By Sherry Koonce

The News staff writer

Long after blue tarps are replaced with new shingles and flooring in flooded homes is relaid with plush carpet, Southeast Texas’ extensive ecological habitat found along low-lying marshlands will still be struggling from damaged caused by Hurricane Ike’s storm surge.

“We are facing a real coastal marsh loss problem in Jefferson County since Hurricane Ike directly deposited saltwater way inland, far enough that the Taylor’s Bayou system, and the Hildebrant system on the westside of Beaumont has saltwate in it,” Jim Sutherlin, area manager of the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area in South Jefferson County said.

The coastal area’s sensitive plant and wildlife habitat has been compromised by the intrusion of saltwater, and, now, the absence of a protective dune system is further threatening the coastal habitat.

Since Ike, the natural dune system which acts as a barrier to the Gulf waters, is all but gone, washed out to sea by Hurricane Ike.

“Now, it is just worse than ever. After the storm, there is a number of miles of shoreline where there is no beach, just mud,” Sutherlin said.

The last time the area even came close to experiencing that amount of shoreline loss was in 1961 when Hurricane Carla struck the upper Texas Gulf Coast.

‘It took the best of 15 to 18 years back before the area returned to it’s natural state,” Sutherlin said.

Ike, now the Gulf flood of record, did more damage to the sensitive ecosystem than Carla, Sutherlin said.

Already, in just the few short weeks since Hurricane Ike slammed ashore, the area has lost a lot of plant and animal life.

Ironically, local wildlife managers may be looking at a long running plan to reconstruct Texas 87 as salvation for the area’s coastal dune system.

Since 1989, county and state officials have worked to obtain funding to reconstruct a 17-miles stretch of coastal road destroyed in 1989 by Hurricane Jerry.

While the Texas Department of Transportation was willing to fund the road project, state officials were not willing to do so until a dune system was strengthened.