Every time a storm kicks up that might head into the Gulf of Mexico, folks in my neck of the woods start to hyperventilate. And twitch. And pack the cars.
“When should I evacuate from Katy?” or “What can we expect in Katy?”
I’ve been puzzled by this for years. We’re not directly on the coast, and we’re not in a floodplain. Furthermore, most of the houses out here positively dwarf the puny, newly-planted wannabe trees, so the chances of a limb falling on one’s house are pretty low. Yet this area was heading for the hills when Rita was coming in.
So why the Texas-sized palpitations?
I think it’s because most of the people out here aren’t from here; they just don’t know what to expect. And since (imho) most of the reporting done in front of a hurricane is hugely sensationalized, folks are bound to think the worst.
With Gustav past, Hanna chugging up the East Coast, and Ike on its way into the Gulf, perhaps now’s a good time to feed some direct, locally specific information into the blogosphere. To that end, I asked our regional expert and Houston Chronicle Science Writer, Eric Berger, some questions.
Polimom: The most common question I hear from people I know here in Katy goes along the lines of, “If a major hurricane (such as Gustav, or another Katrina or Rita) came directly at Houston, should Katy evacuate?”
Eric Berger: No. Katy is far from any surge zone and winds there would probably be manageable. If I lived along the coast I would consider evacuating to [a] hotel in Katy rather than all the way to Austin or Houston.
Polimom: Under what conditions (if any) should Katy residents evacuate?
Eric Berger: Maybe a category 5 hurricane moving due north with a projected landfall in Freeport or east Matagorda Bay. Even then I probably wouldn’t go unless I lived in a poorly built home.
Polimom: What does “run from the water, hide from the wind” mean – and how does it apply to the Katy area, specifically?
Eric Berger: Run from water means avoid the storm surge. Hide from the wind means find the most sheltered location in your home and ride out the storm. For Katy residents that means, simply, finding a safe room in your home and securing provisions for the duration of the storm.
Polimom: Even if we’re not at risk from flooding, there’ll be wind, right? So
should we board the windows? What conditions would make this a practical effort for Katy-ites?
Eric Berger: You could board the windows, and that’s probably a good idea if a category 4 or larger hurricane is moving into Galveston or just southwest of Galveston.
Polimom: You’ve said, “A good rule of thumb is that a storm loses half its power every 12 hours it is inland.” So using that rule — if a hurricane packing winds of, say, 135 mph came at us at 10 mph, what would wind conditions likely be out here? Would it do serious damage to a “well built” home?
Eric Berger: At its closest point Katy is about 70 miles from the coast, so a storm moving inland would probably have less than 110 to 115 mph winds that most new homes should easily withstand.
Polimom: What do you mean by “well-built home”?
Eric Berger: Take the test for yourself and see how your home does: http://www.flash.org/DIYWindInspection/
Let me add that if I lived in Katy I would have little fear of major damage from any kind of hurricane. It’s well inland and not likely to flood. Really, of all parts of metro Houston, it’s best positioned to withstand a major hurricane.
So there you have it, Katy neighbors.
If Ike (or one of his many successors) turns our way, remember: we’re not going under, or over, out here. Yes, hurricanes are hair-raising. No, they’re not picnics. Even Polimom was nervous in front of Rita… but a healthy application of common sense (and cherry pie) will see you through.
I guess there are more reasons than good schools to live out here, eh?
Added 9/12: All Polimom posts specific to Hurricane Ike can be found via this link.
Well, my house is still standing after 70 years of hurricanes, so I’m not packing up for East San Antonio, I mean Katy, any time soon :).
People like to be part of the excitement.
LOL @ John. But you’re right, at least in part — because if nothing else, a hurricane is exciting.
The one time I’ve experienced it from the other side was 9/11. I lived in DC. It was really weird to go to Florida for Christmas and hear people there talk about; in the midst of a big, confusing, horrifying time, I understood that this was part of people making sense of it. But I lost patience with people who did not sit wondering if their house was still standing, if it was safe to ride the Metro home, etc. telling me how traumatic it was for them.
i know it’s not fair, because it was traumatic, and I know it was part of trying to understand what was going on, but it’s still different if the plane flew over your head, if one of your friends was in the flames in the Pentagon (he got out), and if you drove by the smoking mess every morning for a week on your way to work.
When a big event happens, people have a need to participate in some way. It can be highly annoying to those who really were in the middle of it – I mean, I don’t know how New Yorkers didn’t just want to throttle everyone else in the country, or just go insane, given how hard it was be live in Washington just after that – but it’s human nature.
Hurricanes are a pretty easy thrill when there’s almost no danger of anything actually happening to you other than traffic.
And oh yeah – this one is just for you…
OMG WE’RE ALL GONNA BE SWEPT AWAY OMG OMG OMG
Hahahaha!! I saw your comment on SciGuy to the guy unused to weather — I thought the same thing when I read it. You gave him good advice, I think.
Do you board your windows, John? We never have.
And yes… it’s definitely OMGOMG all over the place. It’d be funny, except that I never, ever want to see another mess like the Rita evac.
I have never (in 4 years in Houston, or in DC where we did have a decent hurricane once while I lived there) boarded windows. Mainly because they’ve never predicted enough wind for it to make much sense to me.
Plus I rent and the house needs new windows :). During Rita I did put important things in safe places – sealed in waterproof bags, off the floor, away from windows. There are some old trees nearby and who knows… If we were weathering a big storm during the night, I’d probably set up the inflatable bed in the dining room (the one windowless room in the house) and sleep there, just in case (the bedroom is small and windows on two sides, including right over the bed).
Once I buy a place, my plan is to at some point when it’s not hurricane season and not crazy) make a sent of pre-cut boards for the windows so should a big storm come through, it’s relatively easy to do.
I also do the neighbor check – during Rita I looked around, and almost nobody in the Heights was boarding up. So I figured I wasn’t nuts for not doing it.
The house is old and thus has survived all kinds of big stuff. My only serious worry would be tree limb/projectile damage. The house isn’t going to collapse, but something could fall on it, of course.
My big issue with losing power is that like so many Heights houses, most of the windows are sealed shut under many layers of paint and stuff. It’s a major project to get them open, and you find many houses here where they just don’t open. (I have exactly one small window I can open.) So if power goes out, it’s especially bad; you can’t always have the door open, with pets and yard critters running around.
We live on the north side of Sugar Land (in a 70s brick home) and my husband kind of wants to evacuate to his parents’ retirement house(a manufactured one surrounded by trees) on the Louisiana side of Toledo Bend. But this north turn makes me nervous. Everything in me says “Don’t evac to a trailer in the cone of uncertainty” But there are some trees here in our older neighborhood that make me pretty nervous. And I refuse to get caught up in traffic. and my school district is still having school tomorrow.. so I can’t leave early. Anyway, i’m rambling. Maybe we should board up the one window we have on the south side. and sleep in the hall… with our 3 year old.
If Katy has no danger from hurricanes, why did the City of Kay issue this warning for Rita: http://ci.katy.tx.us/evacuation.html
Don’t play it down guys. If there are people who want to evacuate to be safer, there is no need to discourage them.
Concrete Jungle — I don’t know whether you were here for Rita, but here’s the problem: when people inland start to hit the roads, the people on the coast can’t get out.
I don’t know when the City of Katy issued that warning, but I’m guessing it was late Wednesday / early Thursday morning (9/21- 9/22), when Rita ramped up to 175 mph winds.
Certainly, there are people who will evacuate voluntarily, regardless of whether a city warns them or not. But that’s not the same thing as wholesale panic, which is what we had in 2005.
Callie — If I were going to go, I’m pretty sure I’d be heading inland rather than into a manufactured home in the cone. Our plan here looks pretty much like what you described: we’re going to brace the garage door, probably board some windows, and shelter in an unexposed room.
And an update to follow up on Concrete Jungle’s comment of late last night.
Here’s the word on the Katy area from the City of Katy regarding Ike: