PART III: SURGE MEASUREMENTS 
7. Alicia's development had been closely monitored by the staff of the 
US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES), Coastal Engineering 
Research Center (CERC), and when rapid deepening became evident about noon 
on 16 August it was decided to deploy the CERC hurricane surge data collection 
field team. The team departed from WES late afternoon on 16 August and was in 
the Houston-Galveston vicinity at daybreak on 17 August. Galveston Island, 
by this time, was being evacuated. Coastal water levels had already risen 
and, with the high sea state, prevented deployment of onshore gages along the 
ocean side of Galveston Island and lower Galveston Bay. Guidance from the 
National Hurricane Center indicated the storm would probably make landfall 
between Corpus Christi and Freeport, Texas, on Matagorda Bay. Therefore, the 
field team departed the Houston-Galveston area for the Matagorda Bay area. 
Enroute, the team deployed a one-gage package at Baytown, Texas, near the 
head of Galveston Bay in the event that Alicia turned northward, as it later 
did. 
8. During the time remaining before the predicted landfall, the field 
team worked in the Matagorda Bay area deploying gage packages at Port Lavaca 
and Palacios, Texas. At about 2200, 17 August, approximately 4 hr before 
landfall, the field team retreated to Houston to wait out the storm. 
9. On 19 August following passage of the storm, the field team returned 
to the Galveston area to begin the poststorm survey. Details of the survey 
are given in Part V. 
