Category Archives: Hurricane Katrina

SciGuy gives me some morning agida: The overnight models have become more tightly clustered, and the news is not favorable for Texas, which now appears the target if Dean makes a U.S. landfall. Dean may yet not make landfall in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

So much for our quiet hurricane season. Rescue workers were activated in southern Texas today in preparation for heavy rain expected to accompany newly formed Tropical Storm Erin moving through the Gulf of Mexico. At 10:30 a.m. CDT, it had … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Midway through the hurricane season, things are looking a little better than before. Hurricane researcher William Gray lowered his 2007 forecast slightly Friday, calling for 15 named storms, with eight becoming hurricanes and four becoming intense. On May 31, at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Good news: Plentiful rains throughout Texas the past year led weather officials today to declare an end to drought conditions across the state for the first time in at least a decade. “We’ve gotten so much rain this year we’ve … Continue reading → Continue reading →

You might have noticed that it’s been a quiet hurricane season so far this year. There are good reasons for that, but don’t go drinking all that bottled water just yet. First, the good news. Scientists had worried about La … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The State of Texas plans to look towards the private sector for relief when the next big hurricane hits. “If FEMA shows up, good,” said Jack Colley, chief of the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management. ”But we’re not waiting.” Call … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Among the many task forces that were convened after the Hurricane Rita evacuation fiasco was one to deal with the issue of depleted gasoline supplies along evacuation routes. Here’s the report. Surprisingly, until Rita hit Sabine Pass on Sept. 24, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I have a feeling that this is a subject we’ll visit again and again in the coming years. More than half of all evacuees from Hurricane Rita lived on ground high enough to avoid a surge of water from even … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Whether this hurricane season will be active or not, local authorities are planning for the worst. Harris County officials said Monday they are as prepared as they can be for hurricane season, which begins June 1. The key question, they … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Government forecasters called for a busier than normal hurricane season Tuesday. National Weather Service forecasters said they expect 13 to 17 tropical storms, with seven to 10 of them becoming hurricanes. The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Last year, the official estimate for the 2007 hurricane season was 14 named storms. Then we heard that La Nina was active, which would tend to increase the number of hurricanes. And sure enough, that esitmate has now been bumped … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Congratulations to Mayor White. Mayor Bill White and a Louisiana school superintendent won the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on Monday for their actions in response to the Hurricane Katrina crisis in August 2005. White and Doris Voitier, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Argh. “Forecasters warned today that a La Nina weather pattern — the nasty flip side of El Nino — is brewing, bringing with it the threat of more hurricanes for the Atlantic. Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Now that hurricane season is officially over, we can begin hurricane prediction season for 2007. Colorado State forecaster William Gray has predicted 14 named storms for next year, including three major hurricanes and four other hurricanes. He and fellow researcher … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Boy, remember when this hurricane season was going to make last year look like nothing? Those were the days, huh? The forecast service AccuWeather said the northeast United States was “staring down the barrel of a gun,” and respected forecasters … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is either the best news you’ll read today or a sure sign that we’re all doomed. You decide. Hurricane expert William Gray downgraded his forecast for the 2006 Atlantic storm season again today, predicting one more hurricane, two more … Continue reading → Continue reading →

SciGuy breaks out the red cape, waves it wildly towards the Gulf Coast, and yells loudly “Hey, Fate! You’re a big wussy!” It may seem imprudent to tempt fate, but it’s impossible to escape a singular fact: Historically, after this … Continue reading → Continue reading →

One year ago today, at about four o’clock in the morning, Tiffany, Olivia, Harry and I pulled into the driveway of Tiffany’s cousin Emilie’s house in Murphy, Texas, after an eighteen hour odyssey on I-45. I’d forgotten about the anniversary … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Hostonist has a great interview with Dr. Jeff Masters of Wunderground.com, which is a great resource for all weather and hurricane junkies. Here’s a taste to get you started: Given the current forecasts and model predictions, what do you expect … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Huffington Post prints excerpts from interviews done with people involved with the evacuation of Hurricane Katrina victims to the George R. Brown convention center in Houston. The first subject is Lt. Col. and State Rep. Rick Noriega, who was … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Talent Show takes a look back at the horrors we all witnessed a year ago in New Orleans. Ray looks at his own writing from a year ago here and here. The lead story on the Chron is about … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The state’s plan for handling contraflow lanes in the event of a hurricane evacuation have been released. Carol Dawson, deputy director of traffic operations of the Texas Department of Transportation, said the plan is “much more detailed” than the spur-of-the-moment … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A updated version of the official state hurricane evacuation plan is now online. The state’s 157-page plan was posted online late Friday, the day after the Atlantic hurricane season began. Some local emergency management officials said Monday that they did … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I figured there’d be a followup to yesterday’s story about the city of Dallas balking at the proposal that they house up to 40,000 special needs evacuees from Houston in the event of a coastal hurricane. Today, at least one … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m not quite sure what to make of this story about the city of Dallas balking at giving temporary housing to some 40,000 special-needs people in the event they get evacuated from Houston during a hurricane. Texas officials, haunted by … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Some stuff from Thursday that got lost in the Enron verdict-a-rama: Task force chief dismayed Perry lacks authority to order evacuations The chairman of Gov. Rick Perry’s hurricane task force said Tuesday that he was disappointed the Legislature did not … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Well, I’d say there’s good news and bad news in this. A hectic, above-normal tropical storm season could produce between four and six major hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico this year, but conditions don’t appear ripe … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The statewide hurricane evacuation drill is going on this week, and so far we’ve learned that there’s only so much you can do to keep the highways flowing. Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, appointed as the incident commander for a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

If you hear any alarm bells tomorrow, you can ignore them. That’s just the statewide hurricane evacuation drill going on. The three-day drill – being staged statewide for the first time – will test the evacuation response in the first … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I was going to make this an add-on to my earlier post on the Perry executive order for naming crisis managers for catastrophe situations, but for future reference I figured making a separate entry would be better: Turns out it’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

We have a resolution for the disagreement between Governor Perry and the Houston-Galveston Area Council over his demand for a single commander for catastrophe situations (see here and here for background): A committee chair will be chosen to serve as … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Yesterday, I wondered how Governor Perry would react to the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s (H-GAC) cretive interpretation of his executive order to name a single person to manage future catastrophes that may strike the region. Today we find that the answer … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Last month, Governor Perry issued an executive order that mandated (among other things) the creation of an “incident commander” to oversee evacuation issues in each of the state’s 24 regions that have councils of governments. Today, on the deadline for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Not everyone thinks that the hurricane task force plan that Governor Perry recently mandated is a good idea; in particular, the recommendation to make the governor the sole decision-maker on when evacuations should occur was criticized. Giving the governor the … Continue reading → Continue reading →