$34 billion authorized for Ike Dike, construction aimed to protect Texas Coast from hurricane impact

GALVESTON, Texas (KTRK) — President Joe Biden signed the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act, offering almost $858 billion in navy funding.

Part of that, authorizing a $34 billion proposal to construct a system that may forestall main storm surges alongside the Texas coast.

“This was an enormous step within the authorization, a important one within the course of,” Brian D. Freedman, with the Bay Space Houston Financial Partnership, stated.

Freedman, president of the group champions Friday’s transfer, when Biden approved a $34 billion proposal that would come with constructing a storm surge safety system.

“So, now the main target is on the appropriation aspect of the equation and ensuring that there is funding to proceed to maneuver ahead,” Freedman stated.

He says it is an essential step within the battle to forestall main disasters from taking place just like the one we went by means of again in 2008.

“It was roughly $30 billion in harm in a hurricane, degree 3, and was the beginning of the Ike Dike idea,” Freedman stated.

In line with a Texas A&M professor, the idea could be an answer to defending the Galveston-Houston space from a storm surge catastrophe.

“The Houston space is dwelling to one of many world’s largest petrochemical complexes, an enormous portion of the navy’s jet aviation gas, industrial aviation gas, petrochemical merchandise that go into issues we use every single day throughout the nation,” Freedman defined.

Freedman says a disruption from a future hurricane like Hurricane Ike may have an enormous influence on the economic system and area and so safeguarding a beneficial asset just like the oil business is vital to the area’s growth.

“This mission would go a great distance in ensuring these industries are protected within the occasion of one other hurricane and might proceed to function,” he stated.

Leaders like U.S. Senator John Cornyn, who launched the laws to approve the mission, celebrated.

“The Coastal Backbone will present the important infrastructure wanted to guard our coastal communities and the industries that gas our state and nationwide economic system,” Cornyn stated.

And due to the authorization, the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers says it will probably now transfer ahead with planning on this main mission that can take years to finish.