Tag: Disaster Aftermath

Disaster Aftermath
02/02/10 11:19am

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

by
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]

, , , ,
Disaster Aftermath
01/08/10 10:48am

From One Extreme to Another

by
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]

, , , , ,
Disaster Aftermath
01/05/10 4:36pm

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

by
Galveston, Proposed Developments
No Comments

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

, , , , ,
Disaster Aftermath
11/20/09 8:04am

Houston Real Estate Market Doing Much, Much Better Than Last October

by
Forecasts, Foreclosures, Houston Data, Price Trends
11 Comments

Swamplot’s chart-wielding analyst is back with a few comments on the Houston Association of Realtors’ latest report and media push:

Median and average home sales prices fell $7,200 from the prior month. This was including increased activity to get the $8,000 home buyer tax credit in under the wire! Now it is not fair to compare month to month numbers as seasonal factors are working against the housing market this month.

So we get some good spin from the realtors: “Home prices up 5%” “Sales up 13.8%” …this maps directly over to the mainstream press with no research: “Home sales rise for second month,” “Home prices up 5%,” “Sales up 13.8%” Homeowners in this town should be proud that such a hardworking PR machine still gins out great product!

Why would you call those year-over-year increases spin?

The realtors get to make a press release every month and every month something is a “record” and the press is under deadlines and it gets copied in verbatim. This is home prices up 5% and sales up 13.8% from HURRICANE IKE with no caveat in the headline going out to 200,000 print readers and as many web readers!  Not bad for a days work.

Oh, yeah. Forgot about that whole Ike thing. So what’s the market looking like really?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , ,
Uncategorized
09/25/09 1:14pm

Galveston’s Flagship Hotel: No Sale

by
3 Comments

Those rumors earlier this summer that Galveston’s Flagship Hotel would soon be sold to an unnamed buyer didn’t pan out. And now it looks like Landry’s Restaurants may also be backing away from its earlier backup plan to tear down the hotel and build a “pleasure pier” in its place. A Landry’s official tells the Galveston County Daily News‘s Laura Elder the company now plans to repair and reopen the hurricane-ravaged hulk-on-a-pier at 25th Street and Seawall Blvd.:

The city built the Flagship in 1965 as a show of confidence after Hurricane Carla struck the coast.

If Landry’s developed an entertainment complex, it would return the 25th Street pier to its roots. In 1943, the city built the Galveston Municipal Pleasure Pier.

At 1,130 feet long, the pier held a dance hall, a 2,000-seat open air arena, restaurants and concessions, according to the “Galveston Architecture Guidebook.”

Landry’s officials declined to divulge what their specific plans were.

The company is assessing the price of repairs, [Landry’s VP Steve] Greenberg said.

Photo: Ellen Yeates

, , , , , , ,
Disaster Aftermath
09/18/09 1:31pm

Rooting Out the Broadway Oaks

by
Galveston, Quicklink, Streetscapes, Trees
2 Comments

ROOTING OUT THE BROADWAY OAKS The 510 dead oak trees that line Broadway get a week’s reprieve, as Galveston’s oak-removal extravaganza continues: “State officials have said they want new trees planted along Broadway in the same spots as their predecessors to maintain the 100-year-old patterns of the plantings. But forestry experts warn that planting new trees in holes surrounded by webs of existing roots could choke them off and kill them. The city’s tree committee hopes to start planting trees along other roadways in November, but with all of the approvals and agreements needed for planting around Broadway, the historic boulevard could stay bare for another year, Cahill said.” [Galveston County Daily News; previously on Swamplot]

, , , ,
Bolivar Peninsula
09/14/09 4:34pm

Comment of the Day: A Boost for the Bolivar Buyout?

by
Comments, Disaster Aftermath, Flooding, Foreclosures, Quicklink
3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: A BOOST FOR THE BOLIVAR BUYOUT? “A large part of Bolivar is going to be turned into a nature preserve. FEMA is buying out many of the properties. . . . I suppose that buyout was made easier by the rate of foreclosures. . . .” [Raj, commenting on Where the Action Was: Houston Summer Foreclosure Map]

, , , , , , , , ,
Apartments
08/31/09 1:42pm

What’s the Story with the Bayou on the Bend Apartments?

by
Bayous and Waterways, Flooding, Hazards, Mold, River Oaks
13 Comments

Robert Boyd’s original remarks on the scraping of the Wilshire Village Apartments briefly mentioned another older apartment complex that Matt Dilick redeveloped and now runs: the Bayou on the Bend Apartments, at 5201 Memorial, just west of Shepherd. Boyd’s link to discussions of that complex at ratings website Apartment Ratings sparked a quick note from a reader:

It looks like Apartment Ratings attracts tenants who want to complain, but it seems like most of the gripes about other apartments focus on managers who are hard to deal with, thin walls, neighborhood crime, that sort of stuff. Have you read the reviews of Bayou on the Bend?

Bayou on the Bend gets a 35 percent positive rating from readers who have written in to comment — certainly not the lowest number for a large Houston complex. Here are a few choice excerpts:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , , , , ,
Bayous and Waterways
08/19/09 10:36am

From Show House to Wet House to No House: Saying Goodbye the MacGregor Way

by
Demolitions, Disaster Aftermath, Flooding, Idylwood
11 Comments

The 2-story 1939 brick home at 1504 N. MacGregor Way, on the banks of Brays Bayou in Idylwood, has completed the Swamplot trifecta. In July of last year the home made its first appearance, as the subject of a Neighborhood Guessing Game (answer revealed here). In September, after the pre-Hurricane Ike storm surge brought about 2 feet of water in for an extensive tour of the first floor, the home was featured again: an after-Ike-cleanup poster house, still on the market for $359,000.

And then, this morning, a third and likely final showing on Swamplot: in our Daily Demolition Report.

A quick look back at the home’s better (and not-so-much better) days:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , ,
Disaster Aftermath
08/14/09 11:23am

Party at Arne’s

by
First Ward, Openings and Closings, Retail
2 Comments

Arne’s Warehouse Store — that 5-building, 2-story maze of party decorations, pet supplies, and small appliances tucked into the embattled warehouse district at the base of the Heights just west of the First Ward — reopened yesterday, almost a year after being hit hard by Hurricane Ike. How hard?

The building that houses Arne’s inventory and staff offices suffered the brunt of the damages – two of its walls were blown down – and the warehouse roof was torn off by the strong winds of the storm, as well. The interior of the store, which is made entirely of wood, and all the products inside got wet, so all goods were purchased by other vendors, thrown out or destroyed. . . .

Although most of the store was in a workable condition, Arne’s was forced to close because it could not function properly without the inventory section. The necessary repairs were made to the warehouse, and the office building was rebuilt.

Photo of Arne’s, 2830 Hicks St., after Hurricane Ike: Paul McRae

, , , , ,
College Station
08/05/09 9:19am

Disaster City in College Station: Modeled After the Worst

by
Disaster Aftermath, Quicklink
No Comments

DISASTER CITY IN COLLEGE STATION: MODELED AFTER THE WORST Lisa Taddeo reports from a pancaked House of Pancakes, a couple of miles south of the Texas A&M campus: “You cannot think calmly when you’re staring into a rubble pile of bodies, half of them moving and half of them still. You have to have been there before. Suppressing panic during crisis takes practice, which is precisely why 150 people have gathered on this dusty 52-acre plot called Disaster City in College Station, Texas: to practice imposing order where normally there isn’t any. . . . Disaster City isn’t a city but a vast disaster-simulation center designed to look and feel as close to catastrophe as you ever want to be. Each hairline crack, each mangled car, all the mountains of rubble are modeled on wreckage from real disasters, like the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles that killed 72 people and injured nearly 12,000. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing inspired the collapsed parking garage, with cars dangling off the sides like spiders from a ceiling, while the 12-foot-deep rubble catacombs resemble those from Ground Zero. ‘It’s like a Jerry Bruckheimer set,’ says Brian Smith, Disaster City’s public information officer.” [Popular Science, via Planetizen]

, , ,
Construction Materials
07/29/09 11:42am

Hard To Find Green in Houston

by
Disaster Aftermath, Green Design and Development, Renovations
19 Comments

A reader calls attention to this Chronicle letter to the editor from Pamela R. Zuteck of Clear Lake Shores:

Regarding “Texans can pay extra to rebuild the eco-friendly way if their home is hit by disaster” (Page A1, Sunday), trying to “go green” using Houston’s contractors will make you throw up your hands. They are clueless or resistant to even simple things like low-VOC paint. Product suppliers are hard to find or too far away to be practical. We saw Ike as a real opportunity to step it up but have met frustration at every turn. There’s no help out there. It was a victory just to get a few items, like Hardiplank removable interior wallboard. We had to do all the research and coordination, then design and supervise every step of installation. We sorted the waste for recycling. No wonder more people don’t go green. It’s just too hard.

Writes our reader:

I have no reason to doubt the contentions, but am stumped at the writer’s mention of “Hardiplank removable interior wallboard.” Since your reader/participants are so very knowledgeable, could you ask them to weigh in? My search of the internets provided nada.

, , , ,
Disaster Aftermath
07/22/09 5:42pm

The Grey Gardens of Galveston’s Original Aqua Beach House

by
Galveston, Home Decor, Interiors, Laffite's Cove
2 Comments

How’d that Granddaddy of all aqua-toned beach houses in Lafitte’s Cove stand up to Hurricane Ike? Joni Webb — who after Verandah magazine is perhaps the home’s greatest fan — shows off some recent pics of the once-grand weekend showcase on her blog, Cote de Texas:

It is here, today, almost a year after Ike, still languishing empty and neglected – a sort of sad, upscale Grey Gardens of Galveston. I’m not sure why it hasn’t been repaired – it all seems like minor, superficial damage, certainly nothing on a par with the slaughter of the Live Oaks going on uptown. But, still, the house has been left to the elements – something that on the beach should always be avoided. Maintenance is a must in the salt air. A loyal Cote de Texas reader happened upon the Aqua House and took new pictures for me.

The home, decorated in all its much-copied aqua glory by Houston designer Babs Watkins, was sold by a later owner shortly before the hurricane hit last year. And then?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , ,
« Previous Page Next Page »