Galveston struggles for survival

Christian Science Monitor:

This island city has a long history of rebounding from nature's most devastating blows. It withstood the hurricane of 1900, the country's deadliest ever, and is in the midst of picking up the pieces after hurricane Ike's furious assault in September.

But Galvestonians didn't expect the next storm. Last month the city's largest employer, the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), announced it was laying off 3,800 people and would downsize the teaching hospital that is a central part of Galveston's economy.

"We can get back from Ike because there's a will to do it. It's what I call the Galveston spirit," says the city's mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas. "But UTMB was like dropping a bomb on the community."

The convergence of natural and economic disasters is forcing the city to search for new answers, especially in the midst of a national recession. It will take a reinvention, say many in this city known for its pluck.

"We anticipate a year or two of struggles from Ike, but you lay on top of that the recession and the outlook looks bleak," says Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc. "Galveston will come back in a different form."

Exactly what form it takes is the big question reverberating all over town.

Ike hit the city's tourism industry, its active port, and the UTMB medical facility hard. The Strand historic district, a major attraction, remains in tatters and few businesses have reopened. The port needs millions of dollars to recover and the hospital's island campus was besieged with floodwaters, adding up to $710 million in damages.

University officials say the layoffs are necessary to save the medical campus, which has the state's largest indigent care facility.

Mr. LeBlanc says the storm losses have the city looking for other alternatives – such as casino gambling. It's a moneymaker that has helped other coastal communities, such as Biloxi, Miss., cope with chronic hurricane problems. But just the thought of it has caused a tsunami of criticism here.

"Once again, the quick-fix boys are trying to promote casino gambling as an answer to Galveston's economic problems," wrote Galveston businessman Harris "Shrub" Kempner Jr. in Sunday's Galveston County Daily News. "The promoters typically wait for a period when Galveston has economic difficulties and then attempt to promote gambling as a cure for all our ills."

It's been two months since the 425-mile-wide storm crossed over Galveston in the early morning hours of Sept. 13. The storm killed at least 37 people in Texas and caused an estimated $8.1 billion in insurance losses. In Galveston alone, about 75 percent of the housing stock was damaged.

The city is still spotted with piles of debris from one end to the other. About 60 percent of the island's 57,000 residents have returned, according to city officials. Many are now struggling with their own questions about whether to restore homes, tear them down and start from scratch, or leave the island altogether.

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The smart money left Galveston after the 1900 hurricane and moved to Houston. The rebuilt Galveston then was raised six feet or more with mud dredged from the Houston Ship Channel with would lead to the decline of its port operations. There are some wonderful old homes in Gaveston that survived the 1900 storm and probably they make up the bulk of those that survived Ike.

One of Galveston's problems is the so called island spirit is very exclusive. It is driven by the BOI mentality. If you were not born on the island, you have little chance upward mobility in Galveston. This means they run off a lot of talented people and many who are left really need an indigent care hospital.

As for the gambling, Galveston has tried it before, illegally. It was shut down in the late 1950s by the state attorney general and state law enforcements. One of the casualties of Ike was an old "ballroom" built over the Gulf at the end of a long pier. The design allowed the managers to hide the gambling by the time the police got to the end of pier and entered the "ballroom." Illegal gambling did not make Galveston prosperous and I have my doubts about legal gambling doing so.