The Monday 10am update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) on Hurricane Eta now predicts the storm will slam Central America then re-emerge into the Caribbean over the Bay of Honduras in the NW Caribbean. Beyond 96 hours (Saturday), it’s uncertain what the storm will do. NHC Predicts Cat 4 Eta has become an impressive […]
Tropical storm formed in the central Caribbean Sea late yesterday and tied a record going back 170 years. 28th Storm of Year Eta became the 28th tropical storm of the 2020 hurricane season and tied 2005 for the most tropical storms in an Atlantic hurricane season since records began in 1851. Satellite images show the system […]
Often, I post about sand mines or developments that encroach on floodplains and floodways to the detriment of people downstream. But when I learned of this story, it made me extremely happy. The Bayou Land Conservancy (BLC) announced last week that Joe Swinbank and Don Poarch, partners at Sprint Sand & Clay, have donated 117 […]
Today, October 30, 5:00 p.m. is the deadline to send testimony to the Texas House of Representatives Interim Committee on Aggregate Production Operations (APOs). The committee is looking into production practices of sand mines and other types of APOs across Texas. Write About Your Experience Written comments will be evaluated and considered by the committee when they make their […]
A year after the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) filed a notice of enforcement against a Plum Grove sand miner named Somaiah Kurre, it appears that Kurre still has not complied with TCEQ regulations to restore his abandoned mine. However, he has found time to take over operations at the troubled Triple PG Sand […]
Flood mitigation is a complex process with hundreds of moving parts, all dependent on each other. When you focus intensely on the pieces, periodically it helps to review how they fit together. Only when you do this can you see progress toward your goals. In that spirit, I created this presentation. It has a Kingwood […]
At the current rate that crews are removing sand from the West Fork San Jacinto Mouth Bar, the remainder of the above-water portion of this once-behemoth sand bar could be gone by Christmas. See the two pictures below. The first taken after Harvey and the second taken today. Much Yet to Dredge Of course, even […]
Since June, I’ve posted about problems in the Colony Ridge development in Liberty County. Among them: the washout of FM1010 where it crosses over Rocky Branch. Authorities have closed the busy road which provides access to Colony Ridge for three years, forcing tens of thousands of residents to seek alternate access routes, such as FM1485 […]
Hurricane Watches issued for eastern and northern coasts of the Yucatan peninsula. (Sunday 8am, October 25, 2020) The tropical depression over the northwestern Caribbean Sea has continued to slowly become better organized. Satellite and hurricane hunter aircraft have determined that winds increased to near 40kts. Overall Zeta has not moved much in the last 12 […]
The tropical wave in the NW Caribbean that I posted about this morning has become better organized. It now has a broad low-level center southwest of the Cayman Islands. Low- and mid-level centers are currently not aligned, but conditions favor eventual alignment. There are numerous curved bands and weak to moderate scattered convection near the […]