No lollygagging as Laura nears
GET READY: Houston likely spared hurricane’s lashing
Preparations for the arrival of Hurricane Laura kicked into high gear Tuesday after a slight shift in the storm’s projected path heightened the chances of severe damage and power outages across Greater Houston in the coming days — though a late evening forecast brought a measure of relief to the region.
Government, business and education leaders throughout the region issued evacuation orders and extensive preemptive shutdowns ahead of Laura’s expected landfall as a Category 3 hurricane late Wednesday or early Thursday. Their actions came as meteorologists warned of the potential for a “lifethreatening storm surge” along the coast and “very dangerous, damaging winds” near the storm’s center.
While Galveston and the Greater Houston area remained slightly outside of Laura’s projected path Tuesday, meteorologists cautioned that the hurricane could continue to twist west. A Tuesday night forecast by the National Weather Service showed the heart of the hurricane likely making landfall somewhere between the eastern end of the
Bolivar Peninsula and the southwestern Louisiana coast, with sustained winds hitting 115 mph and gusts topping out at 140 mph.
“We’re confident that we’re going to have a major hurricane with big impacts,” said Dan Reilly, a forecaster for the National Weather Service’s Houston/Galveston office. “What’s still to be determined is the exact track of the center. But we’re close enough now — and there’s enough uncertainty — we sort of need to plan on a direct hit.”
Houston’s vulnerability to Laura jumped overnight Monday after the storm’s projected path tilted west, putting southeast Texas in greater danger and lessening the odds of severe damage to New Orleans. However, a Tuesday night forecast moved the path east by about 25 miles.
Laura is expected to make landfall nearly three years to the date that Hurricane Harvey arrived from the Gulf and stalled over southeast Texas, dumping massive amounts of rain — more than 50 inches in some places — that flooded vast swaths of the Houston region.
The hurricane also rolls in as the region continues to battle an outbreak of COVID-19, complicating efforts to track people with coronavirus symptoms. Several testing sites operated by Harris County and the city of Houston are closed Wednesday and Thursday due to Laura.
While Laura is not expected to cause flooding on the level of Harvey, local officials compared the storm to Hurricane Ike in 2008, which hammered Galveston with 110 mph winds and knocked out power for two weeks or more throughout Houston. Storm surges from Laura still could hit nine feet in Port Bolivar, five feet in Galveston Bay and two to four feet near Freeport, the National Weather Service reported.
In anticipation of Laura’s arrival, local government officials issued mandatory evacuation orders Tuesday for the city of Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula. Residents living in sections of Galveston Bay and lower-lying coastal areas, such as League City, parts of Baytown and coastal communities in Harris and Brazoria counties, also received voluntary evacuation orders.
“Let me make this as clear as possible: all of us need to be prepared for the very real potential of a direct hit from this storm,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said. “This is truly when we have to say, ‘Prepare for the worst.’”
Following Galveston’s evacuation order, Katherine Chachere waited Tuesday with her three sons and neighbors for a bus off the island to Austin.
“We used to have our own transportation and stuff to move around but our car broke so this is last-minute,” Chachere said. “I ain’t never had to experience this, the bus thing, shelter and all that.”
Local leaders also announced plans Tuesday to shut down many public services.
The Port of Houston ceased all public terminal operations Tuesday evening and likely will keep its eight public facilities shuttered through Thursday. City of Houston offices will close at 2 p.m. Wednesday, with the Metropolitan Transit Authority halting bus and rail service two hours later.
Despite the region’s continuing COVID-19 outbreak, southeast Texas hospitals appeared well-positioned to handle the medical and health fallout from the storm. Area hospitals reported about 9,700 general beds remain open, equal to nearly half of their base capacity, according to the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council. About 200 out of 2,300 ICU beds are unused, but local hospitals can open another 450 if needed.
While inland Houston expects to receive a lesser brunt of Laura, the potential for wind damage and power outages prompted widespread school closures Tuesday.
Nearly all local public school districts that resumed classes this month — the vast majority of them online-only — announced they will shut down all instruction Wednesday and Thursday. The list of nearly 30 districts includes Aldine, Conroe, Fort Bend and Pasadena ISDs.
Many districts said they will reassess plans for Friday as the storm develops, while several preemptively canceled classes through the end of the week. Among the Houston region’s largest districts, only one holdout remained: Katy ISD, home to about 83,600 students.
“Because all students and staff are engaged in virtual learning until Sept. 4, we will be making decisions about school operations concerning the weather on a day-by-day basis,” district officials said in a statement. “As of (Tuesday), we do not anticipate any change to virtual learning this week.”
CenterPoint Energy, the regulated utility that supplies power to most of the Houston area, activated its emergency operations plan so it is ready to restore power as quickly as possible after the storm passes.
This year, CenterPoint said it had to make changes to accommodate the spread of coronavirus, including establishing several smaller staging sites to keep employees separated and virtual safety briefings and check-ins for crews that come from other areas to help restore power.
While Greater Houston rests on the outer edge of Laura’s projected path, the hurricane is tracking directly toward Beaumont and Port Arthur, prompting more aggressive preparations along the Texas-Louisiana border. All five of the region’s largest counties issued mandatory evacuation orders by early Tuesday afternoon, while Houston-based Motiva Enterprises shut down its Port Arthur refinery, the nation’s largest.
Laura would mark the third major natural disaster in three years to devastate the Texas-Louisiana border towns, which suffered extensive flooding following Harvey in 2017 and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019.
“If you decide to stay, you are on you own,” Port Arthur Mayor Bill Bartie told residents Tuesday as he emphasized evacuation orders. “I will not put my people in harm’s way. If you stay, it is you and God.”