Houston braces for busy hurricane season

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (Nexstar) — As thousands of Texans in and around Southeast Texas battle flooding this weekend, local leaders and residents fear this series of storms is just the precursor of a busy summer in the Gulf.

Colorado State University’s forecast gives Houston a 45 percent chance of a tropical storm this season and a 25 percent chance of a hurricane. These odds are up from the usual 29% and 16%, respectively.

“Everyone along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico should expect a busier season than normal,” said KXAN chief meteorologist Nick Bannin, citing less wind and warmer waters. hot. “When there’s strong wind, it can tear the storms apart, but when you’re not dealing with the strong wind, then those storms have the freedom to develop…those warm waters are just fuel for those storms to develop. develop very quickly.”

Harris County leaders said they are confident they have made progress in resisting flooding compared to 2017, when historic Hurricane Harvey claimed 70 lives and caused $125 billion in damage.

“We are much better prepared than we were during the Harvey period. We have prepared in terms of response, in terms of recovery and in terms of infrastructure,” said Harris County Engineer Dr. Milton Rahman.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia expressed optimism about the billions of dollars in investments in flood mitigation that he said have been neglected by past state and local leaders.

“We’ve gone through a generation of underfunding the kinds of investments we should have been making all along,” he said. “Knowing that we have the Port of Houston in our backyard, NASA, so much infrastructure that should have been protected for decades. And this county chose not to exercise any political will to provide the funding. »

A year after Harvey, Harris County approved a $2.5 billion bond for flood mitigation. Some say this generational effort could require billions more.

“We must continue to increase flood risk beyond the rate of growth. So it’s a large program,” said Scott Elmer with the Harris County Flood Control District. “There were estimates when we passed the 2018 bond program that we could be talking about an overall need in the tens of billions of dollars.”

At a briefing in Conroe on Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott asked Texans in need of assistance to report flood damage to the Department of Texas’ Individual State Assessment Tool (iSTAT). Texas Emergency Management.

“Even during a heartbreaking event like the catastrophic storms and flooding we witnessed in East Texas, we also saw the resilience of Texans who are willing to lend a helping hand to protect their fellow Texans” , Abbott said. “As rivers continue to rise for days, we urge Texans in these areas to listen to local officials and take the necessary precautions to protect themselves and their properties. I also want to emphasize that it is not worth risking your life to cross high water. Remember: turn around, don’t drown.