heights_yankee Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 I've been readingSciGuy's chron blog all week. There is a chance Ike could miss us altogether or Galveston could get a direct hit. Eric says areas far north, like Cypress, would experience 100 mph winds if Ike hits here. That means the same and worse for the Heights. Clearly, the houses are all still here so they have survived many a storm. I am just wondering if anyone knows how the area did during Alicia for comparison sake? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunsets Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 From what I understand from reading the Woodlnad Heights board, structural damage wasn't too bad, but there were lots and lots of trees down, to the point that Bayland was impassable for a week or so. Plus the power was out for a while. It looks lilke the highest winds we got from Alicia were 75 mph, so Ike could be much more damaging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heights_yankee Posted September 10, 2008 Author Share Posted September 10, 2008 Yeah, I heard tha as well. If Galveston/Houston gets a direct hit, SciGuy anticipated 100 mph winds in Cypress! I feel like we're too far to evacuate but still close enough to be scared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zippy Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Yeah, I heard tha as well. If Galveston/Houston gets a direct hit, SciGuy anticipated 100 mph winds in Cypress! I feel like we're too far to evacuate but still close enough to be scared.I was out in Katy during Alicia and we had a tree come down in our yard.. but otherwise, the houses around there held up well.. maybe a fence or sign or two was down.. but no biggie..Like reading Red in another thread, I agree when he said that many of these houses have been here for some 90 years.. I don't expect too much.. I only worry about the trees around me.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyHatch Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 I was out in Katy during Alicia and we had a tree come down in our yard.. but otherwise, the houses around there held up well.. maybe a fence or sign or two was down.. but no biggie..Like reading Red in another thread, I agree when he said that many of these houses have been here for some 90 years.. I don't expect too much.. I only worry about the trees around me..We asked our neighbors on both sides, both of whom have been here for at least 20 years, one with a 2 story, 100+ year old home, the other with a 1920's bungalow, the same thing. Both said the same thing, trees down, but no damage to the homes. Check for dead branches on the branches on the trees in your yard, and take 'em out if you can. Our pool furniture is going in the water come Friday morning (it can't blow away if it's under water, after all!)In the immortal words of comedien Ron White, "It ain't THAT the wind is blowing, it's WHAT the wind is blowing." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 I lived in an apartment at Wilcrest and Westheimer during Alicia. It was an impressive display of weather. Wind and rain blowing sideways, trees flailing wildly. The walls of my apartment would literally bow in with the wind gusts. However, there was no structural damage. Expect to have moments when you doubt your decision to stay, but overall, your house should be fine. If it gets really shaky, find an interior space, such as a hallway or even a closet to hang out in. This protects you from breaking glass in the windows, as well as falling trees, which tend to take out the outside walls, but rarely split the entire house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbigtex56 Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 I've been readingSciGuy's chron blog all week. There is a chance Ike could miss us altogether or Galveston could get a direct hit. Eric says areas far north, like Cypress, would experience 100 mph winds if Ike hits here. That means the same and worse for the Heights. Clearly, the houses are all still here so they have survived many a storm. I am just wondering if anyone knows how the area did during Alicia for comparison sake?I was here for Alicia. At that time I was working for Houston Lighting and Power as a customer service representative, which gave me an overview unobstructed by media spin. MY answer? No one knows. Que sera sera. As my (admittedly hazy) recollections go, the Heights fared pretty well. Bear in mind that localized outages can be the last to be addressed. When entire subdivisions are without power, a blown transformer fuse might not get top priority. One of my co-workers was without power in the Montrose for three weeks; his neighbors had lost power for only a few hours. It's a crapshoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cottonmather0 Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 We live in Timbergrove three doors down from TC Jester and White Oak Bayou on the west side just south of 18th street. Our house didn't flood during Allison, but the one next door did, so I'm slightly worried should the "worst case" scenario occur and the storm surge back up the bay and not allow the bayous to drain. If I lived just 2-3 houses further west I wouldn't be worried at all. The neighbors across the street have three very tall pine trees in their front yard and I've always wondered if they're tall enough to fall across the street and hit our house. Maybe I'll find out this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heights_yankee Posted September 11, 2008 Author Share Posted September 11, 2008 We live in Timbergrove three doors down from TC Jester and White Oak Bayou on the west side just south of 18th street. Our house didn't flood during Allison, but the one next door did, so I'm slightly worried should the "worst case" scenario occur and the storm surge back up the bay and not allow the bayous to drain. If I lived just 2-3 houses further west I wouldn't be worried at all. The neighbors across the street have three very tall pine trees in their front yard and I've always wondered if they're tall enough to fall across the street and hit our house. Maybe I'll find out this weekend.just this morning SciGuy addressed the bayou system on his blog, saying this:Just so you know, a common myth about storm surge that we hear a lot is that a storm surge will handicap our bayou system's ability to drain. Actually, the majority of the bayous in Harris County will continue to function effectively during a storm surge. Most of our creeks and bayous are upland and drain by gravity.Because of their natural slope toward Galveston Bay, a storm surge caused by a hurricane will not impede this process, as water will always flow downhill. Of the roughly 2,500 miles of channel in Harris County, only a small portion located near the bay will experience a limited ability to drain during a storm surge.Furthermore, there is a gap in time from when a surge occurs and when rainfall in our area eventually drains into the bay. The storm surge occurs before and during a hurricane's landfall. By the time our area's rainfall drains through creeks and bayous to the bay, the storm surge will have receded.http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/200...st_48.html#moreI am more concerned about wind, especially since we do not have one interior room without windows or a hallway that can be closed from 4 sides. The nice thing that we do have is a 2nd story storage area above our bedroom that will "catch" the bigger trees before they come in to the house. I am such an optimist! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyHatch Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 Check out this great website for tracking the storm. It's www.stormpulse.com If you click the button on the side that says forecasts, you get a picture showing all of the different potential paths for the storm. There's also a button you can click that shows projected wind strengths. It's a great site to surf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
20thStDad Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 What's the average elevation in the Heights? I Googled topo maps but can't find anything useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm1fd Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 What's the average elevation in the Heights? I Googled topo maps but can't find anything useful.I think you can see elevations at maps.tsarp.org...you may have to zoom a good ways in and look for a little grey line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gooch Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 What's the average elevation in the Heights? I Googled topo maps but can't find anything useful.46-ish feet at 14th and Studewood according to my GPS... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 46-ish feet at 14th and Studewood according to my GPS...You're higher than that. I'm at 54 feet at 10th and Columbia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gooch Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 Ya, it's my bike GPS. Not that accurate. Somedays it's 44-feet, somedays it's 50-feet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
20thStDad Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 I think you can see elevations at maps.tsarp.org...you may have to zoom a good ways in and look for a little grey line.Apparently we're almost a mile from the 500 yr flood line - I think we're good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cottonmather0 Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 TSARP says that we are at 52 ft just south of 18th and TC Jester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 Ya, it's my bike GPS. Not that accurate. Somedays it's 44-feet, somedays it's 50-feet.According to TSARP, you are at 54 feet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 Starting to get blustery here in the Heights.Hmmm, blustery sounds like a cold weather term. How about gusty? Can't say squally, because it's not raining yet. Windy! Yeah, it's getting windy here in the Heights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heights2Bastrop Posted September 13, 2008 Share Posted September 13, 2008 I was living in Timbergrove when Alicia hit. The eye passed right over me as the winds were strong in one direction, then calm, then strong again in the other direction.I lived on Timbergrove Street and Jester backed up to Turkey Gully. I lost power for 9 days because the power feed came from Wynnewood rather than Jester, and I was one of, if not the last one to get power back in all of Timbergrove. I had a limb fall and slightly dent my car trim, but that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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