for coastal areas.

Eric

[Jeff Spencer]

Eric,

One positive is that beginning Sept. 1, construction was prohibited within an area that is 6 times the rate of erosion, i.e., if erosion is 60 feet per year, a house cannot be built within 360 feet of the mean high tide line in the affected area. Honestly, I'm not sure that the zone is large enough from what I've seen.

Prior to Ike many of the builders, realtors and property owners in beach communities near me were griping about this new law -- many of those complaining had houses condemned because of prior erosion and to them, this was one more government grab of their property. I'm sure someone has already launched a lawsuit to stop enforcement. I've inspected numerous beachfront homes where, up until this, permits could be obtained to bulldoze dunes for homesites as long as mitigation was conducted in other areas. Now, from Surfside Beach to Galveston Island, there's no dunes left to bulldoze.

You are right that many of the surving homes are built to newer post-Andrew construction standards. However, many of the newer ones failed due to lax interpretation and execution of those standards, and this area has been incredibly slow to adopt and enforce many of the guidelines that other areas, such as Florida, have had in place for years. In my area, there is rarely any AHJ and standards are left up to the builder; for instance, code enforcement in Surfside Beach was a part-time job for the village secretary who had absolutely no code training whatsoever. As a result, homes were built seaward of the mean high tide line, dunes were improperly removed, and new houses were built with numerous critical defects. Many builders located to my area because of this, and their quality was usually haphazard at best.

Homeowners are getting an education in construction standards. All they have to do is look at the extensive damage to thier homes, while those of their builders, located only a couple hundred feet away, emerged relatively unscathed. Wonder why?????

Jeff