Tag Archives: Hurricane Ike

Beryl was stronger than we thought

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Some lessons for the future here. A new report from the National Hurricane Center found that Hurricane Beryl roared into the upper Texas Gulf Coast with maximum winds of 92 miles per hour, just 3 miles per hour shy of … Continue reading →

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Other Beryl stuff

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

A mini-roundup, with mostly non-CenterPoint things. How’s your Internet service? An Xfinity spokesperson said Wednesday that service was restored to approximately 355,000 customers — or about 36% of those experiencing service outages — in the 36 hours after Hurricane Beryl … Continue reading →

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CenterPoint’s uninspired performance

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

So what happened here? CenterPoint Energy faced an early round of scrutiny Tuesday about whether it adequately prepared for Hurricane Beryl, as more than 1 million Houston-area customers prepared to sweat through multiple days without power. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan … Continue reading →

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The power situation

Posted on July 10, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Rough times for CenterPoint. Hurricane Beryl “more heavily impacted” Houston’s electric infrastructure than originally anticipated, the area’s primary electricity provider said Monday in an afternoon press release. The Cat 1 hurricane led to widespread outages affecting more than 2.26 million … Continue reading →

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That was quite the storm

Posted on May 18, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I hope everyone reading this is safe and coping well after that Thursday storm. Our power has been out since Thursday evening, so things are a little chaotic. But we’re fine, we’ll be fine, and there’s plenty to be done … Continue reading →

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Ike Dike authorization officially passed

Posted on December 27, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Took a roundabout route to get there, but here we are. With the stroke of a pen, President Joe Biden authorized a $34 billion proposal to build a massive storm surge protection system on the Texas coast and around Galveston … Continue reading →

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The nightmare hurricane scenario

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry, but we have to think about it. Eric Berger, meteorologist, Space City Weather editor and senior space editor at Ars Technica, said when it comes to hurricanes there are three principal threats to worry about: storm surge, winds and … Continue reading →

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Rough times for oysters

Posted on May 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It’s bad for oyster fishers, too. But if there just aren’t enough oysters to support harvesting them, well… Currently, 25 of the state’s 27 harvesting areas are already closed. The season normally runs from Nov. 1 through April 30, but … Continue reading →

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Is there a better way to measure hurricane intensity?

Posted on April 23, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Probably. During the this week’s National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, a Colorado State University professor proposed a better a way to predict the damages of a devastating hurricane — do away with the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Hurricane specialist, Philip Klotzbach, … Continue reading →

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It could have been worse

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Just something to ponder, from Space City Weather. First of all, if you can remember all the way back to Saturday, I presented three different scenarios for Nicholas’ track and eventual flooding in Houston. The first of these was the … Continue reading →

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Remembering Ike as Nicholas pays a visit

Posted on September 14, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Won’t be as bad, thankfully. But still be careful. Tropical Storm Nicholas is approaching the Texas coast Monday, threatening torrential downpours and flooding for Houston. It also brings with it memories of Hurricane Ike, which wrought havoc across the region … Continue reading →

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Another catastrophe averted, for us

Posted on September 9, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Sooner or later our luck is going to run out. If Hurricane Ida had veered west and hit Galveston, its 15-foot storm surge could have devastated the city and plowed up the Houston Ship Channel, smashing into residential communities and … Continue reading →

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It’s the quick intensification of the hurricanes for me

Posted on August 29, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

New things to keep you up at night. It’s a nightmare scenario that keeps forecasters up at night: A tropical cyclone strengthens quickly over a 24-hour period. It happened last year close to home with Hurricane Laura, which evolved from Category 1 … Continue reading →

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Why is Greg Abbott doing so little to help Texas recover from the freeze?

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

If this Politico story doesn’t make you mad, then either you’re a Greg Abbott shill or you really need to check your priors. Assessing the effectiveness of disaster response is a famously fraught political game. What looks like a master … Continue reading →

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Who cares how much it will cost to build the Ike Dike?

Posted on November 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Imagine how much it will cost to recover from a catastrophic hurricane whose storm surge could have been mitigated by the Ike Dike. You know, like that hurricane from earlier this year that would have done exactly that had it … Continue reading →

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No, seriously, what are we going to do to prepare for the next Hurricane Laura?

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I mean, the next one is coming whether we’re ready or not. We just don’t know when it will be here. Though the storm ultimately tracked east, sparing Houston, the problem remains: The region is disastrously unready to handle any … Continue reading →

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Just build the effing Ike Dike already

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Enough waiting around. As twin hurricanes converge on the Gulf Coast this week, including one with a decent chance of affecting the Houston-Galveston region, a highly ambitious proposal for protecting the area from a massive storm continues to slowly grind … Continue reading →

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More like Ike than Harvey

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Not sure this is a choice I want to have to make, but here we are. Hurricanes are expected to blow through Texas more quickly during the last 25 years of this century. A study led by Rice University researcher … Continue reading →

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The Dutch way to mitigate against floods

Posted on July 27, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We can learn a lot from this largely-below-sea-level country. On a sunny Friday in late May, a jubilant wedding party scrambled to the top of a colossal sand dune in this tiny Dutch beach town for a photoshoot, bridesmaids’ arms … Continue reading →

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We have an Ike Dike plan

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Now we need a plan to pay for it. A decade after Hurricane Ike devastated the Texas Gulf Coast, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday that a more ambitious version of the proposed “Ike Dike” — a 70-mile-long … Continue reading →

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Army Corps to present Ike Dike options

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

About time. Later this month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will recommend a multi-billion-dollar plan to help protect the Texas coast — the Houston area in particular — from hurricanes. When it will become a reality, however, is anyone’s … Continue reading →

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Galveston, ten years after Ike

Posted on September 20, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Overall things are better now, but not for everyone, and nothing can ever truly be the same as before. Galveston has a long and storied history dealing with epic storms, and the destruction Hurricane Ike wrought was no different — … Continue reading →

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Will we ever get an Ike Dike?

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

We will when it gets funded. When might it get funded? Ummm… If the Houston-Galveston region continues to boom for the next 60 years and sea level rises as scientists predict, a direct hit to Galveston from a massive hurricane … Continue reading →

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Harvey and the oysters

Posted on October 8, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Oyster lovers will shell out more for the marine delicacy this fall, as freshwater runoff from Hurricane Harvey’s historic floods killed virtually all of the bivalves in the prolific seabeds of Galveston Bay. … Continue reading →

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Now is not a good time for HHSC to be dysfunctional

Posted on October 7, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

And yet here we are. Under Charles Smith, the longtime ally of Gov. Greg Abbott picked to lead the state’s Health and Human Services Commission, Texas’ government health care infrastructure is hemorrhaging veteran employees and facing criticism for its response … Continue reading →

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On when you should file a Harvey-related claim

Posted on August 29, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

It may or may not ultimately make a difference, but a new law that goes into effect on September 1 is about insurance claims and lawsuits. For many Texans ravaged by the rain and winds Hurricane Harvey carried ashore this … Continue reading →

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There is trouble with the trees

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

More to the point, there is trouble with the idea that municipal tree ordinances are somehow a bad thing, but that’s where we are, and it’s got some folks worried. More than 40,000 trees were lost to [Hurricane] Ike, according … Continue reading →

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Busy hurricane season predicted

Posted on May 28, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Welcome to summer, y’all. The nation’s climate agency on Thursday predicted an above-normal 2017 hurricane season with 11 to 17 named storms, five to nine of them hurricanes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a 45 percent chance of … Continue reading →

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What is the environmental impact of building an Ike Dike?

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Maybe we should try to figure that out. Plans for building a massive storm-surge protection system for the Houston area are rushing ahead before officials determine whether the project could harm Galveston Bay, environmental groups say. The Sierra Club and … Continue reading →

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Obama signs Cornyn flood mitigation bill

Posted on December 22, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

The title to this post is a bit of an overbid, but this is still a good thing. President Obama on Monday signed into law a bill that could help expedite the long process of constructing a hurricane protection system for … Continue reading →

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Two Ike Dike updates

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Ike Dike could be hidden by dunes: The “Ike Dike” that is being proposed to protect the Galveston-Houston area from a potentially catastrophic hurricane storm surge could take the form of undulating sand dunes hiding a steel or concrete core. … Continue reading →

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Cornyn files bill to speed up floodgate construction process

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Credit where credit is due. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn filed legislation Wednesday that he says would expedite the long process of constructing a hurricane protection system for the Texas coast, including the particularly vulnerable Houston region. But while local officials … Continue reading →

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Don’t expect Congress to pay for a Gulf Coast floodgate system

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I sure don’t. After nearly a decade of bickering and finger pointing, Texas scientists and lawmakers finally seem to agree that building some version of a “coastal spine” — a massive seawall and floodgate system — would best help protect … Continue reading →

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Storm protection is expensive

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

But then so would be getting hit by a truly bad storm. Building a storm surge protection system along the Texas Gulf Coast could cost between $7.9 billion and $11 billion, and likely would not be completed for about two … Continue reading →

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