Hurricane Rita and Austin, Tx Effects

[Bill Tabor]

Oh I forgot...there's a big debate going on in Austin because this weekend is the start of Austin City Limits Music Festival and there are expected to be 65,000 people in Zilker Park (near downtown). There is a lot of controversy on whether they will (or need) to cancel such as big event.

 

[B Ozanne]

Personally if I lived in Houston, I'd probably board up and get out before the mandatory evacuation because then it will be potentially too crowded to easily get out. You might go find a motel in Abilene or ways west.

As I recall downtown Houston is supposed to be sinking and is lower (below sea level?) similar to New Orleans. I think I've heard that a big Hurricane could flood the heck out of Houston. Even if you stay you could be in a disaster area for a long time so be prepared with whatever supplies you need.

Whoa, be careful what you say here! Houston is not below sea level as far as I know...it is not New Orleans. If you live in a low lying area you should already know it. I can't imagine a mandatory evacuation coming for the actual city of Houston...just the low lying areas.

 

[Anonymous]

Houston is an average of 50 ft above sea level. The mandatory evac is only for suburbs south of town and on the water (i.e., Clear Lake, Friendswood) and low-lying areas right now, AFAIK.

That said, many of my friends and family are evacuating (I'm in Austin) because the thought of being without power in 100 degree post-Rita weather is not too appealing. Many have small children or are pregnant, so it makes sense to err on the side of caution.

Drive times are crazy. My sister (in HOU) reports that a colleague of hers took 17 hours to get to Dallas (normally 4), and that drive time from Galveston to downtown are 6 hours.

 

[Bill Tabor]

Originally posted by B Ozanne

Personally if I lived in Houston, I'd probably board up and get out before the mandatory evacuation because then it will be potentially too crowded to easily get out. You might go find a motel in Abilene or ways west.

As I recall downtown Houston is supposed to be sinking and is lower (below sea level?) similar to New Orleans. I think I've heard that a big Hurricane could flood the heck out of Houston. Even if you stay you could be in a disaster area for a long time so be prepared with whatever supplies you need.

Whoa, be careful what you say here! Houston is not below sea level as far as I know...it is not New Orleans. If you live in a low lying area you should already know it. I can't imagine a mandatory evacuation coming for the actual city of Houston...just the low lying areas.

I've always heard that the downtown area of Houston is slowly sinking. I assumed that means it has some low spots. I guess I can look for specifics on the net. Anyone else know what I am talking about?

 

[Bill Tabor]

Here's an article that mentions it, but I didn't find any good articles in depth on the subject http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw....125dd3c88.html.

Very odd this prophetic article mentions New Orleans and Galveston being gone.

Regardless this is slowly being accomplished by subsidence because of water being removed from the land ( or something like that). I did find a reference that downtown Houston is 15 meters above sea level so-- that is good. It apparently isn't a bowl as I feared.

Look at all the trouble that was caused by Tropical Storm Allison:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/s...orm2001/1183406!

A cat 4 or 5? That maybe scary for HOU.

 

[Bill Tabor]

Ok, looking at the wind forecast chart again issued at 4pm on Wed it indicates that the hurricane is expected to be near but east of the Austin area by about 11am or 12pm on Saturday. This would be about 4 or 5 hours shy of the 72 hour forecast - so checking that value on the forecast map would indicate the storm might be at Category 1 at that time. So, I suppose it is not likely to be Cat 2 or 3 unless it landed as a very strong Cat 5 a bit further west of the current track and beelined straight here in like 6 hours.

So sounds like we mainly need to prepare for Tropical Storm strength winds and possibly up to Category 1 winds.

 

[jrich557]

Well Bill if you want someone to tag along with you if ya go email me at [email protected]. I was planning on at least going out east to Bryan or somewhere over there to check out the Cat 1 winds. That is about as far as I would go by myself since this would be my first hurricane chase.

 

[jrich557]

Correction: Email me at [email protected]. The other was my old email.