It appears that Hurricane Laura may be a Cat 3 when it makes landfall on or very near to Port Arthur, TX. Attached below is an excerpt from an AP story from today. L&A 503 is about 30 short city blocks from the Intercoastal Waterway and then Sabine Lake. Given the predictions in the attached clip, can anyone familiar with the area comment on the likelihood of the predicted 11 foot storm surge reaching 503 in Bryan Park? Thank you.

Evacuations ordered as Hurricane Laura aims at U.S. coast

REBECCA SANTANA and JEFF MARTIN
,
Associated Press•August 25, 2020
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate the Texas and Louisiana coasts Tuesday as Laura strengthened into a hurricane that forecasters said could slam into land as a major storm with ferocious winds and deadly flooding.
More than 385,000 residents were told to flee the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur, and still more were ordered to evacuate low-lying southwestern Louisiana, where forecasters said more than 11 feet (3.35 meters) of storm surge topped by waves could submerge entire towns.

I cannot speak to the vulnerability of the locomotive to the storm. However I cannot find a shred of info about it after mid-2018 except that Google maps and Bing Maps areal views seems to show it was pushed back to its original location on the new (presumably abated area) track and a fence erected. Other than that it does not appear to have received any attention.

https://goo.gl/maps/j9pUqb853YkusdsH9

I was born and raised in the Port Arthur area. My family has boarded up and is on their way to Dallas now. 503 stands a good chance of getting wet if the levee system fails to contain the surge. She’s 15 blocks from the sea wall. The whole area is flat and very close to sea level. It doesn’t take much.

If the hurricane does what they’re predicting, the area will be severely impacted.

The National Hurricane Center on Twitter:


Note that the NWS's tweet begins with Unsurvivable storm surge.

Oh well not to worry there is a fund 'somewhere' with plenty of money in it set aside for this locomotive, just cant remember the fundraisers name off hand.


JMC

My family in the area says they’re good other than being without power. Looks like the Golden Triangle got lucky.

May have dodged a bullet this time, but this points to the ongoing issue that displays of historic items we want to last long-term should not be kept in vulnerable areas. I really believe there should not be a railroad museum on a barrier island like Galveston, TX. You're just asking to have it wiped out for good someday. I'll wait for the incoming.

My understanding is that museum is far better funded than most - it'll likely be there as long as Galveston exists - it's funded by The Moody Foundation, which has an endowment of over a billion dollars, and owns a substantial interest in American National Insurance Company.

CD

Does Galveston have an arrangement to evacuate their equipment or was that a one-time deal?