Question About Hurricane And Memorial Northwest Area

[Houston11]

Hello everyone.

I have a home in MNW that I recently purchased and now that dean is about to reek havoc in south TX I was wondering if a Major Hurricane ever severly affect MNW and the surrounding area before. Was MNW ever flooded? Was there ever an evacuation in that area? Anyone remember?

[mrfootball]

Dean is headed to Mexico.

To answer your question about major hurricanes hitting Houston. The answer is Hurricane Alicia, back in 1983. I remember it well. No real problems in Memorial NW.

The problems that occurred in the NW Harris County area occurred mainly in the Ponderosa, Westador neighborhoods which back up to Cypress Creek. The backs of those neighborhoods (at the bottom of the hill) flooded frequently during major storms, however the county long ago bought out the problem properties.

[ricco67]

There is a matter of WHERE you are in those subdivisions. The only thing you really have to worry about is MINOR flooding (if your home survived allison, it can survive just about anything) and wind damage. The wind damage prevention is easy to take care of, but it requires a considerable amount of work BEFORE the hurricane season.

That usually includes you literally crawling over your roof and checking and securing EVERY shingle.

Cutting prefab cut boards (or that neat new fabric that I hear about) for your windows and vents (which is something that people have a tendency to overlook).

Being that far in the MNW you shouldn't expect much from either, but it's always good to keep those materials handy in case they're needed. (windows broken by an unrelated windstorm or a some other event).

[Houston11]

Thanks for the quick response.

[chamberscreek]

One overall comment -- we need to remember that Alicia was only a Category 3 storm. Were Houston to see a direct hit from a Category 5 storm, I fear we'd see some very different results out here. I don't know that all the trees would be able to withstand some real winds, which would then result in some wood transfer to our roofs. I've ridden out some "real" hurricanes on the coast, but never with 80 ft. pine trees looming over my house...

As for the rain, Allison wasn't the worst case scenario out here in the NW area, because we get in the most trouble when the areas to the north and west of us get drenched first, THEN we get a bunch of rain (thus doubling the drainage issues). Allison (according to the nearest county rain gauge) dropped 20 inches at my house in 24 hours, and we didn't have nearly the flooding issues we had in earlier years with much smaller rains (when a pre-drenching occurred in areas north and west).

[ricco67]

Well, as I've said in another thread, Allison was a freak of nature because we basically got hit with it twice. I would just consider it a major rainstorm....with ALOT of rain.

Alicia had a track that would be devastating if it was a cat 5 storm, as it was it didn't do quite as much damage because it went through Houston quite quickly and the winds dropped it from a cat 3 to about a 2. it's Downtown's distance from the coast that has saved us a couple of times, including during the storm of 1900.

[rps324]

There is a part of Memorial Northwest, over in section 1, that can flood. But that is the only part. Some of the houses next to Theiss Gully.