Be weather aware
Our area must be prepared for visits from Laura, Marco and other storms this season.
The double-barrel threat of tropical storms Laura and Marco in the Gulf of Mexico should be a wake-up call for Houston-area residents that we are in the middle of the peak Atlantic hurricane season.
That means having plans for dealing with the high winds, possible flooding, power outages and evacuation orders that can come with the storms.
Laura’s path, in particular, remains in flux as the storms make their way across the Gulf. Current projections suggest Laura and possibly remnants of Marco may impact the Houston area by midweek. And experts have so far refused to rule out the possibility that Laura will become a Category 3 hurricane. On the other hand, Houston could escape the worst of it, but we still need to be prepared.
If you didn’t make your lists, stock up on provisions, check your insurance and strengthen your home before the season began, the crash-course response for Laura and Marco over the coming days should include:
• Keeping up with the latest updates on the storms through local media, including the Houston Chronicle weather page, Harris County’s hurricane preparedness website and the city of Houston’s Emergency Operation Center.
• Making sure you have medication, drinking water and nonperishables in the event that you are stuck at home or stranded by floodwaters or lose power for an extended period.
• Having a plan for where you can evacuate safely. If you are staying with friends or family, take precautions for COVID-19, including face masks, hand sanitizer and the ability to keep social distance whenever possible. This is true if you also end up in a public shelter. If you are planning to stay in a hotel, you should call ahead for reservations and to inquire about precautions taken to limit the spread of COVID. Hotels and motels fill up quickly during storm evacuations.
• Gassing up the vehicles you will use to evacuate and make sure any you leave behind are on higher ground. Should you be on the road in a storm, it is easy to underestimate flooded streets. Turn around, don’t drown.
• Securing all loose items around your property so that they don’t become missiles in high wind or float away to clog drains and streets.
Be aware that the threat won’t end with the passing of Laura and Marco. Hurricane season officially begins annually on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30, but the peak time for storms in our region is between August and October, with Sept. 10 the day statistically most likely to have a tropical storm somewhere in the Atlantic basin.
Hurricanes and tropical storms have devastated Texas in the months of August and September.
Wednesday, for example, is the third anniversary for Hurricane Harvey’s landfall along the Gulf, which sent devastating rains over Houston for days, dumping more than 60 inches in some areas, causing floods that left more than $125 billion in damage and at least 88 people dead from direct and indirect causes. We were tested, and we helped one another through.
Hurricane Ike sent a surge of water over Galveston and its high winds ripped through the Houston area on Sept. 13, 2008, leaving more than 100 people dead, $35 billion in property damage and many without power for weeks.
Escaping one storm doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be ready for the next one. Two hurricanes in the Gulf simultaneously hasn’t happened since at least 1900, when modern records begin, and the last time two tropical storms occurred in the Gulf at the same time was 1959. But a string of deadly storms is not uncommon. Hurricane Rita slammed into the Texas-Louisiana border on Sept. 24, less than a month after Katrina had flooded New Orleans and flattened the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. The standstill on highways ahead of Rita made clear that all of Houston cannot evacuate at once — so plan any evacuation carefully.
Each storm has its own lessons, but with one constant: Early planning saves lives.
As Jimmy Buffett once plaintively sang in “Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season,” we could use some rest but we know that the storms will come. We need to be prepared ... for the whole season.