SHOULD GALVESTON BE REBUILT? “The city and its environs rest on barrier islands, which are made of sand, low-lying and prone to significant geological shifts. In Galveston’s case, even before Ike’s landfall, the island was both sinking slowly and becoming sharply eroded along its west end. Moreover, a couple of years ago, the city itself commissioned University of Texas geologist Jim Gibeaut to create a geohazards map for the island, that is, where should development not occur? The research study found that nearly all the development along the beach front west of the seawall, which protects the core of the island, is in ‘red’ or ‘yellow’ zones, where Gibeaut says development should not occur.” [SciGuy]
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Hazards
Note: Updated below.
A tenant in a north Houston apartment complex has an overdue payment for more than a month. No one can get in touch with her. Eventually the bookkeeper goes inside to leave a note. And finds . . . this:
Royce Builders has finally shut down. The company slipped out somewhere between gusts of Hurricane Ike, leaving only a note on its website.
Looking for an earnest money refund? Try Royce’s handy new sounds-like-spam Gmail address! But do it before October 1, because . . . well, just because.
Got a home warranty issue? Well then, just . . . read the warranty!
A reader comments:
My concern is for the people who closed on one of their poorly built homes in the last 365 days. Royce was the backer of the new home warranty for the first year of ownership and now they are gone. My friends who used to work for them tell me there are thousands of unfinished warranty requests that were never completed or even addressed. I wish all the home owners good luck on getting things fixed. At least they will have the Two to Ten Waranty beginning in the second year (if Royce paid the premium).
Royce’s happy farewell message is after the jump!
There are so many lessons to be learned from destruction! Take the house at 2205 Bartlett St. in Greenbriar, for example. Here’s a photo from earlier this month, as the house was prepared for demolition.
What happened next?
From the seemingly ubiquitous Pankaj, a few choice images of Hurricane Ike kicking some Houston ass:
SURVIVOR GALVESTON: MAYOR VOTES EVERYBODY OFF THE ISLAND “‘There is nothing to come here for right now,’ [Mayor Lyda Ann] Thomas said. ‘Please leave. I am asking people to leave.’ City officials have yet to decide whether to force people off the island. . . . The bottom line is that Galveston can’t adequately accommodate its population,” [City Manager Steve LeBlanc] said, adding that if people returned, the city ‘would go into a downward spiral.’†[Houston Chronicle]
“Kirby Drive is just as purty as ever,” writes the Swamplot correspondent who took these photos Saturday.
The evidence?
That Sunday open house scheduled for this townhome at 18224 Lakeside Ln. in Bal Harbour Cove on Clear Lake? Probably not going to happen. Sadly, it may be that the only open houses taking place in the Houston area this weekend will be unscheduled ones.
If you find any impromptu open houses taking place in Hurricane Ike’s wake, how about adding them to this weekend’s Open House Tour? Send pix to the Swamplot tip line, or add your comments or directions below. Have any other Hurricane Ike photos, videos, or stories you’d like to share?
HELPFUL HINTS FOR HURRICANE IKE HOME SELLERS A special notice on the HAR home page: “As Hurricane Ike advances toward the greater Houston area, the Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR) urges homeowners to remove or secure all objects outside their homes that could become deadly projectiles in high winds. This should not be limited to patio furniture, barbeque grills and other large pieces, but include yard signs promoting home sales, contractor services, home security services and other messages.” Well sure, but won’t that make househunting a little difficult this weekend? [HAR]
They didn’t name this site Swamplot for nothin’! Now’s as good a time as any to stake our claim on the Google as the go-to website for photos, videos, and salty tales from Hurricane Ike — of waterlogged, flooded, or otherwise fluid-besmirched homes and businesses in the greater Houston and Harris County areas. Have we stuffed enough sticky keywords into this post yet? How about real-estate damage resulting from Category 2, 3, 4, or 5 hurricane-force winds in Southeast Texas? Yeah, come here for that stuff, too.
And where will all these videos and photos and stories come from? How about . . . from you? You’re charging your camera phone anyway — and loading up the address book with email addresses . . . Why not add Swamplot’s tip line to the list?
Once you’ve captured it, send us that great shot of newly waterfronted property — just tell us where it was taken and who to credit. If your neighborhood stays high and dry, send in the pics to prove it! It might make things a whole lot easier a few years from now, when you’re trying to explain to a skeptical potential buyer that your house didn’t flood during Ike.
Of course, it may be a little while before we can post the stuff that comes in. It’s all gonna depend how long it takes our laptops to air dry.
We do hope everyone has a safe, dry, and floating-ball-of-crazed-fire-ants-free Hurricane Ike experience. Maybe this thing will simply blow over! In any case, why not have your camera ready?
- We Only Know What We Read in Our Email [Swamplot]
Photo of flooding after Hurricane Alicia, Houston, 1983: Michael Glasgow
What’s in the Swamplot inbox? More fun news and comments about Royce Builders and mortgage-y sidekick Hammersmith Financial:
According to a source all sales was finally let go yesterday. . . . Subdivisions have been completely stone cold. In addition, Hammersmith finished up last Friday. Between both, lots of shredding going on. The remainder of Royce is in the Hammersmith offices as well. Also, many who may be interested, [Royce Chief Operating Officer James] Hunter’s last day was a week ago Friday.
For any buyers out there who feel the have been defrauded by Royce, all they need to do is contact the Consumer Fraud Division at 713-755-5836. This is the DA’s office and there is the possibility that criminal charges may be filed if Royce knowingly defrauded consumers, but they MUST make the call.
A little bit more on the shredding:
BAYTOWN MOSQUITO REPORT, IN LANDINGS PER MINUTE “. . . while Baytonians might feel like the mosquitoes are out in droves, Director of the Baytown Health Department, Mike Lester, said what we’re really seeing is a return to ‘normal.’ ‘For the last couple of years we’ve been really fortunate that the weather has been good to us,’ he said. ‘Even though people might think it’s bad right now, the pest rate is between five and 20 landings per minute, which is average for this time of year.’ Lester explained that there are generally three peak ‘hatch-outs’ during the 11-month Gulf Coast mosquito season: May, August and November. During those months, mosquitoes hatch and mature, infesting Baytonian air for a few weeks before they give way to the next generation of larvae.” Why isn’t this kind of report a regular feature? [Baytown Sun]
ROYCE BUILDERS WATCH “They have been moving the remaining 11 [employees] down to the first floor. . . . They told them it has to be done this week. Also, they were seen moving stuff out of the building and loading box trucks. Only two remaining project managers and one remaining sales counselor have been spotted.” [Swamplot Inbox; previously]
GRAVE CONCERNS FOR REGENT SQUARE The College Memorial Park Cemetery once stretched across the entire block bounded by Dunlavy, W. Clay, Gross, and W. Dallas. Portions of the Allen House Apartments were built on former cemetery land that was sold in the 1960s. So what will the developers of Regent Square do? “In a statement, the company vice president said his group has created a site excavation action plan which includes continual archeological monitoring. So far, there is no documentation showing that the graves exist, but all parties agree that remains need to be preserved. The biggest goal is to restore the entire cemetery to what it use to be.” [11 News]
What caused last week’s big implosion over at Royce Builders? And what’s happening now? A Swamplot informant tries to clue us in with this rich, extended view of the company’s problems:
Fact #1: Lavish spending by all of the Speers. At any given time one of two Bentley’s, Ferrari, Escalade or sports cars belonging to the family would be parked at the office. Shawn Speer and his wife Shonna were known for bragging about their lavish spending. Certainly, if you’re making money spend it, but when times are tight they were the only ones still spending money like water.
Fact #2: Example: Shonna told another employee about $30,000 shopping spree to New York and only a purse and few other items were on that steep tab.
Fact #3: As employees were crying and leaving Shonna and her best friend and manager Nicki K. were talking about moving forward with their new clothing line. This conversation opened up speculation that monies had been moved to accounts in Nikki’s name for this purpose.
Oh yes . . . there’s more!
