During Tropical Storm Alberto in June 2024,some of bulkheads along the canals of Padre Island on Cuttysark St and Cutlass Ave failed ,which caused severe damage to some neighbor's properties. After months of repair work led by the Padre Isles Property Owners Association (PIPOA), the executive director says the almost $600,000 repair work is complete as of February 2025.
“I have to say, we’re finished with it. We’re finished with the two properties that had the most damage from Tropical Storm Alberto," PIPOA Executive Director Rick McGinley said.
The engineering design work and planning for how to repair the bulkheads was complete in October 2024. Contractors from Eagle Shore Services and C&J Remodeling worked on fixing the bulkheads from October through February.
“There’s an old saying. You know that says, we never fail to meet a revised schedule. And before people laugh at that, you have to consider that there’s always something that pops up that you haven’t planned on," McGinley said.
Back in October, McGinley originally said he wanted the repair work to be complete before the end of 2024. However, the contractors experienced an obstacle while they were doing the repairs that set them back a little bit.
“Another failed bulkhead that was underneath the surface, we didn’t anticipate that. It appears to be an artifact left over from the early 80s, vintage, hurricane where they may have had some bulkhead damage there, and it just fell over, and they left it," McGinley said.
McGinley said the construction could have been completed sooner if it wasn't for the wrench in the plan of leftover bulkhead material being found underneath the surface.
“There is the new bulkhead. There is the old bulkhead, and then there is the one that the POA also added to shore up the property until the design work was done. And the new bulkhead is about one foot higher than the old one," McGinley said.
Island neighbors still can't help but wonder if the new bulkhead will hold up during future tropical storms and hurricanes.
"So, we got a lot of confidence in that. If that should wash away, then we would have to re-attack what are priorities are because we’re obviously not getting it," McGinley said.
McGinley said the next step for the PIPOA is to conduct a bathymetric study by putting a submarine in the canals just North of where the damage occurred to collect high-definition photos, which will be studied to hopefully avoid any future bulkhead failure.
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
Catch all the KRIS 6 News stories and more on our YouTube page. Subscribe today!
