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Flooding and Hurricanes


bkueb73

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Im looking to get out of Tampa, but want the same kinda weather. Houston seems far enough inland that it wouldnt be as affected by hurricanes,but...

the flooding you got last yr(or the yr b4) seemed pretty bad.

how bad do the hurricanes get? how far inland would it flood?

Thanks :)

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We don't get as many hurricanes nearly as often as they do in Tampa.

You also have to take into consideration that every hurricane isn't created equal. The flooding we received several years ago was due to an unusual event. Allison was a Tropical storm that formed and crossed Houston within 12 hours, went north, decided that Dallas wasn't all that, and went south. Basically, we were hit with TWICE which contributed greatly to our flooding.

now if you look at Alicia (83) and Rita (05), there was very little flooding, but there was some wind damage.

Alicia: it cut a swath and literally went up the west loop and caused some serious damage to downtown (closed it for 2 weeks if I remember correctly to clear out the broken glass).

Rita: it hit just east of Houston giving us the "dry side" and all we got was wind and rain in pasadena, but the further west you got, the effects were hardly worth mentioning.

If you want a cut and dry (no pun intended) about possible flooding, move north of pearland and west of 288 if that's your biggest fear.

What I would advice you if you have this particular phobia is to move someplace where you're comfortable, but don't live in fear of hurricanes.

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i wouldn't compare rita/alicia/allison at all. alicia made a diagonal path over houston with tons of wind damage and moved at a good speed therefore water wasn't as major as it was during allison. rita basically nothing happened because it moved east of us. hurricanes can affect houston just as they can tampa. we've been lucky for far too long. alicia had winds in the 70-90 mile range as it hit houston. just that alone caused so many problems. power lines down because of fallen trees.

at the same time harris county has been activity widening our bayous to address flooding. not that this has solved the problem, but it has helped in some. we do have a long way to go to provide total relief.

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i wouldn't compare rita/alicia/allison at all. alicia made a diagonal path over houston with tons of wind damage and moved at a good speed therefore water wasn't as major as it was during allison. rita basically nothing happened because it moved east of us. hurricanes can affect houston just as they can tampa. we've been lucky for far too long. alicia had winds in the 70-90 mile range as it hit houston. just that alone caused so many problems. power lines down because of fallen trees.

at the same time harris county has been activity widening our bayous to address flooding. not that this has solved the problem, but it has helped in some. we do have a long way to go to provide total relief.

Let's see:

allison and Alicia both hit Houston dead on. Rita was a major scare that hit just east here (but according to national media, it did). Those are the only hurricanes that I can recall hitting Houston since 83 (i know there were a couple of others, but nothing worth mentioning that I can remember, since I don't even remember them hitting Houston!) and I think it's a good comparison on the diversity of the types of storms that typically come through here.

If you don't see this as an appropriate comparison, then please supply one instead of just offering a piecemeal critique that offers no additional information.

"lucky" is an apt term, however. We've been quite fortunate, but our "season" has a tendency to end in Oct. Since the winds are not as favorable to steer a storm in our direction.

But like playing a scratch off card, you may get a hit occasionally, but the odds of hitting it big are pretty small.

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Harris County hasn't experienced hurricane conditions in about 60 years. Alicia rapidly lost its strength over Galveston County. I don't know of any storm hits in October. The worst months for the western Gulf of Mexico are September and maybe June (because of the two Allisons). Rita was something to be scared of. It weakened because of an unexpected eyewall replacement cycle, and could easily have gone back to Cat 4 or 5 strength.

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Harris County hasn't experienced hurricane conditions in about 60 years. Alicia rapidly lost its strength over Galveston County. I don't know of any storm hits in October. The worst months for the western Gulf of Mexico are September and maybe June (because of the two Allisons). Rita was something to be scared of. It weakened because of an unexpected eyewall replacement cycle, and could easily have gone back to Cat 4 or 5 strength.

Hobby Airport experienced minimal hurricane conditions during Alicia.

http://chps.sam.usace.army.mil/USHESdata/A...meteorology.htm

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Im looking to get out of Tampa, but want the same kinda weather. Houston seems far enough inland that it wouldnt be as affected by hurricanes,but...

the flooding you got last yr(or the yr b4) seemed pretty bad.

how bad do the hurricanes get? how far inland would it flood?

Thanks :)

Houston gets hurricanes.

But live in a location that's not close to water (Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Bay, Clear Lake, other lakes, bayous), a neighborhood that hasn't been flooded before, a house that's higher than the street, a neighborhood that has good drainage, and you should be OK. I've been here 40+ years, and have never been flooded or had to evacuate -- have just had to pick up a lot of debris from trees, shrubs. Be a bit educated about it, and you should be OK. Oh, and have insurance, too, because just like anywhere else in the world where "things" can happen.

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Let's see:

allison and Alicia both hit Houston dead on.

but the speeds of the storms is what makes their devastation different. alicia was more developed (a hurricane) and provided low hurricane force winds directly through houston. because it was more developed it also came through houston a lot more quickly and therefore major flooding as in allison did not occur but wind damage was horrendous. allison was less developed (not a hurricane) and with the weather conditions in the area, it meandered through texas (and the US) for days. came through tuesday evening and caused massive flooding and then with houston already water logged it returned friday night. then it went back over the gulf and then went farther east hitting the coast again cause more flooding in the se US.

Rita was a major scare that hit just east here (but according to national media, it did). Those are the only hurricanes that I can recall hitting Houston since 83 (i know there were a couple of others, but nothing worth mentioning that I can remember, since I don't even remember them hitting Houston!) and I think it's a good comparison on the diversity of the types of storms that typically come through here.

Rita did not hit houston it hit more in the beaumont area. we were on the weak side. some parts of houston had a little wind and rain but basically a front provides more wind and rain.

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i wouldn't compare rita/alicia/allison at all. alicia made a diagonal path over houston with tons of wind damage and moved at a good speed therefore water wasn't as major as it was during allison. rita basically nothing happened because it moved east of us. hurricanes can affect houston just as they can tampa. we've been lucky for far too long. alicia had winds in the 70-90 mile range as it hit houston. just that alone caused so many problems. power lines down because of fallen trees.

at the same time harris county has been activity widening our bayous to address flooding. not that this has solved the problem, but it has helped in some. we do have a long way to go to provide total relief.

Don't forget all the 'lakes' the developers are building ... many of them are actually drainage ponds.

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We don't get as many hurricanes nearly as often as they do in Tampa.

You also have to take into consideration that every hurricane isn't created equal. The flooding we received several years ago was due to an unusual event. Allison was a Tropical storm that formed and crossed Houston within 12 hours, went north, decided that Dallas wasn't all that, and went south. Basically, we were hit with TWICE which contributed greatly to our flooding.

now if you look at Alicia (83) and Rita (05), there was very little flooding, but there was some wind damage.

Alicia: it cut a swath and literally went up the west loop and caused some serious damage to downtown (closed it for 2 weeks if I remember correctly to clear out the broken glass).

Rita: it hit just east of Houston giving us the "dry side" and all we got was wind and rain in pasadena, but the further west you got, the effects were hardly worth mentioning.

If you want a cut and dry (no pun intended) about possible flooding, move north of pearland and west of 288 if that's your biggest fear.

What I would advice you if you have this particular phobia is to move someplace where you're comfortable, but don't live in fear of hurricanes.

Rita was a major scare that hit just east here (but according to national media, it did). Those are the only hurricanes that I can recall hitting Houston since 83 (i know there were a couple of others, but nothing worth mentioning that I can remember, since I don't even remember them hitting Houston!) and I think it's a good comparison on the diversity of the types of storms that typically come through here.
but the speeds of the storms is what makes their devastation different. alicia was more developed (a hurricane) and provided low hurricane force winds directly through houston. because it was more developed it also came through houston a lot more quickly and therefore major flooding as in allison did not occur but wind damage was horrendous. allison was less developed (not a hurricane) and with the weather conditions in the area, it meandered through texas (and the US) for days. came through tuesday evening and caused massive flooding and then with houston already water logged it returned friday night. then it went back over the gulf and then went farther east hitting the coast again cause more flooding in the se US.

Rita did not hit houston it hit more in the beaumont area. we were on the weak side. some parts of houston had a little wind and rain but basically a front provides more wind and rain.

If you read my posts more carefully, you'll see I acknowledged the fact that Allison was a tropical storm, you will also noticed I stated that "THE MEDIA" basically called Rita a Houston storm, even though i wasn't. sorry for my assumption that you'd be bright enough to catch the subtleties in my language usage.

all you're doing (once again) is regurgitating the information of someone else's posts without adding any real information.

I agree with one of the posters, you should be informed on hurricanes and hurricane preparedness as well as other emergencies. It's always wise to be prepared for any natural disaster no matter what part of the country you live in, since disasters are regional in their nature (i.e. earthquakes, Floods, tornadoes, and election years).

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Guest Marty

I would not worry about it to much we have too much drag on the land surface like tree's and a shallow coast Hurricans allways weaken before they make land fall and the drag weakens it even more.

If you want to know where's it floods in Houston which will be your main concern visit this site tsarp insurance rate map's

Turning the pop up blocker off will make the map's display right, but you will not get any popup's.

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If you read my posts more carefully, you'll see I acknowledged the fact that Allison was a tropical storm, you will also noticed I stated that "THE MEDIA" basically called Rita a Houston storm, even though i wasn't. sorry for my assumption that you'd be bright enough to catch the subtleties in my language usage.

all you're doing (once again) is regurgitating the information of someone else's posts without adding any real information.

I agree with one of the posters, you should be informed on hurricanes and hurricane preparedness as well as other emergencies. It's always wise to be prepared for any natural disaster no matter what part of the country you live in, since disasters are regional in their nature (i.e. earthquakes, Floods, tornadoes, and election years).

the subject is hurricanes and flooding. you're introducing storms that weren't hurricanes nor did they cause flooding. oh ok...i'll read more carefully.

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Houston gets hurricanes.

But live in a location that's not close to water (Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Bay, Clear Lake, other lakes, bayous), a neighborhood that hasn't been flooded before, a house that's higher than the street, a neighborhood that has good drainage, and you should be OK. I've been here 40+ years, and have never been flooded or had to evacuate -- have just had to pick up a lot of debris from trees, shrubs. Be a bit educated about it, and you should be OK. Oh, and have insurance, too, because just like anywhere else in the world where "things" can happen.

Flooding is a much more common problem than hurricanes for Houston.

Bach pretty much hit it on the head, though.

The easy things you can do: Don't buy a home in the floodplain, and make sure your house's slab elevation is well above the top of the curb of the street (2-3 feet is nice).

More difficult to discern is "a neighborhood with good drainage", but if you're buying in a subdivision built after say, 1990, your chances of the subdivision having good drainage are much better. Harris County Flood Control District put new criteria in place in 1984 calling for detention ponds and more consideration of major storm events, but grandfathering kept many developments from having to comply with the new rules until the 1990's. In these newer subdivisions, the streets will still flood in a heavy rain, but the streets are designed to carry off the floodwaters before they get into homes.

For subdivisions built before the 1984 drainage criteria, it's pretty difficult (and EXTREMELY expensive) to retrofit them to solve local flooding problems. The City of Houston is slowly working to solve some of these local subdivision drainage issues, but it's going to take many BILLIONS of dollars and many decades to make much headway.

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  • 12 years later...

This is a section of the  Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of NOAA , Aug 15, 2019 Article cited in the Going Up forum of HAIF.

 

Regarding Cyclonic intensity  and frequency in the Atlantic the report states. 

 

Statistical tests indicate that this trend is
not significantly distinguishable from zero (Figure 2). In addition, Landsea et al. (2010) note that the rising trend in Atlantic tropical storm counts is almost entirely due to increases in short-duration (<2 day) storms alone. Such short-lived storms were particularly likely to have been overlooked in the earlier parts of the record, as they would have had less opportunity for chance encounters with ship traffic.


Figure 3 (click to enlarge)

Figure 4 (click to enlarge)
If we instead consider Atlantic basin hurricanes, rather than all Atlantic tropical storms, the result is similar: the reported numbers of hurricanes were sufficiently high during the 1860s-1880s that again there is no significant positive trend in numbers beginning from that era (Figure 3, black curve, from
CCSP 3.3 (2008)). This is without any adjustment for “missing hurricanes”.

The evidence for an upward trend is even weaker if we look at U.S. landfalling hurricanes, which even show a slight negative trend beginning from 1900 or from the late 1800s (Figure 3, blue curve). Hurricane landfalling frequency is much less common than basin-wide occurrence, meaning that the U.S. landfalling hurricane record, while more reliable than the basin-wide record, suffers from degraded signal-to-noise characteristics for assessing trends..

 

Some scientists do  project that there may be an increase using computer models but this may yet to occur.

 

I have no reason to question the integrity of these scientists. If their findings are inaccurate I am sure other researchers will point it out. In my years of Biomedical research at UT Med there are always other researchers ready to "cut you down to size" if they find inaccuracies.  

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