09.13.08, Hurricane Ike: Must See TV

For Galveston, Texas, and nearby coastal areas, the recovery from Hurricane Ike, the massive storm that devastated the Texas coast on Sept. 13, 2008, has been a slow and painful process. Now, a powerful new documentary co-produced by the Insurance Council of Texas and KLRU-TV in Austin, illustrates not only the destruction that Ike wrought, but the efforts city, county and state officials, as well as local home and business owners, are undertaking to rebuild their communities.

The hour-long documentary, 09.13.08, Hurricane Ike, which airs on KLRU-TV at 8 p.m., Thurs., April 23, introduces a thought-producing dialogue about how, whether and to what extent Galveston, the Bolivar Peninsula – where more than 3,000 homes and businesses disappeared in the storm – and other coastal areas will be able to reconstruct their communities and their lives.

With another hurricane season looming and the Texas Legislature embarking on yet another debate about how the state will fund the recovery from future storms, 09.13.08, Hurricane Ike, is a timely and vivid reminder that in the struggle between man and nature, nature sometimes is destined to win.

In Galveston and surrounding areas, some homeowners and businesses are enthusiastically determined to rebuild. Others have gone for good. Meanwhile scientists, civil engineers, government officials, and yes, the insurance industry, are debating the wisdom of reconstructing communities in the same way and in the same places where devastating storms are a recurring pattern. The issues in these debates are multi-faceted and the documentary does a terrific job of presenting various viewpoints without judgement.

To say that the documentary is must-see TV for insurance professionals is something of an understatement. But it would also be an hour well-spent for anyone living in the state of Texas or other locations where destructive forces of nature and human civilizations regularly collide.

The documentary will air on other PBS stations throughout Texas in April and May. A preview of 09.13.08, Hurricane Ike, can be found on the Insurance Council of Texas Web site, www.insurancecouncil.org.
Click on 09.13.08, Hurricane Ike.