Nueces County 350' rule left new development ok

Of course, Nueces County didn't get that much storm surge compared to where Ike hit.

Jennifer Smith-Engle, a Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi scientist who advises the Nueces County Beach Management Committee, said most of the eroded dunes she saw were in areas where beach cleaning crews piled sand and sargassum in front of naturally formed dunes. Nobody expected those piles with sargassum to do well in a storm because they had little vegetation on top.

Nueces County Commissioner Chuck Cazalas, whose precinct includes Padre and Mustang island beaches, said Tortuga Dunes' performance in the storm surge has him breathing a sigh of relief. Before the storm, he was listening to academics and citizens debate whether the dunes and their vegetation would hold up.