mysanantonio.com<\/a><\/p>\nSOUTH PADRE ISLAND — The collapse of the only road connecting this popular Gulf Coast island getaway to the mainland caused a ripple effect Saturday that disrupted thousands of lives.<\/p>\n
Gas stations were packed early in the day with nervous motorists while a throng of people waited outside the island’s only supermarket, waiting for it to open.<\/p>\n
But the manager – the only employee with the keys – was stuck on the other side of the Queen Isabella Causeway, which was closed early Saturday after an errant barge struck a support pillar and caused part of the road to collapse.<\/p>\n
His arrival two hours late prompted cheers and a dash for bottled water, produce and milk, most of which disappeared by Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t know we had that many people on the island,” said Bocho Sanchez, manager of the Blue Marlin supermarket.<\/p>\n
Taken for granted by tourists as just another bridge to drive across, the causeway dominates the landscape of this South Texas community with its absence.<\/p>\n
Tourists are leaving, city resources are stretched, and the 3,600 or so permanent residents who moved here for the isolation got more than they bargained for.<\/p>\n
“Everybody’s on ‘Gilligan’s Island.’ We’re stuck,” said retiree Russ Stemple, one of the many residents who fell back on his island training and took a laid-back, shrug-your-shoulders attitude toward the problem.<\/p>\n
But even with most people keeping their cool, the causeway is in many ways a lifeline to South Padre Island that is now severed, and everyone was affected.<\/p>\n
Roughly 100 school-age children live on South Padre Island, but all the schools are across the Laguna Madre in Port Isabel.<\/p>\n
Dolores Munoz, superintendent of the Point Isabel School District, spent Saturday making arrangements for private charter boats to transport students to and from the island starting Monday.<\/p>\n
The costs will come out of the school budget, Munoz said, although the terms of the pending contracts with the boats’ owner have yet to be worked out.<\/p>\n
“We’re really in a state of disbelief, not knowing what we’re really going to do,” she said.<\/p>\n
There was little traffic Saturday on the island, even though officials had expected a strong showing of Mexican visitors this weekend to celebrate that country’s independence day.<\/p>\n
The county park granting access to a portion of the public beach was closed, and many of the ferry passengers returning to the mainland were tourists cutting short their vacations.<\/p>\n
Several conventions were planned in the coming months, including a Harley-Davidson “hog rally” next month. Most likely, they will have to be canceled, officials said.<\/p>\n
“This place can’t survive without traffic, without tourism,” said Munoz’s husband, Dan, a real estate broker. “If this had happened a month ago in tourist season, it would have meant immediate disaster.”<\/p>\n
A tourism magnet, South Padre Island has almost twice as many guest rooms as residents. According to a May report from the American Society of Association Executives, the island will have 5,900 hotel rooms, including condo rentals, with the completion of 400 hotel rooms planned this year.<\/p>\n
Last year, an estimated 200,000 Spring Breakers flocked to the island, which makes millions of dollars off the rowdy mo nth of March.<\/p>\n
City Alderman Gerald Sher, a retired doctor, said the accident puts a new focus on the city’s push to have a second causeway built.<\/p>\n
The proposal has encountered interference in the past from interests that consider a second bridge a “boondoggle,” Sher said.<\/p>\n
“We hope this will change their attitude toward us,” Sher said. “The city has been aware of this possibility for a number of years.”<\/p>\n
The loss of tourism revenue from Winter Texans – transplants from Northern states – could have far-reaching effects. Besides stifling the flow of tourist dollars, the damaged causeway also affects employees living in Port Isabel who work in the island’s hotels and stores.<\/p>\n
“This is going to be major,” Sher said. “We have become the playground of the whole state of Texas. Now we’re cut off.”<\/p>\n
A network of tourist boats became makeshift ferries that gave free rides to hundreds of tourists and residents.<\/p>\n
Taxis roamed parking lots as church volunteers drove people to airports and hotels and made sandwiches for them.<\/p>\n
Kylie Mills, a 24-year-old resident of McAllen, carried a wedding dress slung over her back in a zipped bag as she looked for a taxi.<\/p>\n
Her wedding on South Padre Island was canceled because family members were stuck on the mainland. Mills and two dozen people in her wedding party took a boat dubbed “Murphy’s Law” back to shore.<\/p>\n
“We asked the captain to marry us on the boat, but he said he couldn’t because we weren’t in international waters,” Mills said.<\/p>\n
jtedesco @ express-news.net<\/p>\n
Staff Writer Kate Hunger contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by John Tedesco EXPRESS-NEWS COASTAL BEND BUREAU 09\/16\/2001 SUNDAY A Section 23A All content (c) San Antonio Express-News mysanantonio.com SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — The collapse of the only road connecting this popular Gulf Coast island getaway to the mainland caused a ripple effect Saturday that disrupted thousands of lives. Gas stations were packed early in … <\/p>\n
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