HOUSTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Some Texas officials say there will be second thoughts about rebuilding along the coastline where Hurricane Ike came ashore.
The hurricane battered homes and businesses in areas where state officials had earlier proposed limiting construction to prevent beach erosion.
The Houston Chronicle said Tuesday while coastal communities have staunchly opposed restrictions, the damage done by Ike has reinvigorated the debate.
"We now have a graphic example of why you should build as far away from the dunes as possible," Jerry Patterson, the state's land commissioner, said Monday after an aerial inspection of the coast.
The newspaper said Ike also postponed a $13.5 million sand restoration project for a 3-mile stretch of beach in Galveston, which took the brunt of Ike's landfall.
