Built to Last

August and September are generally the peak months of a hurricane season, but that does not seem to shake South Padre Island's biggest development.

Richard Franke, a developer/broker with The Shores, a master planned community, said the houses and condominiums in the development were designed to withstand water surges in the event a major hurricane hits this part of the Texas Gulf Coast.

"I think the structures at The Shores will do quite well even though we don't want to see a bad storm hitting us here," he said. "Everything we have here is built on pilings and structurally engineered to sustain a big impact."

The ground floor of each condo and house in the development might look like any building constructed on the Island, but there is a difference from most.

Each is designed with a breakaway wall that will come apart if a big surge hits the development such as the surges that happened last year at Galveston Island with Hurricane Ike.

The walls of the ground floor are constructed with masonry brick and have no concrete or reinforced steel unlike the subsequent floors of each house or condo.

He said that it's a known factor that anytime water repeatedly hits a structure, it tends to cause greater damage.

"But if the water goes through, the damage is minimal," he said. "The ground floor of every building at The Shores is anywhere from eight to ten feet high."

Franke said buildings with breakaway walls have been around for a while in other hurricane-prone parts of the country like in Florida.

Although the concept has been approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, it's up to the individual communities to participate in the program.

By the same token, National Flood Insurance Program regulations require that a participating community adopt flood plain management ordinances to ensure that new and improved buildings be elevated above the flood zone on foundations consisting of piles, posts, piers and columns.

Open foundations can also be used but must be designed to allow waves of water to move at a high velocity. The breakaway walls will also serve the same function.

A breakaway wall, for instance, should be built to sustain a force of no less than 10 pounds and no more than 20 pounds per square foot.

Franke said in the event of a storm surge the buildings at The Shores are designed to allow water to flow through once a wall is down.

He repeatedly said that no one wants to see a major hurricane or storm hitting South Padre Island.

Nevertheless, Franke said they are prepared if a catastrophic act of Mother Nature gets here.

He said the Town of South Padre Island does not require developers to put breakaway walls, but it is a requirement at The Shores.

Franke said Hurricane Dolly, which barely was a category one storm, caused a lot of damage at the Island, which would be multiplied by a bigger storm.

A year after Dolly's winds and rains battered the Island, two of the major hotels are still closed and many other buildings are currently undergoing repairs from the damages caused by the July 2008 storm.

"A structure should be as functional as it can be," he said. "All the buildings at The Shores, including Los Corrales have breakaway walls."

Los Corrales is the 84-unit condominium project under construction at The Shores. The development has some 20 houses, while another eight others are under construction.