40 miles for a shot is too far
A long haul
Regarding “Vaccine data confirms disparity in county,” (A3, April 14): I receive the Houston Chronicle’s emails, and one discussed how certain ethnic populations have fallen behind with their COVID vaccination rates. There could be several reasons or issues, but I would like to see from the Chronicle a correlation between the locations of Harris County vaccination sites and those areas that have fallen behind. I live on the same side of town as Greenspoint; in fact, I am a bit farther north. To receive my vaccination, I had to drive to Katy (40 miles) for the first shot and to Baytown (53 miles) for the second shot. Not everyone can take the time nor do they have dependable transportation to make the trip. I am sure there are many other reasons for the disparity. An article that articulates these issues would be nice and could be used to ask Harris County how they plan to deal with them.
Chuck Brown, Houston
Really, ERCOT?
Regarding “ERCOT cautions Texans to save power,” (B1, April 14): As reported by the media Tuesday, ERCOT warned that the state of Texas was approaching a situation where Texans were urged to cut back on their usage of electricity. This was a day when roughly half the state was enjoying temperatures in the balmy 50s and 60s. If a day like that puts the electric grid so close, or dangerously close, to causing serious power shortages, I shudder to think what Texans will face in another month or so when temperatures statewide will zoom into triple digits. Are we about to face outages as severe as those we suffered during the recent Big Freeze? Are things really that serious with our decrepit and overtaxed electric grid?
Ted Shaw, Cypress
Thanks for all the fish
Regarding “Fund the Ike Dike,” (A11, April 12): I fully agree that the Coastal Spine should be funded and should have started years ago. I have read the proposal and think most of it should go forward. Items like the seawall and gates along the coast are long overdue. Also the restoring of wetlands will help mitigate some of the storm surge. These should be fully funded now.
But there are two parts of the proposal that should not be funded and scrapped from the project. These are secondary dikes and gates, with massive pumps on Clear Creek and Dickinson Bayou. Both of these bodies of water are fish nurseries for shrimp, reds, flounder and many other species.