Interesting Storm Surge Map for Houston, TX

[DoYouEverWonder]

Since I've never been to Houston, does someone else knows what the demographics are for the parts of town that are like to flood?

Also, I know Galveston is under mandatory evacuation, what about Houston?

Thanks.

PS: Sorry this image is so big. It's from the city of Houston website.

[global1]

1. Where Is Downtown Houston on This Map? n/t

[Mugsy]

7. Downtown is on the left.

Downtown Houston is on the left, just inside that (610) loop.

Flooding has been a big problem in Houston for years (not as bad as N.O., but bad enough to close traffic and prevent most cars from getting out), and was a key campaign issue in the last Mayor race.

The most flood-prone areas are along Buffalo Bayou, which runs West-East through the entire city.

[rkc3]

2. Houston is 40-50 miles inland from Galveston, but near the

Bay of Galveston. It's not likely to get hit by a storm surge.

I have family in Galveston who are evacuating this morning.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. New Orleans isn't directly on the coast either

and fortunately the eye went east of the city.

The big difference is the sea level. I would assume Houston is on higher ground. However, if the eye or eastern part of the storm goes over Houston we will probably see considerable damage.

Everyone is focusing on Galveston, which is only about 60,000 people and they seem to be ignoring the potential problems in Houston.

[rkc3]

8. Galveston has a 16 foot seawall to protect from storm surges.

If they experience a storm similar to Katrina, which had a 20 foot surge, there might be big problems for the city.

My point was that Houston is far enough inland to protect from a storm surge - flooding from rains and wind damage are the most likely concerns for the city. That and the fact they already have a good number of evacuees from Katrina imprisoned there could cause some big problems - but not catastrophes.

But then again, I'm not the FEMA director nor a horse show judge.

[highplainsdem]

3. Here's a link to KHOU.com's smaller storm-surge map:

http://www.khou.com/weather/stormsurgemap.htm


I've already posted that link in the topic at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4834367&mesg_id=4834367

and the topic about the evacuation of Houston (don't have the URL for that right now).

The topic I posted the link for has Jim Cantore's worst-case scenario for Houston, a Cat 4 hurricane with a 20-foot storm surge; he said that 600,000 homes would be gone. I also posted a link to the KHOU.com worst-case scenario story in one of my later replies in that topic.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Thanks

that's much better.

[enid602]

6. Hou

Downtown Houston on this map is 77002, 77010. What you are looking at is really a map of southeast and eastern Houston, that part which is closest to Galveston Bay and Galveston Island.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Is that area residential?

Income level?

Thanks.

[Strelnikov_]

9. What This Indicates Is That The Nation Loses 15%

of it's refinery capacity in one Cat. 5 storm.

Considering we were already down 5% due to the 4 refineries in the New Orleans area, we would be looking at 1/5 of refining capacity being offline.

In other words, Oilstorm.

Guess the vaunted private sector approach to energy infrastructure planning is not big on redundancy.

[Igel]

11. The demographics are really mixed.

There are some large poor areas over there, and some really nice areas. Poor areas tend to be black and Latino, really nice areas tend to be mostly white, but the key word is 'tend'. Some are industrial and related to shipping. Houston has no zoning.

TSARP has an incredibly slow site(http://maps.tsarp.org/Run.htm) for looking up flood plains west of this map. Some run through very nice communities, some through dowdy communities.

I'm not sure, but it looks like Hobby Airport (the smaller, older international airport here) might be in the surge area.

I live a couple of miles west of the lower left portion of this map, a whopping 53 feet or so above sea level.