Hurricane Alicia storm surges and shore processes

Hurricane Alicia moved inland over the Texas coast during the night of August 17, 1983 creating waves and surges in the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent bays. Waves eroded beaches and dunes and surges overtopped low-lying areas of barrier islands and inland areas adjacent to the bays behind the barriers. A three-day survey of field evidence of water levels and flow directions was carried out one week after the storm. The evidence gathered shows that the barrier islands were overtopped from front-to-back in some areas and from back-to-front in other areas with quite different results. There was little or no beach erosion to the left of the storm as it came ashore; however, serious beach erosion occurred for 18 miles to the right of the storm and there was significant erosion for 55 miles to the right of the storm. Maximum water levels in the Gulf, including the effects of normal tides and storm effects, were 9 to 11 feet and maximum water levels along the northern portion of Galveston Bay were 11 to 14 feet