When we think about flooding, most of us don’t think beyond the repair costs of homes. But there are more costs to communities that can remain hidden for years. Erosion, for instance, is one of the hidden costs of flooding that we rarely talk about. You’ve heard me talk about the eroded sediment from sand […]
On February 20, NOAA announced computing upgrades that will enable new and improved weather and climate forecasting. Significant upgrades to supercomputing capacity, storage space, and interconnect speed of its Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System will keep the agency’s supercomputing capacity on par with other leading weather forecast centers around the world. Why We Need […]
Harvey households covered by FEMA group flood insurance should prepare now to buy standard flood insurance by Oct. 24. Lack of coverage may affect eligibility for future disaster assistance. What is Group Flood Insurance? Many families affected by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017 did not have flood insurance. As part of its disaster assistance, FEMA provided Group […]
On February 19, the Bayou City Initiative hosted presentations by Charles Irvine of Irvine & Connor, PLLC and Professor Jim Blackburn of Rice University. Irvine was the Court-appointed, Co-lead Counsel for the Addicks-Barker “Upstream” case. Blackburn is co-director of the Severe Storm Prevention, Education and Evacuation from Disaster (SSPEED) Center at Rice and a faculty […]
This morning, the San Jacinto River Authority put out a press release about the seasonal lowering of Lake Conroe. I reported the results of the board vote last Friday. The elements of the policy in this press release do not differ. Regardless, I’m printing this press release verbatim for two reasons: a) its the official […]
Eighty percent of the Forest Cove townhomes south of Hamblen on Marina and Timberline Drives have been bought out so far. But while HCFCD scrambles to complete the remainder of the buyouts, the area has become a magnet for illegal dumpers. Vacant Since Harvey Ever since Hurricane Harvey when 15-20 feet of water swept through […]
City of Houston Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin will host a Capital Improvement Project (CIP) Town Hall meeting tonight. Tuesday, February 25, 2020 Meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. Kingwood Community Center 4102 Rustic Woods Kingwood, Texas 77345 Focus on Capital Improvement Projects During this meeting, residents will hear from Mayor […]
Multiple Choice Quiz So what made this water turn color? This is definitely a hard one: TACA is promoting Sherwin-Williams. It’s a Slurpee® and snow cone waste pit. All the left-over food coloring that Randall’s couldn’t sell at 95%-off wound up here. The country of Gabon is advertising tourism. Cyanobacteria are taking over the pit. […]
After 2.5 years of examining photos and videos of the so-called “dikes” in sand mines, I have come to believe that some are designed to fail. In some cases, mines cause them to fail. In most cases, the “dikes” are not really dikes. They’re just the edges of pits that miners have excavated. Or roads […]
In the last month, workers made progress on pipeline bed repairs to two area sand mines. But repairs at one sand mine look substantial. At another, they look superficial. Triple PG in Porter is still edging into the danger zone. Exposed by Erosion When Mining Came Too Close In December and January, I posted about […]