Category Archives: Hurricane Katrina

Time for the annual “We’re in for a busy hurricane season” forecast

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

And indeed, forecasters say we are in for another active year, as was the case last year. Here’s SciGuy with some discussion. [S]easonal forecasters did a pretty good job of calling last year’s extraordinarily active season. So while there’s no … Continue reading →

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Hurricane Alex

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Stay safe, everyone. Heavy downpours and possible coastal flooding are forecast for the next few days in the Houston area as Hurricane Alex churns in the Gulf of Mexico and then slams ashore along the northern Mexican coast south of … Continue reading →

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Ike Dike gets a study

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The “Ike Dike”, a network of dikes and gates off the coast of Galveston that was first proposed last year by William Merrell as protection against storm surges from future hurricanes, is being discussed more seriously by the Gulf Coast … Continue reading →

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Active hurricane season predicted

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Hurricane season officially begins today, and it looks like it will be a busy one. As we have previously discussed, there’s ample reason to expect a very active hurricane season this year. And so it wasn’t too surprising this morning … Continue reading →

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AAUP criticizes UTMB for post-Ike layoffs

Posted on May 8, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Oops. The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston and the University of Texas System (UTS) violated established and widely accepted guidelines on academic freedom and tenure when it laid off more than 2,400 faculty and staff in the … Continue reading →

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What Katrina crime wave?

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

So remember how there was this big increase in crime in Houston in the months after Katrina evacuees arrived here? Well, it turns out that the crime data indicates otherwise. Five criminologists who reviewed crime statistics published a study in … Continue reading →

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More or stronger?

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

If we’re talking about hurricanes, neither sounds like an attractive choice. A new study with the most extensive computer modeling of storm activity to date suggests the overall number of Atlantic storms will fall 30 percent by century’s end, but … Continue reading →

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Better days ahead for UTMB

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is not only coming back, it’s growing. Although the UT Board of Regents authorized 3,800 layoffs, UTMB officials announced that about 3,000 jobs would be cut. The actual number turned out to … Continue reading →

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Bye bye, hurricane season

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

More like this next year would be nice. The Atlantic hurricane season ended Monday with barely a whimper: Not a single hurricane came ashore in the United States. Since June, when the season began, just nine named storms developed. Only … Continue reading →

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Galveston Shriners Hospital now open

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The Galveston Shriners Hospital, which was closed down after Hurricane Ike and was set to reopen on Monday after a long battle to bring it back, has opened its doors a few days early. Kudos to all involved for getting … Continue reading →

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Shriners Hospital reopens next month

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Back in July, delegates at the national Shriners convention voted to reopen the burn hospital for children in Galveston. The date to reopen has now been set for November. The hospital, a world leader in burn research and source of … Continue reading →

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The end is near for hurricane season

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

One of the better things about the onset of fall is the threat of a hurricane greatly diminishes. To be fair, more than two months remain before the official end of hurricane season on Nov. 30, and the seas remain … Continue reading →

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UTMB’s comeback

Posted on September 20, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

This is great to see. A bigger and better University of Texas Medical Branch is rising from the debris of Hurricane Ike, with more than $1 billion in repair, refurbishing and new construction under way or being planned. The UT … Continue reading →

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A year after Ike

Posted on September 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

One year after Hurricane Ike made landfall over Galveston, the news is surprisingly positive for the island, though many challenges still remain. The Lege helped Galveston in a number of ways for this year, such as requiring UT to reopen … Continue reading →

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New beach boundaries

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

We have a new vegetation line, which determines where the public beach ends and private property begins, courtesy of Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. The line will determine whether beachfront property owners whose buildings were destroyed by Ike on Sept. 13 … Continue reading →

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Ike Dike update

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

As the first Atlantic tropical storms of the year make their appearance, we get an update on the proposed Ike Dike. One of Hurricane Ike’s legacies may be the hardening of the upper Texas coast against hurricane storm surges. Within … Continue reading →

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Brought to you by…

Posted on August 16, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

People don’t like it when you mess with their icons. Public fury over a proposal to rename an iconic seawall park after a snack chip led Frito-Lay to ask Galveston County commissioners to halt the renaming process, a Frito-Lay spokeswoman … Continue reading →

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Still waiting on Rita aid

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I’m appalled by this. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has spent about a third of the federal funds it received to help low-income residents rebuild homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Rita almost four years ago, the … Continue reading →

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Too quiet?

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

It’s been very quiet on the hurricane front so far this year – not a single named storm in the Atlantic as yet. The good news, as SciGuy notes, is that this means the projections for the number of named … Continue reading →

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The Ike baby boom bust

Posted on August 2, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Remember this Chron story from May? Doctors who work in Houston’s busiest maternity ward say they’re expecting an especially bustling June, leading some to conclude that Hurricane Ike was the perfect storm for making babies. It’s been eight months since … Continue reading →

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Hurricane season quiet so far

Posted on July 27, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

That’s nice, but it doesn’t mean we’re in good shape. Although the first Atlantic named storm typically forms by July 10, the real activity doesn’t usually begin until August, and a lull in early season activity doesn’t necessarily presage a … Continue reading →

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Shriners Hospital in Galveston to reopen

Posted on July 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Good news. Delegates at the national Shriners convention meeting in San Antonio voted Monday to reopen a world-renowned burn hospital for children in Galveston, closed since it was damaged by Hurricane Ike in September. Convention delegates voted to keep open … Continue reading →

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Planting vegetation against the tide

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I suppose there’s more than one way to try to save your beachfront property. In Texas, a thin green line in the sand separates private property from public beach. And that line of vegetation is drawn by Mother Nature. Some … Continue reading →

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UTMB to open emergency room

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Awesome. The University of Texas Medical Branch is scheduled to open a full-service emergency room Aug. 1 for the first time since Hurricane Ike inundated its campus more than eight months ago, relieving pressure on overburdened emergency rooms throughout the … Continue reading →

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See you later, alligator

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

We all know how much Hurricane Ike has affected and continues to affect people and property. I at least had no idea how devastating it had been to the state’s alligator population. The throaty bellow of adult male alligators, a … Continue reading →

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“Near normal” hurricane season

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Better than a highly active season, I guess. With the Atlantic hurricane season drawing near, the last of a growing number of storm prognosticators, Uncle Sam, chimed in Thursday with its predictions. Federal forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric … Continue reading →

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Windstorm insurance bill passes House committee

Posted on May 21, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve mentioned the prospect of a special session several times lately. One of the issues that could be the cause of a special session is windstorm insurance, as the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association took it on the chin last year … Continue reading →

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Ike, Ike, baby

Posted on May 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know why I hadn’t seen this story coming. In retrospect, it seems so obvious. Doctors who work in Houston’s busiest maternity ward say they’re expecting an especially bustling June, leading some to conclude that Hurricane Ike was the … Continue reading →

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Windstorm insurance changes

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

If you live near the coast, get ready to pay more for windstorm insurance. Coastal residents insured by the state windstorm fund could see increases of 5 percent per year for the next three years under a bill passed Thursday … Continue reading →

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Settlement in UTMB lawsuit

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Hot off the presses. University of Texas regents today settled an open records lawsuit, agreeing to give hiring priority to 2,400 employees laid off at UTMB in December, one of the plaintiffs said. In return for dropping the lawsuit, the … Continue reading →

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Settlement in UTMB lawsuit

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Hot off the presses. University of Texas regents today settled an open records lawsuit, agreeing to give hiring priority to 2,400 employees laid off at UTMB in December, one of the plaintiffs said. In return for dropping the lawsuit, the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Measuring hurricanes

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The venerable Saffir-Simpson scale for measuring hurricane strength is so simple to use, it’s not really adequate for the task of assessing risk and estimating damage. “If I could wave a wand and make it go away, I would,” said … Continue reading →

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Measuring hurricanes

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The venerable Saffir-Simpson scale for measuring hurricane strength is so simple to use, it’s not really adequate for the task of assessing risk and estimating damage. “If I could wave a wand and make it go away, I would,” said … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Ike Dike

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

This certainly sounds like a promising idea. Protecting the region from a hurricane’s storm surge, says William Merrell of Texas A&M University at Galveston, is simple: Extend Galveston’s seawall to the island’s West End, build a similar structure along Bolivar … Continue reading →

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