Good bye Crystal Beach

We have, or rather HAD, a house out there. NASA has released some photos, and we've seen the lot... nothing there, not even wreckage.
 
I actually thought it was one of the prettiest and cleanest beaches in Texas.

I'm going fishing at PINS in a couple of weeks and I'm sure the debris will make driving down the beach quite an adventure.
 
Growing up in SE Texas we'd go down to Crystal Beach quite often. Some of the before and after pics I've seen of Gilchrist are unbelievable.

Just Sad.
 
My uncle is from Gilchrist. Bo Bo Faggard. Spent many a summer down there including this last one. His three brothers and oldest son rode out the storm at High Island. Heard from two different sources that it's a lot worse down there than the media is letting on. Most of the old timers did not leave and now they are gone. A local official thinks there were around 500 people that stayed. May never know how many were lost.
 
Holy ****...that 2nd photo is simply amazing. I mean wow..

My wife's family rented one of those houses for a week about a month ago. We went down for a few days...cannot believe all of that is completely gone now. Just incredible.
 
What's still so hard to get my head around.

A tropical wave forms off the coast of Africa, and comes ashore directly over the town of Galveston.

Growing up in Texas City, I spent half my life in Crystal Beach, Galveston, Bolivar....etc. I can't believe it's mostly gone.
Going through Alicia as a child (that storm made me a weather freak), I can't believe the pictures that I am seeing.

truly unbelieveable. Thank god Texas City has floodgates.

Does anyone know if the Stingaree Restaurant is gone now?The Link

I imagine it is.
 
click on the Bolivar destruction video on the OP's link. Stingaree's still standing, but definitely took a beating.
 
my dad just finished his retirement house one lot from the beach on bolivar in may. it's still standing and is now beachfront.
 
I'm glad you father's house made it but I was speaking with my dad and apparently the property lines could be all messed up. With the beach being public property he said that new property lines might be established wherever the new vegetation line is. Wonder if he might be affected by that.
 
i wonder how Gaido's faired on the strip in Galveston. man i love their seafood. always went there as a kid with the family.
 
my in-laws had a house in gilchirst. they were 2nd lot back, behind the 'sea wall' (concrete pipe running parallel with the waterline)..

from this image, if the land is still theirs, it seems it might be there, but it might also be the beach now.

20080915_145038d.jpg
 
I posted this same info in the IKE thread. My mom has a house on Crystal Beach and through aerial photos, we have determined it's still there but has extensive damage.

The house was on Martinique in the Sandpiper subdivision. Her realtor (Cobb Realty) was wiped out and he is right on 87. My mom's house is two streets from the water (4th row of houses). Her neighbor's house is completely gone, as are all the houses on the water. All you see in the photos are the slabs.

Eventually, we will get down there to actually see the place.
 
New homes in Galveston County have to be built to a code that is designed to make them withstand 120 mph winds. It's why most of the houses you see that are standing in an otherwise wiped out area are new.
 
Gaido's set up tables on the sidewalk yesterday to feed the clean-up workers in Galveston, so they are still there.
Saw a feature on that second house, and it is built to very strict standards for storm survival.
Galveston County officials are saying Bolivar will be rebuilt, there was talk of demolishing it all and making it a national or state park (I would have liked to see that, but property owners may not have been too happy). Any house with over 50% damage is considered a loss, and must have a new construction building permit.
Because of the new shoreline, some houses may now be too close to the dune line, and may be condemned. There may be new codes required for reconstruction or new construction, like the features in the second house on this thread. I think some of the features were the size of the pilings, exterior siding inside and outside the wall framing, and the shape of the roofline more accepting of heavy winds, probably a lot of other things, but can't remember them all.
 
I went to Crystal Beach on Saturday to check on my mom's home. It was the first time anyone in my family got a chance to go down there and look around. Words and pictures can not describe what I saw. The only way to truly understand the devastation is to be there in person.

My mom's area has a lot of damage, but some houses are still there (like my mom's). That said, the saddest part was seeing people looking at their homes and all they were looking at was flat ground. The Gilchrist area had absolutely nothing. Not even the piers. Everything was completely flat.
 
Our family beach house of 25+ years is GONE. Nothing left but crumbled concrete.

Somehow, the fact that it is totally gone seems to be better than having a half ruined, inaccessible, mold infested structure to clean up and fight with the insurance companies over.

Thankfully, my parents seem to be at peace, and being the prudent folks they are, they had both flood and windstorm coverage.

I know that strong people do not become overly emotionally attached to things and places. I guess I am not strong. I am deeply and perhaps selfishly saddened by our loss, and by the loss (at least for a long while) of a truly quirky, quaint and peaceful place.



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