Tag: Hurricane Ike

Bayous and Waterways
07/13/10 11:57am

Another FEMA Find Leaves the Shores of Idylwood

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Demolitions, Disaster Aftermath, Flooding, Idylwood
1 Comment

Readers in Idylwood have been watching Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report for the appearance of this house at 1954 North MacGregor Way, as it wraps around to Sylvan Rd. in their neighborhood. A local resident tells us the 1950 home will be the 10th Hurricane Ike-flooded house bought up by FEMA and torn down. (Other homeowners on the same street have turned down similar early-retirement deals for their properties, claims the resident.) But focusing on that singular pre-storm flooding event in 2008 only doesn’t do justice to this home’s long history of seaworthiness: Our source says this house had 4 feet of water in it on at least 2 occasions, along with several less dramatic Brays Bayou baptisms. Water from the bayou came back to play in the street in front of the house just 2 Fridays ago.

Idylwood scored 3 FEMA buyouts in the wake of Tropical Storm Allison, in 2001.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Disaster Aftermath
07/09/10 4:29pm

Galveston’s New Rinse-Off Nightspot

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Flooding, Galveston, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
2 Comments

GALVESTON’S NEW RINSE-OFF NIGHTSPOT A lawsuit will determine whether Scott Arnold can collect the remainder of the insurance money he expects for the loss of the famed Balinese Room to Hurricane Ike. In the meantime, the former owner of the waterside bar wanted to make sure his next nightspot would survive another big Galveston flood. So . . . is his new Granite Room, which opened on July 4th as part of the Voodoo Lounge complex at 26th and Mechanic streets, on an upper floor or something? Naaah. It’s mop-down friendly: “This building got nine feet of water during Ike,” he tells HBJ reporter Allison Wollam. “So I designed the club with granite and marble so that if it floods again, we can just hose everything down and be open again within a week or two.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Granite Room

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Disaster Aftermath
06/01/10 10:35am

King Ready To Launch 700-Year War

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Flooding, Galveston, Quicklink
6 Comments

KING READY TO LAUNCH 700-YEAR WAR Will the new Gulf Coast Community Protection and Recovery District be leading the battle to build a 60-mile-long “Ike Dike” to gate off Galveston Bay from hurricane storm surges? “I think there’s a growing consensus that something’s got to be done,” board member and former Kemah mayor Bill King tells Eric Berger: “Whatever gets done, says King . . . it’s important not to view it as a magic bullet. ‘I think it’s a big mistake to think about this issue as a single project,’ he said. ‘One thing I learned from the Dutch is that they’ve been doing this for 700 years. We’re starting a war, trying to hold back Galveston Bay from inundating the area, that’s never going to end.’” [Houston Chronicle]

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Bolivar Peninsula
05/26/10 5:55pm

Hurricane Ike: The Quiet Storm

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Disaster Aftermath, Galveston
3 Comments

Now that everyone’s feeling all nostalgic about Hurricane Ike, please enjoy the sweet and soothing sounds of this video, featuring newly released aerial footage taken over portions of Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula on September 20th, 2008.

Video: Bryan Carlile, Beck Geodetix

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Flooding
05/26/10 5:31pm

Hurricane Ike’s Lousy Aim

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Houston Ship Channel, Quicklink
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HURRICANE IKE’S LOUSY AIM Director Phil Bedient comments on a report released today by Rice University’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center (SSPEED): “‘Ike was a Category 2 hurricane, and it caused $30 billion in damage. Had that same storm struck 30 miles farther south, it could easily have caused $100 billion in damage. Had it struck that location as a Category 4 storm, like Carla, the results would have been catastrophic.’ . . . Bedient said one need look no further than the Houston Ship Channel to get a clear sense of the region’s vulnerability. The ship channel is home to one of the nation’s busiest ports and about one-quarter of U.S. refineries. The Coast Guard estimates a one-month closure of a major port like Houston would cost the national economy $60 billion. Despite this, government regulations require dikes and levees that can protect ship channel facilities against only the 100-year flood of 14-15 feet. Bedient said that based upon results from supercomputer models at the University of Texas, Austin, Ike could have caused a 20- to 25-foot storm surge along the ship channel if it had struck about 30 miles farther south.” [SSPEED, via Memorial Examiner; report (PDF)]

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Disaster Aftermath
04/22/10 4:40pm

Tracking Galveston’s Thousand-Plus Abandoned Homes

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Galveston, Quicklink
2 Comments

TRACKING GALVESTON’S THOUSAND-PLUS ABANDONED HOMES City planning department officials have counted 1,078 homes in Galveston that are boarded up, look vacant and have unmaintained yards. Another 229 are boarded up but show some signs of maintenance. The city plans to use the data gathered from the drive-by survey to prepare for a code-enforcement blitz. “City staff blamed the abandoned homes on three factors: the high rate of absentee landlords and homeowners in Galveston; and the double whammy of Hurricane Ike, which flooded three-quarters of the island and damaged many houses that lacked insurance, combined with a national recession that forced many homeowners into foreclosure. Of the houses city staff identified as being potentially abandoned, 760, or more than two-thirds, are east of 61st Street and many of those are in neighborhoods north of Broadway, particularly in the Lasker Park area, according to the city’s survey, which is still in draft form.” [Galveston County Daily News]

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Disaster Aftermath
04/05/10 5:12pm

Inside That Kemah House of Theme Extremes

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Home Decor, Home Design, Interiors, Kemah
8 Comments

Over the weekend we finally got the big reveal from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, featuring the 15-member Beach Family in Kemah. Pictured above: the new Therapy Room, modeled after “the carnival in Kemah.”

Next from the Beaches’ new 6,340-sq.-ft. home: magical mushrooms in the “Trees and Tea Parties Room.”

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Bayous and Waterways
03/08/10 3:51pm

Comment of the Day: The Great Idylwood Shoreline FEMA Buyout

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Comments, Demolitions, Flooding, Idylwood, Quicklink
7 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE GREAT IDYLWOOD SHORELINE FEMA BUYOUT “The ten houses in Idylwood, 6 along N. Macgregor, 2 on Wildwood and 2 on Park Ln were all heavily damaged by Hurricane Ike. Most all those houses have been hit numerous times, not the least of which was Allison. Those homes were right on Brays Bayou. Come on folks, some of the homeowners hated to sell to FEMA but it was either that or jump through impossible hoops to raise the homes’ foundations. True, there’s been a lot of improvement to the bayou but who knows if those improvements will be effective when the next flood hits? Not everyone chose to take the buyout.” [PYEWACKET2, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Idylwood Hat Trick]

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Eastwood
02/26/10 11:49pm

A Whole New Ball Game: Fingers Back and Open for Business

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Houston History, Museums, Openings and Closings, Retail
3 Comments

Almost a year after shutting down all its operations, Finger Furniture — or at least another company using the same name and run by the same family — is open again. Owner Rodney Finger is claiming the newly renovated 600,000-sq.-ft. facility at 4001 Gulf Fwy. at Cullen near Eastwood is now the biggest furniture store in Texas. And that’ll likely be true for a bit longer — until the warehouse portion of that million-sq.-ft. Rooms To Go on I-10 past Katy opens in another month or so.

But at 200,000 sq. ft., Finger’s showroom is 5 times the size of the one at Rooms To Go. And then there’s that museum inside:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Apartments
02/15/10 10:28am

Doing Their Level Best

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Demolitions, Disaster Aftermath, Park Place, Quicklink
8 Comments

DOING THEIR LEVEL BEST Latest poster child for the approximately 9,000 abandoned, vandalized, or dangerous structures the city is working bit by bit on demolishing: the 43-unit Park Place Apartments at 7410 Park Place Blvd., near the corner of Long Dr. and Telephone Rd. in southeast Houston — which neighbors say has been vacant of paying tenants for at least 20 years: “More than $84,000 in back taxes is owed on the property, according to the Harris County Tax Assessor Collector. Owner Rodolfo Yannarella, 67, said he fell on tough times and wants more time to get a loan so that he can repair the place, which he called his last chance for retirement. ‘It is very Draconian,’ Yannarella said of a Houston police order earlier this month that it be leveled. ‘I plead with you, I want to repair this property. It is my only future,’ he said moments before he was told the building would have to come down. Five years ago, the city delayed demolition and gave him a chance to fix it up. He claims he was making progress until Hurricane Ike ripped it further apart in 2008 and he fell ill. Then, thieves ripped apart the walls and ceilings in search of copper piping and wires, he said.” [Houston Chronicle]

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Beach City
02/05/10 12:42pm

Calling McCollum Park’s Bluff

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Chambers County, Disaster Aftermath, Openings and Closings, Parks, Quicklink
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CALLING MCCOLLUM PARK’S BLUFF McCollum Park in Beach City, closed since Hurricane Ike, should reopen this summer, after Chambers County officials get a little work done: “The park sits on a bluff overlooking the bay and the edge of that bluff now sits about 20 feet farther back than it did before Ike. Wallace demonstrated that the damaged bluff is actually in worse shape than it looks at a casual glance. ‘Look up under there,’ he said, pointing out the problem. ‘It didn’t break off clean … the waves undercut the bluff. Somebody could stand there close to the edge and think it is safe and then the ground could just drop right out from under them. That’s the main reason we had to close the park,’ [County Commissioner Bill] Wallace said.” [Baytown Sun]

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Disaster Aftermath
02/02/10 11:19am

We Shall Rebuild! The Great Downtown Galveston Hotel Flood of 2010

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Flooding, Galveston
2 Comments

Disaster is no stranger to Galveston’s historic Tremont House hotel. Opened in 1839, the original building was destroyed by fire in 1865, but rebuilt 7 years later. That second building was ravaged by the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and eventually torn down in 1928. The latest incarnation of the Tremont House, which opened in 1985 in a dry-goods building at at 2300 Ship’s Mechanic Row that had been built 106 years earlier, flooded extensively during Hurricane Ike.

And now, just 7 months after reopening, the Tremont House has flooded again. The damage this time, however, came from an unruly and apparently intoxicated guest in town for a wedding, who — according to police — ripped a water pipe out of the wall:

The leaking water pipe caused extensive damage to three rooms, according to police statements. There also was damage to the hotel’s kitchen and employee cafeteria below, [Galveston police captain Jeff] Heyse said.

“Staff indicated the water was shut off but had already drained into freezers and other electronic equipment, which malfunctioned as a result,” Heyse said in a statement. “Numerous ceiling tiles, flooring and walls were affected by the water.”

Hotel staff estimated damage at $100,000, including “irreplaceable items,” but a police report didn’t list what those items were, Heyse said.

Photo of Tremont House Hotel, 2300 Ship’s Mechanic Row: Rasmus Lerdorf [license]

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Disaster Aftermath
01/08/10 10:48am

From One Extreme to Another

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Home Design, Kemah, Quicklink
10 Comments

FROM ONE EXTREME TO ANOTHER As all of Kemah knows by now, the latest beneficiaries of one of those “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” weeklong volunteer-fueled whirlwinds is the 15-member Beach family: “After Hurricane Ike, the Beaches moved from their damaged home at 1013 Delesandri Lane into two FEMA trailers, parked in front of their house. Last fall, they moved to the backyard, into an 18-foot travel trailer with one toilet. The hot water tank held just 6 gallons, and they had to make frequent visits to the laundromat and cook on a gas grill. . . . The Beaches knew they were one of five local families nominated for the show, but Thursday’s ‘door knock’ made it official. The ‘reveal’ is scheduled for next Thursday, when they’ll come home to a 6,340-square-foot, two-story house with eight bedrooms and 4½ bathrooms. The episode is scheduled to air in March. Plans for the home include an elevator, therapy room and rooftop solar panels. The house will be built to meet standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, with wide doorways and bathrooms spacious enough for a wheelchair.” [Houston Chronicle]

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Disaster Aftermath
01/05/10 4:36pm

Galveston’s Balinese Shipping Container Ice House Pier: Where America Will Come To Drink

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Galveston, Proposed Developments
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Attorney and real estate investor Scott Arnold tells the Chronicle‘s Harvey Rice he’s got a new idea for the pier site of Galveston’s Balinese Room, famously washed away by Hurricane Ike:

Arnold is considering filling the Balinese Room’s spot on the sea wall with an icehouse made of shipping containers topped with a pavilion formed of steel masts, sails and canopies. He calls the concept America’s Icehouse.

Arnold intends to rebuild the Balinese, possibly inland, but he’s not sure when. “I’ve got a busy life,” Arnold says. “I’ve got to clear enough space out of it to start that project.”

When he does, he intends to be faithful to the original decor.

Arnold says he’s already renegotiated the property’s lease with the General Land Office, and that it now covers 130 ft. of beach frontage.

Photo of Former Balinese Room site at 21st St. and Seawall Blvd.: Flickr user still_crazy

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