Residents and tourists say storm nothing but a breeze
Cindy leaves Bolivar, most of area unscathed
Tropical Storm Cindy breezed rather than barreled ashore on the Bolivar Peninsula early Thursday, providing a hurricane season test run for emergency workers, annoying summer tourists and leaving residents of this historically battered area unimpressed.
“I was expecting more,” said 22-year-old Jeffrey Chheang, as he filled orders at Dannay’s Donuts.
Customers shared his sentiments as they sauntered in, searching for sugar and caffeine after a wet night on the peninsula, which bore the brunt of the storm for the upper Texas Coast.
“Wasn’t anything,” said Stuart Standley, from nearby Bluewater.
“A little blowy,” scoffed his partner, Daina Lamb. Gusts were about 60 mph.
They would have fled had it threatened to turn into a hurricane, with memories of Ike flattening virtually everything here with a huge storm surge in 2008.
They walked down to the beach early, expecting significant erosion. But it was hardly worse than any other downpour.
“I’m glad it was a small storm,” said Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset. “If nothing else, it was an exercise in what needs to be done.”
Another wet day
Cindy made a last-minute veer to the east, coming ashore in southwestern Louisiana before tracking northeast and weakening into a depression, according to the National Weather Service.
It claimed one life, tossing ashore a log that struck a child on vacation outside a condominium in Alabama.
Harris County officials said Cindy was, for the most part, no different than a wet day in Houston. No flooding, casualties or significant complications were reported after the storm passed through the region, said Francisco Sanchez, spokesman for the
Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Neighboring counties reported little roadway flooding and no damage.
More rain may arrive into the weekend, Sanchez said, noting the Houston area is settling into a regular summer pattern of afternoon thunderstorms.
Most locations within the Beltway received less than a half-inch of rain, according to the Harris County Flood Warning System. Areas closer to the Gulf weathered slightly higher totals. But to the north and west, places like Katy and Cypress Creek saw only a drizzle.
Coastal dwellers took to social media to lampoon the typical pre-storm hype, comparing Cindy to the pigtailed “Brady Bunch” TV character of the same name.
The Bolivar Peninsula saw high water on Texas 87 at Rollover Pass, and Harborside Drive in Galveston flooded at 14th Street. Storm debris rendered the intersection of Texas 87 and Texas 124 in High Island impassable overnight. That spot on the northeast end of the peninsula is
a typical problem area.
But main traffic arteries throughout the Houston area were unaffected.
CenterPoint Energy reported no significant outages.
Surfers disappointed
In nearby Galveston, revelers determined to enjoy their night stayed out till the wee hours, some dipping into pools and pumping music as the storm approached. At one point, stormy skies obscured the ocean and the lights of oil rigs, but by 5 a.m. the rain had passed and twinkling lights were visible again on the horizon.
“It wasn’t nothing,” said Kyle Martin, who has lived on the island about four years, adding, “I think we were lucky we didn’t get hit with the east side of it.”
In the aftermath of what one surfer referred to as the “alleged” storm, Galveston wave-lovers were nonplussed.
Usually, the best surfing is just before or after the storm, said Jon Lewis, 29, a lifelong surfer from Friendswood. But Thursday morning’s waves didn’t look so good, according to fellow surfer Joey Horn, 51.
“I almost turned around and went back to work,” he said.
The Galveston ferry ran throughout the night, once every two hours. By morning, a line of tourists undeterred by the storm was waiting to hop aboard.
Kris Russell brought his wife and kids from the Dallas area to go fishing on Bolivar. During their short ferry ride, the kids tossed tortillas to a flock of seagulls hovering in the gusty skies.
Russell said he “wasn’t really worried” the storm would impact his vacation. “I think they did a good job with the forecasting.”
Cisco Paredes and his family ended up staying in an RV park, after being warned their peninsula campsite could get flooded.
“The little RV we are staying in was shaking all over the place,” he said, “but it wasn’t that bad.”
In High Island, authorities found a vehicle belonging to a missing elderly couple from Winnie. One was found dead and the other taken to a hospital, but their situation was not believed to be related to the storm. Officials with the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said the couple apparently suffered with forms of dementia.
Stormy past
Like Galveston Island, Bolivar is a breakwater for communities along Galveston Bay, East Bay and Trinity Bay, and the peninsula regularly takes a beating when hurricanes and tropical storms move across the area.
Some of the best-known storms associated with devastation in the Houston area — Hurricanes Ike, Frances, Alicia — blasted right over Bolivar, and a memorial to Ike’s victims marks the coastline at the northeast end of the peninsula.
For years in the early 1900s, residents rode out hurricanes in the lighthouse on Bolivar Point.
But this time, there was only minor inconvenience. Standley, the doughnut shop patron, was forced to close the dirt pit he operates.
“Nobody wants mud!” he said.