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Bolivar Peninsula, Texas
Bolivar Peninsula, Texas
	— CDP —
	Location of Bolivar Peninsula, Texas
	Coordinates: 29°27′52″N 94°36′28″W / 29.46444°N 94.60778°W
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Galveston
	Area
- Total	46.7 sq mi (120.9 km2)
- Land	45.2 sq mi (117.0 km2)
- Water	1.5 sq mi (3.8 km2)
Elevation	10 ft (3 m)
	Population (2000)
- Total	3,853
- Density	85.3/sq mi (32.9/km2)
Time zone	Central (CST) (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
FIPS code	48-09250
GNIS feature ID	1852688

Bolivar Peninsula is a census-designated place (CDP) in Galveston County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,853 at the 2000 census.

[edit] History

On April 23, 1991 the community, and other areas of Galveston County, received an enhanced 9-1-1 system which routes calls to proper dispatchers and allows dispatchers to automatically view the address of the caller.^[3]

[edit] Geography

Map of the Bolivar Peninsula CDP

Bolivar Peninsula is located at 29°27′52″N 94°36′28″W / 29.46444°N 94.60778°W / 29.46444; -94.60778 (29.464442, -94.607665)^[4]. It forms a narrow strip of land in Galveston County, Texas, separating the eastern part of Galveston Bay from the Gulf of Mexico. The peninsula's width ranges from half a mile down to a quarter-mile near the unincorporated community of Gilchrist, where the peninsula is divided by Rollover Pass.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 46.7 square miles (120.9 km²), of which, 45.2 square miles (117.0 km²) of it is land and 1.5 square miles (3.8 km²) of it (3.17%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

Note: Information prior to September 2008's Hurricane Ike may be significantly different than current information.

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there were 3,853 people, 1,801 households, and 1,138 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 85.3 people per square mile (32.9/km²). There were 5,425 housing units at an average density of 120.0/sq mi (46.4/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 93.69% White, 0.47% African American, 0.80% Native American, 0.57% Asian, 2.80% from other races, and 1.66% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.96% of the population.

There were 1,801 households out of which 18.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.3% were married couples living together, 7.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% were non-families. 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.65.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 17.0% under the age of 18, 5.6% from 18 to 24, 20.7% from 25 to 44, 35.1% from 45 to 64, and 21.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48 years. For every 100 females there were 104.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.1 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $34,235, and the median income for a family was $42,448. Males had a median income of $36,477 versus $24,519 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $26,137. About 8.3% of families and 11.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.4% of those under age 18 and 7.3% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Education

Crenshaw Elementary and Middle School, K-8

Bolivar Peninsula residents are divided between the Galveston Independent School District and the High Island Independent School District.

The western portion of the Bolivar Peninsula, including the unincorporated communities of Port Bolivar and Crystal Beach, are within the Galveston Independent School District. That portion is served by the K-8 Crenshaw Elementary and Middle School, located on the island, and Ball High School (9-12), located in Galveston. The current Crenshaw building opened in 2005.^[5]

The eastern portion of the peninsula, including the unincorporated communities of Caplen, Gilchrist, and High Island, is served by the High Island Independent School District.

Galveston College serves all of the Bolivar Peninsula.^[6]

[edit] Community information

The peninsula is named for South American revolutionary Simón Bolívar.

The Galveston County Department of Parks and Senior Services operates the Joe Faggard Community Center at 1760 State Highway 87 in the Crystal Beach area.^[7]

The Texas Department of Transportation provides ferry service from Port Bolivar at the western end of the Bolivar Peninsula to Galveston.

[edit] Hurricane Ike

Damage, Reconstruction, and Memorial - Feb 28 2009

Hurricane Ike caused cataclysmic destruction of the Peninsula - reducing the region to rubble and causing severe, permanent change in the shoreline. Entire communities along the upper Texas coast were simply wiped out by Ike’s catastrophic storm surge.^[8] Ike’s effects were disproportionally felt near the long, low-lying Bolivar Peninsula which has typical elevations around 2 m. Despite being only a strong category 2 storm with maximum winds at landfall of 95 knots (49m/s, Berg, 2009), Ike’s extremely large, long-lasting surge and waves devastated the Bolivar.^[9] In Gilchrist, Texas, NOAA aerial photography reveals complete destruction. The roll-over pass bridge was reduced to one lane. Of the 1,000 buildings in Gilchrist, 99.5% of them were knocked off of their foundations. Of the buildings off of the foundations, the storm demolished some and washed others onto swamplands behind Gilchrist.^[10]

At 7:10 UST on September 13 (2:10 AM local), Hurricane Ike made landfall at the east end of Galveston Island, Texas as the largest Atlantic tropical cyclone in recorded history.^[11] At the height of the storm, Ike’s cloud mass essentially covered the entire Gulf of Mexico. The Wind and Surge Destructive Potential Classification Scale, which was detailed in Tropical Cyclone Destructive Potential by Integrated Kinetic Energy (by Dr. Mark Powell and Dr. Tim Reinhold, April 2007) offers a new way to assess hurricane size and strength by calculating the total kinetic energy contained in a 1-meter deep horizontal slice of the storm at an elevation of 10 meters above the land or ocean surface. Using this type of calculation, the integrated kinetic energy was calculated for Ike and was found to be 25 percent greater than the comparable maximum estimate for Hurricane Katrina in 2005.^[12]^[13]

The Bolivar Peninsula was just to the right of landfall, placing it on the strong side of the hurricane. H Wind reconstructions (Powell et al., 1998) show winds blowing strongly from offshore-to-onshore for most of the storm, which acted to increase both surge and waves. Surge is extremely important for the particular case of the Bolivar Peninsula, as it allowed large waves to penetrate inland into areas they could not otherwise have reached. Shoreline erosion was around 75 m, which undermined the piled foundations of oceanfront buildings.^[14] Most other houses in this area were reduced to either piles or slabs by large waves riding on surge, with only a very few remaining more or less intact. Peak coastal surges reached 21-foot (6.4 m). Water depths of at least 5-foot (1.5 m) covered all of the Bolivar Peninsula, with most areas covered by at least 15-foot (4.6 m) of water (not including wave action).^[15] Much of the southern part of Chambers County was also inundated by at least 12-foot (3.7 m) of water. According to post-storm analyses by both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Hurricane Research Division and Applied Research Associates (ARA), a research and engineering company, the best estimates of 3-second peak wind gusts along the eastern portion of the peninsula were between 110 mph and 115mph. Research observations also suggest most of eastern and southeastern Texas was subjected to tropical storm and hurricane-force winds for ten hours, and possibly longer.^[16]^[17]

The government of the United States plans to take over what's left of the Bolivar Peninsula and turn into a national park, though state and local officials have been pushing to rebuild.^[18]