Seagate Hurricane Survival Plan

I lived at Bal Harbour when Alicia struck. That was August 18, 1983. Seagate was just in the planning stages. My daughter lived next door at Natchez Landing in one of the water front apartments. Around 10 PM they fled to our home to spend the night with us.

The storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico about 300 miles southeast of Galveston. We had less that 36 hours warning. Alicia made landfall near Freeport and took a pretty straight course for Downtown Houston. It went in between Hwy 288 and I45 most of the time. That course placed Clear Lake and all of Galveston bay on the ‘Dirty” side of the storm.

Alicia

There was some structural damage to houses, mainly roofs and chimneys, many fallen trees. The storm surge at the west end of Clear lake was 9’4”. Very few homes were affected by rising water. Alicia was a level 3 Hurricane.

Most of the damage in our area was to boats and marinas. I watched for a while just before the height of the storm. Hurricane force winds from the East created large choppy waves that broad sided the boats in the harbor. So severe was the rocking action that dock lines chafed through and broke.

There was so little warning time that most of the boats were not moved from Bal Harbour and the Hilton. Of the 100 boats at Bal Harbour 20 were moved to the canals behind the units.

Of the 80 left behind all but one small sailboat broke loose from their moorings.

About 60 ended up on the lawns of Bal Harbor, or in the two swimming pools or leaning against the mansion. The remaining 19 were impaled on the pilings and sank in the harbor.

The boats that were behind in the canal fared well.
Note the tops of the 10 foot pilings.
This was Alicia High water.

My boat suffered little damage a torn zipper on the sailcover
and the hatch blew open and let rain in.

The Seagate Situation

The Seagate Marina is less vulnerable than Bal Harbour. We are located on the North side of the Lake and all of the occupied slips are back from the shore line. We get considerable protection from the buildings around the marina for wind and waves in all directions but the South. Remember the waves that did the damage at Bal Harbour came from the East. We have good wave protection West, North and East. We have good wind protection West and East.

At the recent Hurricane preparedness briefing I had opportunity to discuss our situation with the Harbormaster of South Shore and with the Weather man from the local NOAA Office in League City. Both made presentations. They both observed that we had a good chance of weathering a storm because of our protected location. Winds from the South and West don’t happen until after landfall, and they are usually weakened by the landfall.

I felt greatly relieved by these observations from two recognized experts. That’s the Good News. The Bad News is that a repeat of Alicia would flood all of the storage lockers and all of the automobiles parked beneath our homes. Except under Units 601 and 602.

To get a perspective on how the Alicia flood would look at Seagate do the following.
Go out to the marina and line your eyes up on the tops of all the tall pilings. The tops of the pilings are 10’ off the water. Remember, Alicia had a 9’4” high water. Everything you see above the tops of the pilings would be dry. Everything below the piling line would be under water.

All of our homes were constructed after Alicia and all have the first floor living area well above the Alicia storm surge. It would take a level 5 storm to threaten the first floors of our homes.

Here are some elevations I shot by eye the other day: Measurements are approximate height above the mean high tide.

Garage floor levels highest to lowest :

Units 601-602    10’10”
Units 603-604    8’10”
Building 700        7’2”
Building 300        6’10”
Units 605-610     6’10”
Building 400         6’4”
Building 500        6 feet

Other elevations:

Swimming and Tennis   10’8”
Nasa Road One Center   10’4”
Sidewalk on Nasa One    9’6”
Parking lot at Emily’s     10’ 6”
Seagate Exit Gate       8’

Precautions     Remove vulnerable items from storage locker
                        Park car by Emily’s, if you plan to stay.
                        Move indoors, or securely lash down, things which could be blown about.
                        Things like: porch furniture, trash cans, small boats, potted plants.

There are much more complete Hurricane Guides about safeguarding your life and property than presented here. I have focused on the peculiarities of the Seagate situation and the Marina. For a useful broad treatment you might pick up one of the free Hurricane preparedness guides at Home Depot.

Marina Plan

All smaller Boats and Personal Watercraft that have trailers should be removed from the marina.
We will provide as much warning as we can.

All Boat owners who can get space at other marinas are encouraged to do so. (I was unable to get a slip arrangement for my 48 foot Motor Yacht at South Shore. He had some smaller slips.)

The Sailboats who rent here are welcome to stay in their current slips. The slips are oriented North-South so there should be minimum wave action problems.

The Docking Plan for the larger boats in the Marina has been discussed with the individual owners. Boats will be reassigned slips so each Boat will have a doublewide slip. Boats should be secured to float in the middle of the slip at an angle pointing toward the lake. The angle will reduce the broadside rocking motion from waves coming into the marina off the lake. The angle wise tie off will provide six pilings to work with. It is recommended that you tie bitter ends to the far pilings and adjust slack on the boat for these lines. Lines leading to the shore side pilings may be done either way. It may be easier to adjust lines from the shore end than boarding the boat to adjust lines.

Short line runs should be avoided; they may pull the boat under if the line is too tight and the water rises to the top of the piling. Where possible use a long run to do the job.

You may choose to tie long spring lines to the top of the piling above the riser.
The preferred method is to use the attachment rings on the riser.
Make sure your lines do not interfere with the riser rings.
Finally, remove power cords and water hoses; service will be shut off when the water starts to rise, and they will be just another hazard.

The West Marine catalog makes recommendations on the size of lines appropriate to your boat. They also provide information on chafe reducing gear. I plan to have at least one line on every cleat (that’s nine on Remedy). Some cleats on the Lake side may have two lines out.

We ask all members of the community to pitch in with the Hurricane preparations. Board members and volunteers are willing to help. But Property Owners are responsible for securing their own property, and may be held liable for damage they cause.

Planned configuration of the Marina. One boat occupies two slips pointing on angle toward the lake.
Lines Shown in red by touching up the photo.

Bow View

Here is a boat tied with Long lines to allow the boat to rise above the tops of the pilings.

Starbord Mid cleat line runs to top of piling off to the left.

Starboard aft cleat goes to a distant riser.

More views showing the long lines. This allows the boat to rise and fall with the tides through a wide range. The boat cannot hit any of the pilings as long as the lines hold.

Hurricane Ike Visits Seagate

Pictures taken By Bill Berg