Swamplot Archives by Tag: Disaster Aftermath

Friday, June 19, 2009

Growing Property Lines on the Beach

June 19, 2009 – 8:45 am
   

The owners of more than 2 dozen properties on the Bolivar Peninsula have been planting grass and shrubs along the edges of the dunes on the seaward side of their land. Why? The General Land Office prohibits new construction beyond the natural vegetation line. “‘The front row (of beach houses) is gone, and they are hoping to establish the vegetation line where it was before,’ said Dan Peck, 54, whose neighbors planted a swath of grass about 250 yards long. . . . Peck’s house in the Singing Sands subdivision near Crystal Beach was in the fourth row from the beach before Ike swept away the front three rows of houses Sept. 13. The vegetation line is established by the General Land Office, but Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said he may wait as long as two years after the storm before marking the formal line that could determine the fate of many Gulf properties.” [Houston Chronicle]

8:45 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Development Restrictions, Disaster Aftermath, Gardening, Neighborhoods: Bolivar, Neighborhoods: Crystal Beach, Neighborhoods: Singing Sands, Quicklink
Read more about: , , , , , , , ,
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Great Galveston Summer Tree Carving Festival

June 10, 2009 – 9:07 am

Salt water from Hurricane Ike damaged 11,000 trees on city property in Galveston — and as many as 31,000 more on private property will need to be cut down. The Chronicle’s Allan Turner reports:

The process will involve a tree-by-tree examination, the Texas Forest Service’s Pete Smith said. Candidates for cutting will include most tree varieties that have lost 50 percent or more of their canopy. Live oaks with at least 30 percent of their leaves may be spared. The live oaks, Smith said, are “either recovering or dying,” and more time is needed to determine which is the case.

Officials hope to remove doomed trees [on city property] by the middle of September, thereby qualifying for federal payments that could cover up to 75 percent of the city’s removal cost.

. . . Removing every dead tree on both public and private land could cost about $5 million, according to city estimates, although the federal government will pay to remove only those in the city right of way.

Photo: Flickr user lutzman–

9:07 am | 7 Comments | Read more about Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Trees
Read more about: , , ,
Wednesday, May 6, 2009

High School Documentary: The Hurricane That Totally Blew Galveston Away

May 6, 2009 – 9:56 am

Here’s the latest version of the trailer for Ike: A Documentary: The Story of a Torn City Rebuilt by Everyday Heroes. The movie was created by students in Mr. Weiss’s film class at Galveston’s Ball High School.

It all began on the first day of school after the hurricane as students sat together in the advanced media technology class and talked about their storm experiences.

Some students had lost everything. Austin [Almanza]’s family lost their house. William [Gomez] got separated from his family and spent the storm at the high school, which became an emergency shelter during the storm.

As they discussed the storm, “I posed the question,” Weiss recalled. “Do you think we should do a documentary about this?”

9:56 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Disaster Aftermath, Galveston
Read more about: , , ,
Friday, April 17, 2009

Augusta Demo and Storage

April 17, 2009 – 12:46 pm
   

The new owner of a small Galleria-area office building directly across the street from the parking garage for San Felipe Plaza plans to tear down the 2-story 1977 structure, which suffered a roof collapse and $2.7 million worth of damage from Hurricane Ike. “[Seller Robert] Clay is under the impression that a self-storage facility will be built there. In fact, four parties interested in buying the site wanted to build development storage units there, he says. [Hasad Development's Sam] Amber, the buyer, has developed several ProGuard Self Storage locations around town. However, a company spokesman in Houston would not comment on future plans for the nearly one-acre site. Based on buyer interest, Clay concludes that, ‘This location is a perfect private mini-storage location.’” [Houston Business Journal]

12:46 pm | 6 Comments | Read more about Demolitions, Disaster Aftermath, Land Sales, Neighborhoods: Galleria, New Construction, Quicklink
Read more about: , , , , , , ,
Monday, April 6, 2009

Camera Stores Shuttered

April 6, 2009 – 11:03 am

Ritz Camera, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February, will be closing more than 300 of its Ritz, Wolf Camera, and Kits Camera stores nationwide, the company announced late last week. Not surprisingly, the Wolf Camera in Sage Plaza at 5161 San Felipe — less than a quarter-mile from the Wolf Camera on S. Post Oak in the Galleria — is one of the victims. Also closing: Ritz Camera stores in the Katy Mills Mall, at 5706 Highway 6 in Missouri City, and in the Royal Oaks Shopping Center at 11691 Westheimer.

Ritz is also shutting down its entire 130-store Boater’s World chain, including the 6,000-foot location in Webster. Its Galveston store never reopened after Hurricane Ike.

Photo of Wolf Camera in Baybrook Square, Webster (where the lights are staying on): David Stall

11:03 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Bankruptcies, Disaster Aftermath, Openings and Closings, Retail
Read more about: , , , ,
Friday, March 13, 2009

The Woodlands’ Bigger Tent Revival

March 13, 2009 – 5:00 pm

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion will have twice as many seats, and a greatly enlarged tension-fabric structure to cover them, when it reopens for its first concert on May 1.

A new section of about 2,000 additional reserved seats is being constructed behind the existing uncovered seating area. The new canopy structure will cover all 6,387 seats. The result will be 2,147 fewer seats on the lawn, cutting the venue’s overall capacity by about 460, to 16,040.

The original Teflon-coated Fiberglas-fabric roofs were torn to shreds — and their support structures seriously damaged — by Hurricane Ike:

Continue Reading This Story >

5:00 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Attractions, Disaster Aftermath, Neighborhoods: The Woodlands
Read more about: , , , ,
Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Openings and Closings: Super Happy Baking Brothers

March 4, 2009 – 11:16 am

As the retail churns . . .

  • Reopening Soon: The original Three Brothers Bakery next to Brays Bayou in Linkwood, closed since Hurricane Ike, has a permit in hand to rebuild. Cynthia Lescalleet reports in the River Oaks Examiner:

    While the exterior of the building, 4036 South Braeswood Blvd., will retain the colors, 60s-vintage architectural elements and windows of its past, the inside has been reconfigured a bit to be “cozy,” with a more efficient layout.

    Among the tweaking are the addition of a small room for wedding consultations and staff offices that look out over the interior so they can see and connect with the customers they’ve missed since Hurricane Ike damaged the business, [co-owner Janice] Jucker said.

    “We’re almost like therapists over the bakery counter,” she said.

    But: no plans to return to the River Oaks Shopping Center or Sugar Land.

    Any future expansion would likely be into properties the bakery would own and build itself, she said: “We want control over our destiny.”

    Near the end of the 10- to 12-week building project, the building’s crooked sign will be re-set. If you see a straight sign, that’ll mean the bagels are almost ready.

Continue Reading This Story >

11:16 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Neighborhoods: East Downtown, Neighborhoods: Linkwood, Neighborhoods: Museum District, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
Read more about: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Monday, February 9, 2009

Seen on the Street: Vultures, Galveston Vacancy, Rice Trailer

February 9, 2009 – 3:43 pm

A few fun pics from around and about town! First, this crowd of black vultures ponders its next real-estate venture from atop a communications tower parked in a gated community in Cypress. Photographer Karen Morris happened upon the scene on Eldridge near Grant Rd.:

It was an awesome sight. Personally, if they adorned my rooftop every evening, I’d clean the roof, sell the house and move to the other side of town. . . . Black Vultures/Buzzards are a bit smaller and less colorful that the Turkey Vulture. They tend to follow the Turkey Vulture because it has a keener sense of smell and can find it’s meal through use of that sense. They eat dead animals and occasionally capture small live animals (field mice, etc.). Although they do not build a nest, they will take an abandoned nest. Often roost together as seen in this set of photos. If startled while roosting, they will regurgitate with power and accuracy.

More local habitat:

Continue Reading This Story >

3:43 pm | 2 Comments | Read more about Art, Attractions, Critters, Development Strategies, Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Neighborhoods: Cypress, Neighborhoods: Rice University, Utilities
Read more about: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Thursday, January 15, 2009

Was Hurricane Ike Worth It?

January 15, 2009 – 1:16 pm

ttweak, the usually lower-cased folks behind the Houston It’s Worth It campaign, are hoping to put together a sequel to 2007’s HIWI: The Book, a breakthrough publishing event in the urban resignation genre. The subject of the new group project? Hurricane Ike.

Why bother?

Obviously this subject is still an open wound for many of our neighbors and we don’t want to be insensitive to those who still have a road of recovery ahead. Rather, we want highlight the camaraderie and support brought about in the storm’s aftermath – refrigerator cookouts/recipes, extension cord jungles, neighborhood cleanups. Tell us your stories or poems, dig up a “day ten without power” journal entry, find that song you penned by candlelight and of course, send us your photographs (even those taken on your iPhone or BlackBerry); if you made a hurricane song playlist, go ahead and send that too.

The HIWI: Ike upload page is waiting!

1:16 pm | 3 Comments | Read more about Disaster Aftermath, Real Estate Marketing
Read more about: , ,
Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Baptist Church, the Hooters Waitresses, and the Hurricane Victims

January 8, 2009 – 2:46 pm
   

A 9-year-long relationship between congregants of the Rice Temple Baptist Church in Southgate and a group of Hooters waitresses led to a bit of help for residents of Ike-devastated Oak Island over the holiday. “Over the years, the church has found additional ways to develop the relationship. The church has been a sponsor of an annual Hooters golf tournament, giving away Bibles. They have also worked with the restaurant’s employees on Habitat for Humanity building projects. . . . The waitresses have even joined with the congregation in walking through the neighborhood singing Christmas carols. ‘You could tell they hadn’t gone Christmas caroling before, because they all showed up in high heels,’ [Pastor Clint Reiff] recalled.” [Associated Baptist Press]

2:46 pm | 2 Comments | Read more about Disaster Aftermath, Neighborhoods: Oak Island, Neighborhoods: Southgate, Quicklink, Religious Facilities, Restaurants
Read more about: , , , , , ,
Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The End of Galveston As We Knew It

January 7, 2009 – 3:25 pm
   

John Nova Lomax tours the unsung wreckage from Hurricane Ike: “In Galveston, the progress looks superficially impressive. Scaled-back and/or rescheduled editions of major tourist draws like Dickens on the Strand and the Lone Star Biker Rally went over fairly well. Things seem to be getting back to normal, and here in Houston, the second our power came back on, the lines dwindled at the corner gas station and the streetlights returned to working order, most of us ‘moved on.’ Hasn’t Galveston as well? In a word, no.” [Houston Press]

3:25 pm | 3 Comments | Read more about Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Quicklink
Read more about: , ,
Thursday, December 18, 2008

A Line in the Vanished Sand

December 18, 2008 – 9:03 am
   

Galveston Planning Commissioner Chula Ross Sanchez, surveying damaged properties on the island 3 months after after Hurricane Ike: “The General Land Office (GLO) has drawn a new line in the sand four-and-half feet above sea level. People can stabilize their properties on the beach but we cannot issue new construction certificates in that zone. The line is normally based on vegetation but the storm wiped that out and the new line is based on mean sea levels. Drawing that line, many houses have ended up on public property.” [OffCite]

9:03 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Development Restrictions, Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Quicklink
Read more about: , , , , , ,
Monday, December 8, 2008

Attack of the Mulch Mountains

December 8, 2008 – 2:43 pm

An awful stench has been wafting through the homes of Golden Glade Estates, just west of Hobby Airport and south of Sims Bayou. There’s also been backyard flooding after every rain, a constant din from trucks, and generator-powered lighting beaming into local Living Rooms during the night. The cause? Huge piles of wood debris, brought into the southeast Houston neighborhood after Hurricane Ike:

Their problems started when Federal Emergency Management Agency contractors began trucking in hundreds of semi truckloads of pungent smelling, steaming mulch. Local 2 Investigates cameras and Sky 2 helicopter footage show some mounds stacked taller than nearby homes, covering acres of land less than 100 yards from some homes.

Continue Reading This Story >

2:43 pm | 2 Comments | Read more about Disaster Aftermath, Environmental, Flooding, Hazards, Neighborhoods: Golden Glade Estates
Read more about: , , , , , , , ,
Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Pecan Shadows: The Long Sell

November 25, 2008 – 8:24 am

It took almost 3 years, but the Pecan Shadows Apartments have finally sold, says Globe St.’s Amy Wolff Sorter:

[Hendricks & Partners senior advisor Jeff] Eisenhardt, who represented the Santa Clarita, CA seller, says before the current buyer, another interested tax credit buyer had the complex at 480 W. Parker Rd. tied up in escrow for close to a year.

“Then they got a new CEO who decided he didn’t want to buy and rehab buildings, so they had to walk away from a ton of earnest money,” Eisenhardt comments. Shortly afterward, a second buyer signed a contract, went hard with the earnest money, then dropped out of the deal days before it was due to close.

“This is the third or fourth time this had been under contract,” Eisenhardt acknowledges. “Since day one, we had a lot of activity on this, but just bad luck with buyers.”

The 137-unit complex sits on more than 5 acres next to a forlorn-looking Family Dollar shopping center off I-45. One of apartments’ 12 buildings lost a roof to Hurricane Ike.

A partnership led by Houston investor Doug McGregor paid $4.5 million for the apartments and plans to spend another half-million on interior upgrades, Sorter reports.

Photo of Pecan Shadow Apartments: Rentsmart

8:24 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Apartments, Buying and Selling
Read more about: , , , ,
Monday, November 17, 2008

Trailers and Mobile Homes Scatter in Baytown

November 17, 2008 – 11:09 am
   

“In addition to the 871 uninhabitable apartment units left behind by Ike, the city also listed 123 single-family homes as uninhabitable and 60, from the Lakewood, Southwest Addition and Roseland, as destroyed. To assist these citizens while they try to rebuild, Baytown City Council wasted no time in passing an ordinance allowing mobile homes on uninhabitable property until the homeowners can make repairs and move back in. Those utilizing this program can only do so for six months, with two opportunities for renewal – not to exceed 18 months. However, the city has said they won’t evict citizens making progress. ‘We have six people who are living in trailers on their private property for now,’ [planning and development director Kelly] Carpenter said. [FEMA’s Ericka] Lopez said 12 households on private sites in Baytown have requested manufactured housing from FEMA so far.” [The Baytown Sun]

11:09 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Baytown, Disaster Aftermath, Manufactured Homes, Quicklink
Read more about: , , , ,