Galveston City officials will not allow many of the houses damaged by Hurricane Ike to be rebuilt at ground level.

Property owners hoping to make repairs and get on with their lives likely will discover they have to do much more than replace some sheetrock. Their Homes will have to be rebuilt to current elevation.

Those with adequate insurance should be able to cover the cost of rebuilding, but with only 16,000 property owners carrying flood insurance, some will have a hard time coming up with the money to rebuild.

The island’s floodplain maps were adopted in the early 1970s. About two-thirds of island houses were built before that, so most structures sit at least one story below the base flood elevation, which varies in different parts of the city.

Homes that sustained more than 50 percent damage during and after Hurricane Ike will have to be rebuilt to the current elevation in their area - David Ewald, Galveston’s building official and floodplain administrator.

The minimum elevation is 11 feet, mostly east of 61st Street. In some places west of 61st Street, it’s as much as 13 feet.

Most of Galveston falls within two floodplain zones. Property owners in those zones who had mortgages were required to buy flood insurance.

But many of the city’s older homes have been in families for several generations, with no connection to a lending institution that would force the current owners to have coverage.

Unless the Federal Emergency Management Agency changes its rules, those property owners will not get any assistance from the government.

Parts of the East End near the University of Texas Medical Branch and a swath several blocks wide along the seawall is in Zone X, outside the floodplain. Federal officials say those property owners can apply for assistance, but they will have to carry flood insurance in the future. But they won’t have to rebuild at a higher elevation, Ewald said.

Owners of beach homes face another blow
Unless state law and moratorium are reformed, rebuilding on land now deemed 'on the public beach' won't be possible

By J. DAVID BREEMER Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

As everyone knows, Hurricane Ike dealt a devastating blow to property along the Gulf Coast. Many of the beach homes closest to the water were totally destroyed or severely damaged. Unfortunately for the owners of these homes, this may be just the beginning of their troubles.

Thanks to a state law, the Texas Open Beaches Act, there is another storm on the horizon that could do more lasting damage to private property than anything Ike could dish out.

This storm will be directed from Austin and has already begun with state officials surveying the coast to identify the new, inland location of the post-Ike vegetation line. As this line is determined, state beach access rules will convert massive swaths of previously private beachfront land into a public beach.

The recognition of a new inland boundary for the vegetation line will prevent the owners of destroyed homes forward of the vegetation from rebuilding, not because of safety, but because they are now "on the public beach." Surviving homes standing forward of the vegetation line will be at risk of removal as impediments to beach access. Private beachfront land will be opened for public recreation.

The General Land Office's recent declaration that it will refrain for a year from enforcing removal of homes newly on the beach does nothing for people whose homes were totally destroyed by Ike. If their land is seaward of the vegetation line, they cannot rebuild, period.
Moreover, the fact that the state says it won't instantly go after homes does not mean it has abandoned its legal right to do so. After 1998's Hurricane Frances, the state wrote personal letters to homeowners saying it would not remove their homes, but as soon as some of the owners challenged the taking of their land for beach, it reversed itself and attacked the homes. Nothing stops it from doing that again.
As long as state officials claim that any property seaward of the vegetation after Ike is public, any improvement on that land is at risk. Meanwhile state rules forbid the owners of homes in front of the vegetation line from telling trespassers to get off their property. Property values still implode and building is still forbidden.

To avoid blame for confiscating private property in Ike's wake, the state will claim that it is merely following the mandate of the Open Beaches Act. Not really.

As written, the 50-year-old law sets the beach at the vegetation line only where it is proven that the public previously had access to that area. But today, the state of Texas ignores the proof requirement. What's more, it asserts that the public beach "rolls" upland with an eroding vegetation line, no matter how far up onto private land it moves. But again, the act actually says nothing about a "rolling" beach.
By interpreting the act to make the vegetation line the boundary of the public beach, regardless of how deep into private development that line migrates, officials have created a set of rules that guarantees the state a windfall of property after every hurricane.
To heap injury upon injury, the state has made clear that it will not provide compensation to property owners whose land is turned into a public beach after Ike. According to officials, the U.S. Constitution simply does not apply seaward of the vegetation line.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson was right last year when he said that the 1950s-era law should be reassessed.

After Hurricane Ike, there is an even greater urgency.

The Constitution and basic decency demand that the state either provide just compensation when it raises its flag on private land the day after a storm, or reform the act. Unfortunately, because the state Legislature has shown no desire to impose restraints, justice may be left to the courts.

Breemer is a principal attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. He is a lead attorney in two cases currently challenging the constitutionality of Texas' enforcement of the Open Beaches Act on private property