On South Padre, spring break helps erase hurricane pain

By: Helen Anders - American-Statesman Staff

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — At Coca-Cola beach, the spring break gathering spot behind the Isla Grand hotel, a crowd of about 12,000 wailed "I'll hang around as long as you will let me" as David Allan Coe's "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" blasted from the speakers.

A lot of merchants, restaurateurs and hoteliers would like to let these college students hang around as long as they want, even though they jam traffic and make the island a little loud.

South Padre Island, which lost a lot of tourism dollars after Hurricane Dolly struck last July, is feeling pretty good about spring break this year.

"This week, in particular, has been better than we anticipated," South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Dan Quandt said. This is the week when most Texas colleges and public schools have their spring breaks, and Quandt said between 18,000 and 20,000 have descended on the island.

Hotel occupancy is between 85 and 95 percent, he said, although the island is still short 600 hotel rooms because some hotels and condos, including the Sheraton and Bahia Mar - popular spring break landmarks - haven't reopened because of hurricane damage.

Most restaurants, bars and shops have reopened, though, and most are doing big business this week. Merchants agree: Spring break this year is better than they expected.

By the end of March, Quandt expects the island to have had 40,000 spring breakers, fewer than last year's 60,000 and the 80,000 of some previous years, but pretty good in bad economic times. If each one spends $250, which Quandt said is a conservative estimate, spring breakers will pour about $10 million into the local economy.

Spring breakers have flooded Louie's Backyard, the huge club that's been hosting bikini contests and MTV filmings. They've packed the fast-food restaurants, covered themselves with Mardi Gras beads from the T-shirt shops and bought suntan oil from the island's new CVS Pharmacy.

Law enforcement has saturated the island, too. There are hundreds of various law enforcement types on the island: South Padre Island police, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents, sheriff's deputies and constables and others.

"If it's law enforcement, it's here," Quandt said. "Everybody's here but forest rangers."

He's not kidding. The Coast Guard has been patrolling as close to the shore as it can without getting its boat stuck, and Texas game warden trucks have been patrolling the beach, handing out alcohol citations.

"Yeah, everybody's got to pitch in," said Capt. Richard Jauregui of the Alcoholic Beverage Commission, who has been in charge of this year's enforcement. He said this year has been "a little slower" for ticket-writing.

Class C misdemeanors for alcohol - public intoxication and minor in possession of alcohol - have been the big offenses this week, and even those are fewer than in past years, South Padre Island public information officer Gary Ainsworth said. He said officers have issued about 120 of those citations a week since spring break started. No serious spring break injuries have been reported this week on the island.

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