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Houston Chronicle © 2007
February 16, 2007
The Houston-Galveston area can be a disaster coordinator's nightmare when a major hurricane threatens. The region's flat topography makes it vulnerable to an unpredictable and deadly double punch from flash flooding triggered by torrential rains as well as coastal storm surges pushed inland ahead of a cyclone about to make landfall.
Citing the difficulties in evacuating communities in the path of Hurricane Rita two years ago, a coalition of area academics, civic leaders and emergency managers proposes to create the Severe Storms Prediction, Education, and Evacuation from Disaster Center. It would serve as a clearing house for data and new radar technology to plan storm evacuations as well as pinpoint developing trouble spots during a weather emergency.
state universities as well as the Houston-Galveston Area Council. Within four years center planners hope to create a regional forecast network to cover coastal areas from New Orleans to Brownsville. "There's no research center in the most vulnerable state and the most vulnerable city in the United States to think about how we might mitigate the effects of a major hurricane making landfall here," said Bill King, former mayor of Kemah and a member of the task force set up after the Rita emergency. He said Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst support the concept of the center, which initially would have a $3 million annual budget funded by the state and would tap into federal grants and insurance company support. A bill to create the center was introduced Wednesday in the Texas Legislature.
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