Garth Brooks to Help Resort Island

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP) - Garth Brooks will give a free concert on South Padre Island, and city officials hope the country star will draw visitors to the island hurt by a bridge collapse.

The Gulf Coast barrier island's resort economy has been at a crawl since a string of barges slammed into the only bridge to the island on Sept. 15. The midsection of the Queen Isabella Causeway collapsed. Eight drivers died when their vehicles plunged into the Laguna Madre. Travel to the island has been limited to ferry service established after the collapse.

The Nov. 28 concert is one of three CBS-televised stops on the "Garth Brooks: Coast to Coast'' tour to promote his ninth album. Tickets quickly sold out to the first concert in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

A Nov. 21 performance will air from the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier at Norfolk, Va., to welcome soldiers back from a deployment in Afghanistan. Each concert will be broadcast as an hour-long special at 10 p.m. EST.

With both coasts covered, Brooks was looking for a spot in Texas. Brooks' promoters contacted the island, South Padre Island Visitor and Convention Bureau spokeswoman Erica Pena said.

"They said he'd heard about what happened and that he wanted to do his part to help out,'' Pena said.