Watch a conversation on protecting Texas’ coastline

Hurricane season is here, and Texas is likely unprepared for another major catastrophe, experts said Tuesday.

More than 6 million Texans live along the 370-mile coast that is susceptible to hurricanes and tropical storms. And they need greater protection for the “new reality” that includes more intense storms due to climate change, said Kiersten Stanzel, executive director of the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program.

“The majority of Texans don’t think of us as a coastal state,” Stanzel said.

Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer and professor at Rice University, said the biggest issue is that Texans aren’t taking risks of climate change seriously.

“We pretend [the risks] are not serious. They will kill us,” Blackburn said.

Blackburn said Texans can’t rely on the past when it comes to hurricane responses. Climate change, he said, must be part of their calculus.

Houston, in particular, he said, should be reconsidering its plans for a major storm due to its proximity to chemical plants.

“We could see the worst environmental disaster in the United States history in the Galveston Bay area,” Blackburn said.

He added the state is not prepared because the leaders have not made it a political priority.

The center of the conversation was a proposed infrastructure plan known as the “Ike Dike,” a system of gates that would cross the mouth of Galveston Bay. The project is supposed to protect the Houston region from storm surges and has been coined as “one big solution.”

Blackburn said the project could be outdated by the time it's completed because the state has not taken climate change into consideration.

Kristen Schlemmer, the senior legal director and waterkeeper for Bayou City Waterkeeper, said her concerns are the growing cost of the infrastructure project and how long it will take to complete

“This 20-year timeline is really disturbing when you consider the risks it's trying to protect against,” Schlemmer said.

Schlemmer said the state could use the money from the project to find other quicker solutions.

State Rep. Todd Hunter, a Corpus Christi Republican, said the state should have a catastrophic plan for the coast.

Hunter added he would support any effort to help the state's coastline.

The hourlong conversation was be held at the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi campus.

Resources referenced during this Texas Tribune event

• Texas General Land Office (Coastal Management and Coastal Projects)
• Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
• What is windstorm insurance? (Texas Department of Insurance)

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