Unless you were alive in 1961, you've only seen one hurricane hit the Houston area hard - Alisha. Hurricane Bret was a minimal cat 1 that hit in 1999 and was only slightly worse than a tropical storm. Other than that, you can't have "lots" of experience with hurricanes in Houston. We've only had 3 since 1961. codell: Actually, I just like tracking hurricanes. It's interesting watching the weather patters. Other than that, I never watch the weather.
No offense dude, but tell that to my dad, whose house in Corpus got wiped out three times because of hurricanes when he was growing up.
Back to Emily... Looking at some new discussions, the general consensus is that Emily is going to have to begin a more west-northwesterly track in the next 18 hours if it is going to be able to significantly intensify or make it out of the Carribbean. It is moving along at a pretty good clip and continues west. It can't do that for more than 24 hours and make any kind of a significant northward turn before hitting land. That also will impact its intensification because it will remain in cooler waters. We'll just have to keep an eye on her for now.
The devastation that is brought on by a hurricane is often underestimated by people so I can't agree with the media overblowing the stories all the time. Do they try to do it? Sure. They need their stories. But in most hurricanes, there are hundreds of families that lose their homes and the destruction is vast. I've been through several tropical storms and hurricanes in Houston that caused ridiculous amounts of damage. The devastation one causes is widespread. Many people who don't get hit hard often brush it off as another hurricane, but you tell that to people around the coast or in the path of tornadoes that spawned - they'll disagree. They always cause millions, if not billions, in damage - that affects everyone.
I was starting 2 nd grade when Carla hit. We lived in Dickinson. Carla hit down around Matagorda about 75 miles to the southwest. Carla ripped Galveston (60 miles away) especially all the tornadoes. Carla wiped out my Grandparents home in Galveston, my aunts and uncles homes in La Marque and in Dickinson the 50 ft pine trees in our front yard were kissing the ground for about 8 hrs. We didn't have power for days and the snakes were everywhere. I don't know what it did to Houston but I can tell you Alicia was nothing like Carla. Hurricanes I think depend upon there own strengths/characteristics and where they land. Carla was big, bad and spread out. Alicia lost strength just before landfall and wasn't real big. I stayed in Houston during Alicia and we lost power 1- week, downtown lost lots of building glass. Alicia tore up the west beach in Galveston and lots of roof damage in Galveston Co. All I can say is if it is a Carla or a Camille- IT AIN'T NO FUN. If is is smaller it takes a direct path hit to be really really bad. But all in all just stay away from the direct path and the low lying coastland. I have a friend who had his beach house blown off the foundation at Matagorda and the house went flying across the subdivision- it took a direct hit from Carla.
My parents were in junior high during Carla. My dad says that Carla was a monster. It's cloud mass filled the entire Gulf of Mexico. The hurricane force winds went out miles and miles from the center. I thought the eye actually hit closer to Port Lavaca, but don't hold me to that. If you want to know why you don't want to be on the NE quadrant of a big hurricane, see Carla. My grandparents bay house at San Leon got smashed up really bad. Unless you were living in Houston in 1900, 1915 or 1961; you don't know what a big hurricane is.
My old boss was on some Houston Hurricane committee. He said if one hit like 1900, all of South Houston would be under 20ft of water.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been told that the only hurricanes that Houstonians have to worry about are ones that are formed in the gulf. At least historically.
Yeah I'm not sure where the eye went across but down in that area it was a nightmare.- I think Carla destroyed the Pleasure Pier in Galveston.
I was going to shoot this down, but looks like that's been taken care of. In any case, a real hurricane is nothing anyone wants to have to deal with. Hell, my parents live in Freeport, near Surfside beach, and I was there during the last big tropical storm. Talk about a nightmare. Fascinating, but a nightmare all the same.
Historically, Texas has only seen one hurricane that formed in the Atlantic but several that formed in the Carribbean. Generally, we are more vulnerable to storms that form in the Gulf because of the nature of the patterns in the currents and overall weather. But, it doesn't mean one can't come from the Carribbean and into the Gulf and hit us. Hurricane tracks must develop some northward movement in the Carribbean early to make enough of a turn to get into the Gulf without a huge impact from the Yucatan. The latest forecasting model was run just a couple hours ago (the BAM, traditionally pretty accurate) and it has and even more southward projection than the models that ran at 8am this morning.
A little bit off topic: Well it's about damn time. After seeing lots of dark clouds and hearing thunder and seeing lightning for a month now, we finally are getting some rain on our property. It's really coming down. (I'm in New Territory)
OKay, okay.... yeah, I sugar-coated hurricanes quite a bit. Yes, there are many families and businesses that suffer loss from hurricanes, and I don't deny that they do even more damage to coastal cities. And, yes, as a 36-yr-old, I have been through ONE bad hurricane (Alicia) and ONE bad TS (Alison). When I say, "lots", what I mean is... most of the other hurricanes either missed Houston or died down, so Houston ends up getting some rain and wind. I apologize for being insensitive to the towns and cities that ARE hit by the hurricanes.
