30 September 2005
How about traffic information on the freeway signs?
For the past three days, some version of the above message has been displayed on the TranStar freeway signs for motorists heading inbound on the Southwest Freeway during P.M. drive time.
It's all well and good that Houston is trying to get useful information out to those affected by recent storms, but the signs above were really no help today in notifying motorists that there was an accident in the middle lane near the spur, slowing the drive in horribly. Had the sign been displaying that information -- information one expects of a highway sign designed to inform motorists of accidents and other problems -- some drivers might have been able to exit early and plan other routes.
Instead, we got to sit in a traffic jam that was only starting to build.
That's stupid. TranStar needs to get the problem fixed.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/30/05 05:30 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
HCTRA suspends Grand Parkway project development
In the ongoing battle between far North Harris County residents and the Grand Parkway project, the Harris County Toll Road Authority has suspended all of its development efforts:
In a letter to Commissioners Court dated Sept 21, 2005, Art Storey, PE, wrote:
"Dear Court Members:
As I have reported before, TxDOT has suggested that Harris County join them in a general agreement for sharing toll road revenues when HCTRA constructs a toll road in TxDOT right-of-way or on an alignment within the TxDOT highway system. With the support of county staff and our toll road legal and investment consultants, I have been working on such an agreement for several months.
The negotiations have been difficult, and more time and effort is needed before we can expect to reach agreement. Accordingly, I have instructed HCTRA to stop work on so- called "future" projects until either such an agreement is in hand or the requirement for one is eliminated. Projects affected include the Grand Parkway and the U.S. 290 corridor (Hempstead Road).
And Art Storey wrote this to HCTRA Director Mike Strech:
Please instruct our staff and consultants to suspend immediately all work on the proposed Grand Parkway. That means surveying, right-of-way definition, schematic designs, conversations, everything. We will resume from this point (or from some other one) if and when we have successfully negotiated an agreement with TxDOT to do so. I will inform eommissioners Court accordingly at their next meeting on September 27th."
The suspension may only be temporary, but we'll take it.
Thanks to Connie for the heads up -- and Connie also received a letter from Grand Parkway Association Executive Director David Gornet in which he admitted that residential and commercial development continues at a brisk pace along the proposed Grand Parkway F-2 route with little regard for transportation planning.
Apparently developers haven't been consulting with (soon-to-be-outta-there) state Sen. Jon Lindsay.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/30/05 09:51 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron.com Sports adopts full-screen "hijack" advertising
I appreciate that Chron.com is free to users, and I appreciate that Chron.com has to pay the bills, but it's really disappointing to see that the sports page has adopted those annoying full-screen ads that hijack a browser for a few seconds before allowing a user to see content.
I hope this advertising strategy is not permanent. I think it's a mistake for interactive media to annoy its users.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/30/05 09:21 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron: don't blame media for exaggerated New Orleans reporting
Yet one more example to keep in mind the next time the Chronicle editorial board (made up of, you know, editors) wants a shield law:
Working in a chaotic environment, reporters repeated some of the accounts as fact. The accounts were thoroughly backed, however, by New Orleans' top officials. In a televised interview, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin told Oprah Winfrey that "hundreds of armed gang members" were raping women and committing murder in the Superdome. The occupants, he said, were in "an almost animalistic state." Police Superintendent Eddie Compass — who resigned Tuesday — went further, telling Winfrey, "We had little babies in there ... getting raped."
This week, careful studies are establishing reality. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, officials have found evidence of one murder. No witnesses or victims have substantiated rape claims at the Superdome or convention center. In Houston, only six evacuees have reported violent crimes occurring in New Orleans.
[snip]
But the hyperbole spouted by Nagin and Compass created a special obstacle. Both men were understandably distraught. Both tried wildly to attract attention from a federal government that for days effectively abandoned them. Even so, their reckless words breathed life into the stereotypes that helped make New Orleans a disaster. Perhaps they blindly accepted the worst rumors because they matched their own assumptions about the poor.
First off, Nagin effectively abandoned his own city. The feds are not and never have been first responders. It is up to local and state officials to be ready for the immediate aftermath of any disaster.
Second, the media also "blindly accepted the worst rumors because they matched their own assumptions about the poor," or else the media would have been more cautious about what it put into news stories.
Nope, the Chron can't lay the blame solely on New Orleans' city officials -- the Chron has told us before that it is the media's JOB to be skeptical.
The professional media needs to own up to its own failings in the aftermath of Katrina.
UPDATE: Don't miss Hugh Hewitt's critical take of the professional media's reporting:
There weren't stacks of bodies in the freezer. But America was riveted by this reporting, wholesale collapse of the media's own levees they let in all the rumors, and all the innuendo, all the first-person story because they were caught up in their own emotionalism. Exactly what Keith was praising I think led to one of the worst weeks of reporting in the history of American media, and it raises this question: If all of that amount of resources was given over to this story and they got it wrong, how can we trust American media in a place far away like Iraq where they don't speak the language, where there is an insurgency, and I think the question comes back we really can't.
Hewitt has one of the best talk shows (both intelligent and entertaining) on the radio. In case you aren't already a devoted listener, locally he's on KNTH-1070 AM from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Online you can listen to him live here and then from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. (delayed obviously) here.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/30/05 08:28 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
29 September 2005
Filmed in Texas
KPRC-2 posts an Associated Press report that the date for Rep. Tom DeLay to appear in court has been set for October 21. The story spends a fair amount of time profiling DeLay's high-powered Houston attorney Dick Deguerin:
"I represented Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison 12 years ago, and to me this seems like what Yogi Berra said: 'It's deja vu all over again,' " DeGuerin said. "That was a political prosecution. This is a political prosecution."
Earle indicted Hutchison in 1993 in an investigation into whether she misused state employees and equipment and destroyed state documents while serving as the Texas treasurer.
Hutchison was acquitted when Earle abruptly dropped the case in 1994. Earle said then that he gave up the case because the trial judge would not rule in advance whether prosecutors could use as evidence documents and other material obtained in a controversial raid on state treasury offices. Hutchison's defenders said that his case failed because he didn't have one.
DeGuerin is pushing for a speedy trial for DeLay, a Sugar Land Republican who has stepped aside as majority leader because of the indictment. DeGuerin said he wants a trial by the end of the year.
KTRK-13 posts another Associated Press story that reports on DeLay's active defense of himself today.
Finally, NRO's Byron York posts the news that Ronnie Earle is now a documentary film star. Orrin Judd's reaction to that news is amusing.
Perhaps if the DeLay case craters on Earle like the Hutchison fiasco, he'll at least have a jump start on an acting career.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/05 10:51 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
New crime lab DNA chief on board weeks ago, local media report
Yesterday, KHOU-11 reported that the HPD crime lab had a new director for its DNA section:
The embattled HPD crime lab has a new leader for its DNA section.
A nationwide search for a manager for the DNA section of the lab ended close to home.
Dr. Vanessa Nelson used to work in DNA analysis at the Harris County Medical Examiners office. She was also a section supervisor at the DPS Crime lab.
Nelson has been on the job since Sept. 5.
The Chronicle reported the news today:
A former DNA analyst for the state and Harris County has been chosen to lead the Houston police crime lab's DNA division, which is working to reopen after being shut down almost three years ago.
Vanessa Nelson, who most recently was a senior DNA analyst with the county Medical Examiner's Office, assumed leadership of the DNA lab on Sept. 5, police officials said Wednesday. She is expected to oversee the reopening of the DNA division, the only section in the scandal-plagued crime lab that has not been accredited, possibly by the end of the year, officials said.
Why in the world did it take 23 days for HPD to announce and the local media to report this latest news about the HPD crime lab?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/05 10:18 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Houston Press "Best Of" time
The Houston Press serves up its annual "Best Of" issue today.
Be sure to go check out all the nifty award winners the Press staff have chosen (and if you want some fun, contrast those with the reader picks where available).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/05 09:54 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (20)
WaPo editorializes on DeLay indictment; Chron silent
The Washington Post managed a fast turnaround on the DeLay indictment, with an editorial in today's edition that is somewhat skeptical of Ronnie Earle's action:
Nonetheless, at least on the evidence presented so far, the indictment of Mr. DeLay by a state prosecutor in Texas gives us pause. The charge concerns the activities of Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), a political action committee created by Mr. DeLay and his aides to orchestrate the GOP's takeover of the Texas legislature in 2002. The issue is whether Mr. DeLay and his political aides illegally used the group to evade the state's ban on corporate contributions to candidates. The indictment alleges that TRMPAC took $155,000 in corporate contributions and then sent a check for $190,000 to the national Republican Party's "soft money" arm. The national committee then wrote $190,000 in checks from its noncorporate accounts to seven Texas candidates. Perhaps most damning, TRMPAC dictated the precise amount and recipients of those donations.
This was an obvious end run around the corporate contribution rule. The more difficult question is whether it was an illegal end run -- or, to be more precise, one so blatantly illegal that it amounts to a criminal felony rather than a civil violation. For Mr. DeLay to be convicted, prosecutors will have to show not only that he took part in the dodge but also that he knew it amounted to a violation of state law -- rather than the kind of clever money-trade that election lawyers engineer all the time.
That's liable to be difficult for Earle, and his indictment seems to reflect the fact that he's still trying to build a case (or even concrete charges).
Unsurprisingly, the Chronicle editorialists could not manage a timely comment on the indictment today. Instead, they offer yet another of the "In the aftermath of Katrina" series. But, we'll cut them a little slack, since their reader representative pointed out last week that they all worked really hard to cover a big news event. Anybody who's ever had a long work day will surely sympathize.
The Chronicle did post some legal reporting/analysis from Mary Flood, whose work on the Enron trial has drawn praise. Flood's piece is balanced between skepticism and the notion that Earle must have some "smoking gun" to have brought this indictment. Here's an excerpt:
Most legal experts looking at the conspiracy indictment of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said Wednesday that either an insider has turned against DeLay or the prosecutor may have gone too far.
"I can't imagine indicting a majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives without having a smoking gun, and that means someone who flipped on DeLay," said Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer who filed a related civil lawsuit on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates. "He's got to have corroborating evidence, too, bills and things proving where DeLay was at key times."
Several lawyers and law professors said Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle could have talked the grand jury into a questionable indictment if he hasn't secured key witnesses who were "in the room" with DeLay. Otherwise, this conspiracy case could be too hard to prove with just circumstantial evidence, they said.
The indictment's easy. Clarifying the vague charges so that they point to specific violations of law, and then proving them, will be harder. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Every major newspaper in the state managed to comment on the DeLay indictment today, except of course the major newspaper that actually serves DeLay's district. How embarrassing for the Chronicle. Perhaps the editorial idealists will get rested up enough from the hard work of putting out a newspaper during a big news event to work up an opinion for tomorrow's newspaper. In the meantime, here are editorials from the Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and San Antonio Express-News.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/05 08:20 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
28 September 2005
Why hasn't The Queen fixed this?
KTRK-13's Jeff Ehling reports that FEMA's Houston hurricane headquarters experienced some problems today:
There was a long line of people waiting in the heat outside FEMA's hurricane headquarters in Houston Wednesday.
The disaster recovery center opened at 8am for Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Some evacuees camped out the night before just be first in line, but the efforts became chaotic outside the headquarters when the heat became too much for several people. There were some people fainting and one woman was taken away to get treated for heat exhaustion.
Because of the dangers posed by the heat, FEMA decided to shut down the line Wednesday morning. Normally, the line would be open until 7pm.
FEMA officials are hoping that on Thursday, there will be a break in the weather and things will be a little calmer.
Another reason they shut down the lines is because there are already so many people waiting that they wouldn't be able to help any more people if they got in line. They are asking evacuees to come back another day.
In related reporting that is not posted on the website, KTRK's Miya Shay obtained quotes from FEMA's man at the center, who effectively said, "lots of people showed up, what is FEMA to do?"
Frankly, that bureaucrat's attitude needs to improve. The folks standing in today's near-hundred-degree temperatures waiting didn't even have water to drink. We can debate whether taxpayers should fund FEMA to the extent we are, but since we are, is it too much to ask that it work more efficiently, and that it provide constituents standing in the sun some water while they wait?
Furthermore, it's disappointing that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and/or her staff weren't caught on camera intervening on behalf of the people in line. Since The Queen nearly knocked over an exhausted Mayor White to grab the microphone during a Rita press conference last week, her enthusiasm for helping Rita victims must have waned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/28/05 10:02 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
DeLay's tormentor: Partisan or just power mad?
There's a telling line from Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle in the Chronicle's reporting of today's indictment of Tom DeLay:
"I have done nothing wrong ... I am innocent," DeLay told a Capitol Hill news conference in which he repeatedly criticized the prosecutor, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. DeLay called Earle a "unabashed partisan zealot," and "fanatic," and described the charges as "one of the weakest and most baseless indictments in American history."
In Austin, Earle told reporters, "Our job is to prosecute abuses of power and to bring those abuses to the public."
Earlier, I forwarded this to friend Orrin Judd, who wrote:
Mr. Earle's statement seems to concede Mr. DeLay's point. Mr. Earle is supposed to prosecute actual violations of the laws.
Yes, the laws.
The indictment is pretty sketchy on DeLay's supposed violation of law. I'm no attorney, but Earle had better go to court with more than that or he could be setting himself up for a repeat of his Kay Bailey Hutchison fiasco.
Earle's nearly messianic view of himself and his strange obsession with "abuse of power" instead of actual violation of law was captured in a December 2004 article in the Christian Science Monitor, which Orrin Judd also highlighted at the time.
The irony is that Earle's obsession with "abuse of power" certainly led him to abuse the power of his own office in the Hutchison fiasco. The court proceedings will certainly let us know whether he's done it again.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/28/05 08:50 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)
DeLay indicted by Texas grand jury
The Associated Press is reporting that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been indicted by a Texas grand jury:
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.
More details will surely be available shortly.
UPDATE: Here is an excerpt from Laylin Copelin's reporting for the Austin American-Statesman:
A Travis County grand jury today indicted U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on one count of criminal conspiracy, jeopardizing the Sugar Land Republican's leadership role as the second most powerful Texan in Washington, D.C.
The charge, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years incarceration, stems from his role with his political committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, a now-defunct organization that already had been indicted on charges of illegally using corporate money during the 2002 legislative elections.
The grand jury, however, took no action against Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond or state Reps. Dianne Delisi and Beverly Woolley, both of whom sit on the political committee's board, for their roles in the election.
The grand jury's term ended today.
Delay's defense team will hold a press conference in Austin later this afternoon. The team includes defense attorneys Bill White and Steve Brittain of Austin and Dick DeGuerin of Houston.
[snip]
[A] conspiracy charge falls under the criminal code, not the election statute that bans corporate money from being spent on a campaign. And Earle has the jurisdiction to prosecute DeLay for conspiring with others to circumvent state law.
In recent days, the broad-based investigation has focused on one particular transaction during the 2002 campaign.
[snip]
As late as Tuesday, Travis County prosecutors were interviewing Republican National Committee staffers about their roles in the transaction.
That prosecutors were scrambling so hard against the deadline and pulled out a conspiracy charge makes one wonder about the likelihood of conviction. Nonetheless, the House leadership will be forced to go to its deep bench now, and partisans on both sides will surely be howling for a while.
UPDATE 2: Chris Elam posts two DeLay press releases (here and here).
UPDATE 3: Coverage from the Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, and Washington Post.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/28/05 11:44 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (12)
27 September 2005
The rush to be world class
Jenna Colley and Jonathan Selden of the Houston Business Journal report on Mayor White and his Council bending over backwards and doing handflips in order to secure the new Houston Pavilions development:
Months of negotiations ended last week as Houston City Council and Mayor Bill White tweaked the rules to provide a tax break for a major downtown development.
The action removed a roadblock to construction of Houston Pavilions, a $200 million mixed-use project planned by the team of Houston developer Geoff Jones and William Denton of California-based Entertainment Development Group.
The developers lobbied long and hard for financial incentives from the public sector to get Houston Pavilions off the ground.
The package approved on Sept. 14 fulfills their requests.
Terms call for an expansion of the Main Street/Market Square Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), which currently encompasses a 65-block area. The 10-year-old TIRZ will be stretched another two blocks to include the proposed Houston Pavilions site.
City officials also will give the developers an $8.8 million development grant to fund infrastructure improvements around the project bordered by Main, Polk, Dallas and Caroline streets. Harris County will kick in another $4.4 million.
In return, a unique financial arrangement will provide a faster public payback than the typical TIRZ.
Mayor White was instrumental in hammering out details of the deal, an apparent departure from his usual policy toward TIRZs.
In recent months, a skeptical White has made greater financial scrutiny of all 22 city TIRZs a hot-button issue.
At the behest of the mayor, City Council is currently debating whether to disband the Hardy Street TIRZ for failing to meet financial obligations.
So while one TIRZ faces possible extinction, another is being expanded with input from White.
After agreeing to an interview on the issue, the mayor canceled, citing time constraints created by the Hurricane Rita emergency.
The mayor obviously has been busy micromanaging the Rita emergency, but if there was time to ramrod this sweetheart deal through Council, the mayor really needs to find time to answer questions about it from the press and public.
PREVIOUSLY: New TIRZ approved for downtown Pavilions development.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 11:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
In the aftermath of Katrina...
The editorial idealists used that phrase yet again today.
It's really past time to retire it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 11:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron editorialists take on gay-marriage amendment (again)
The Chronicle editorialists continue to agitate against the gay-marriage constitutional amendment that goes to Texas voters later this year:
This November, Texans will vote on Proposition 2, a proposed constitutional amendment that would silence further reflection on these important issues. The referendum language defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Texas law already outlaws same-sex marriage. Should voters approve this amendment, it would change nothing in the law. It lacks any purpose other than to enshrine bigotry in the Texas Constitution.
The first of those three bolded sentences is frequently cited by the minority that favors same-sex marriage as a major reason a constitutional amendment is unnecessary.
They can repeat themselves as much as they would like, but the fact is that constitutions and statutes are not the same thing at all.
As my mentor on constitutionalism and political philosophy has noted, one of several purposes of a constitution is to lay out the values (and aspirations) of the people of the polity (in the case of state constitutions, the state). There was never any reason to define marriage in most constitutions because most citizens simply understood marriage to be between a man and a woman. In recent years, however, there's been quite an effort to redefine marriage. Unsurprisingly, majorities in most states do continue to reject that redefinition, and some states have chosen to amend their constitutions to make clear the prevailing view of the citizenry on the matter.
The editorialists are simply wrong when they contend that the constitutional amendment lacks any purpose because there are related statutes on the books. The purpose of the amendment, should it pass, will be to commit to the state's fundamental governing document the values of a majority of Texans regarding marriage, values that only recently have even been challenged (and therefore never needed such codification in the constitution). Because one purpose of a constitution is to enshrine the values of the people, the amendment does have a broader purpose than related statutory law, however redundant it may seem to the Chronicle editorial idealists.
The Chronicle disagrees with what is likely to be the majority view this November (and likely a large majority of its readership), and so it shrieks about "bigotry" and shows a lack of understanding of constitutionalism and popular sovereignty. One would expect better from worshippers of Plato's ideal state.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 10:53 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (12)
Who knew welfare statism created slums and dependency?
The Chronicle editorial idealists certainly are the pessimistic bunch:
Unfortunately, many of the 15,000 sites FEMA has identified are miles away from New Orleans.
Many are located far from schools, stores and work centers, and many evacuees have no car. Without access to jobs and transportation, these campgrounds could turn into massive slums full of hopeless people dependent on the government for every basic need, from food to health care.
What! The editorial idealists are now rejecting the full-blown welfare state as undesirable? That's shocking.
In all seriousness, the suggestion that Tom Kirkendall pointed to earlier (direct financial aid to the recipients, as opposed to government pork-barrel "redevelopment" boondoggles) would be far preferable. Since the Chronicle has rejected the big-government, welfare-statist approach, we welcome its endorsement of the more radically capitalistic approach that Kirkendall noted.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 10:20 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
(HISD) school employees drove evacuees home from shelters
We told you the other day about HISD providing the city with last minute shelters and then HISD driving over 400 of those evacuees back to where they came from. Yesterday Matt Stiles wrote a story about the mayor's last-minute shelter plan and, well, read on:
But at least 400 remained later Saturday at Delmar Stadium Fieldhouse, a domed structure on Mangum road, as school district officials and the American Red Cross decided what to do with them.
They expressed mixed emotions as they waited in the dim, hot high school gymnasium.
A few, interviewed before HISD officials ordered a Chronicle reporter and photographer out of the facility, were grateful they were spared weathering the storm outdoors.
Others felt abandoned at the crowded site, saying they didn't know when they would leave or where they would go.
"These aren't affluent people, and they were treated with less respect than they should have," said Beaumont evacuee Dennis Daniels.
He pointed to people wearing bandages or sitting in wheelchairs, waiting outside the building in the early afternoon as the weather altered between sunshine and drizzle.
He and others at the site said those people had been brought to the shelter on Metropolitan Transit Authority buses from Ben Taub General, the city's largest charity hospital.
Hospital officials said they just couldn't take them all in.
"We were inundated with people who came to Ben Taub thinking it was a shelter," said Carol Oddo, Harris County Hospital District spokeswoman. "No one was discharged from the hospital who wasn't ready to go."
Others at the shelters, officials said, had been stranded on freeways in disabled cars or found wandering the streets in the hours before the storm came ashore.
[snip]
So school employees drove people around the city, dropping them off at their desired locations after clearing out the facility.
School employees? Which school employees? Oh! It must've been HISD school employees!
So let me see if I have this straight: the city's last-resort shelter plan was HISD, and then after directing people to those facilities, the city didn't make sure the last several hundred evacuees had a way back to where they came from. So HISD employees played taxi drivers. That was nice of HISD. Again.
As for the Chronicle reporter and photographer who were shooed away, if I was in a shelter as a hurricane was bearing down, I don't think I'd be too eager to chit-chat with the media. Matt Stiles is probably a great guy, but still...
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: A reporter and photographer were ordered out? My goodness, why didn't Kyrie O'Connor, Kristin Finan, and other Features STAR editors spring into action with a plan to impersonate a refugee? They could surely have smuggled in a small camera, and O'Connor could have praised the whole effort as compassionate and responsible first-person journalism!
Finan and O'Connor, by the way, continue to ignore our emails about that first-person journalism, and the reader representative, who promised to address the matter on his blog, has been missing for some time. Their treatment of the matter has not been what one would expect of professional journalists.
In any case, that stupid stunt of theirs might well have been on the minds of HISD officials, and may well hurt the Chronicle's news gathering efforts in the future. Stupid stunts sometimes have ramifications.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/27/05 08:37 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Rita placeholder (HURRICANE RITA v. HOUSTON)
We're going to follow Laurence Simon's lead and use this post as a placeholder for the Rita announcement that was stuck at the top during the excitement.
ALERT: MAYOR WHITE AND JUDGE ECKELS ASK THAT IF YOU HAVE LEFT TOWN, PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO RETURN NOW. GRIDLOCK IS LIKELY TO RESULT, AND THERE'S NO REASON TO REPEAT THAT EXERCISE FROM THE EVACUATION AND MANY GOOD REASONS NOT TO. TXDOT ASKS THAT PEOPLE RETURNING ADHERE TO THIS VOLUNTARY SCHEDULE.
Laurence Simon has a good list of local Rita-related bloggers and news sources, and the Chronicle's SciGuy and Rita blogs will be good sources of information as well. As Laurence says, if you're getting news about Rita from some national newspaper or out-of-state blogger, you're probably missing part of the story.
Here's a thread in our forum for anybody who wants share his/her Rita stories/thoughts.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/27/05 07:35 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
26 September 2005
Taking no chances in Sharpstown
Thankfully, since the worst of Rita missed us, I didn't take many photos of the storm's aftermath.
However, I did get one good photo out in the Sharpstown area of a house bordering sort of a bad area in that neighborhood.
It's hard to be much clearer than that.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/05 04:32 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
More Hoffman fun
Ken Hoffman has been on a roll through the Rita excitement.
I thought I'd throw a few more favorites up from Hoffman. With Chron.com, one never quite knows when entire paragraphs may just disappear after all.
Here was a great observation about the local Congresscritters:
And how come fuel trucks couldn't make it to Houston, but Tom DeLay and Sheila Jackson Lee had no problem getting here? The wrong bags of gas got through.
One local blogger actually implied some of us were racists for noting Queen Sheila's latest mad dash for the cameras (a source of amusement on the Chris Baker show today), although later said blogger wrote that he agreed with everything Hoffman said in the above column. Who needs consistency when the race card can be played, eh? Thankfully, we try to keep things a little more levelheaded here.
In his Q&A column, Hoffman had this good one:
Q: What is to become of all the rides at Six Flags AstroWorld when it closes? Will they sell or give them to other theme parks or will some of them just end up in a pile of scrap metal?
Lori Sloan, Houston
A: The rides will be shipped to other Six Flags theme parks. AstroWorld's problem was, no matter how scary they made their roller coasters, they couldn't compete with the rock 'em, sock' em bumps of Houston's No. 1 thrill ride ... METRO light rail.
Beware of the Danger Train!
There's also this:
I read where Tom Koch is no longer doing a split shift at Channel 13. Now he can spend more time with Tilman Fertitta behind home plate at Minute Maid Park.
Craig Roberts, Houston
A: After 17 years of working the early shift at Channel 13, while pulling double duty at 4 p.m., Koch was given a reprieve. Now he only works afternoons. Tom Abrahams is the new morning guy.
Is that Craig Roberts of Houston sportscasting fame? Probably so. Hoffman knows everybody.
Good for Tom Abrahams getting a crack at mornings. I thought his reporting during the Rita coverage was very steady for KTRK.
I'm sure Hoffman's happy where he is, but wouldn't it be fun if he were to displace noxious Chronicle editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey on the metro/state pages? Hoffman's observations on the local scene would be welcome there.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/05 04:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
Goin' stir crazy
Some of those who ventured out for some shopping Sunday acknowledged that they really didn't need much. But the trip to the store was a good excuse to get out of the house.
"We're going stir crazy," said Eric Shafer of Bellaire, the owner of a software company, as he, his wife, Kimm, their 5-year-old daughter, Katy, and four relatives wandered around the Galleria.
Judy Cole of Spring, her daughter, Tamara Cathey, of Liberty County, and a family friend, Lauren Simmons, of Humble, said they were getting cabin fever after waiting out the hurricane at Cole's house.
"We would weigh 200 pounds if we had to stay in the house another day," Cole said.
Yep, and the kids are out of school for two more days. Sigh.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/26/05 08:34 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (5)
Government agencies need to rework evacuation plans
This Chronicle story addresses some of the issues we have been discussing on Houston blogs -- the massive traffic jam last Wednesday and Thursday:
Hurricane planners have a little ditty that goes, "run from the water, hide from the wind."
It means evacuate if you are in a coastal surge area, but hunker down if you are in an area that will get hurricane-force winds and rain only.
The biggest problem in Houston's painful evacuation last week was that perhaps a million people, almost half of those who left, ran from the wind. To make matters worse, the regional evacuation plan was missing a key element — pre-planned contraflow lanes that are a part of virtually every other hurricane-prone city's evacuation strategy.
[snip]
Counseling people to stay put with a monster storm approaching is a tricky thing. Houston-area officials were stern about evacuations in the surge zones shown on their maps, but became considerably more vague about advice for everyone else.
Houston Mayor Bill White called for residents to use "common sense," but he did implore them to leave early if they were leaving.
Florida hurricane planners have learned to worry about the "shadow evacuation" — residents outside the mandatory evacuation zones who leave.
It is always much larger in the immediate aftermath of another major storm — in this case, Hurricane Katrina.
[snip]
The answer is to respect people's freedom of choice, but make sure they are educated at the beginning of each hurricane season so they can weigh realistic considerations, Baker said. His example: if you evacuate, you definitely will find yourself in a titanic traffic jam; if you stay, there may be only a one-in-five chance the storm will hit your area and, if it does, you will spend a terrifying night in your house, but probably will be fine.
The winds from a strong hurricane can rip off parts of roofs and smash windows, but solid structures stay intact and people are OK if they stay in the center of a home, away from windows, he said.
It is hard to tell an individual to endure that, he said, but from a regional standpoint, it may mean that those in the surge zones can evacuate safely.
Then the story addresses the lack of contraflow lane planning:
On the "capacity" side, not having a contraflow plan may have been a Rita-size mistake.
Harris County and the city simply didn't have them in their official emergency plans, and much of the lane mileage ultimately freed for evacuee traffic was outside their jurisdictions.
Once it became apparent that something had to change to get people moving at the height of the evacuation, the city and county asked about 2:30 a.m. Thursday for the state to open the lanes.
With no regional or state plan in place, officials scrambled to make it happen.
First, they had to determine how and where to redirect traffic. Then they had to make sure it was safe. About 10 hours later, with a long, snaking line of idling evacuees waiting, southbound lanes on I-45 were reversed. Contraflow on I-10 opened later. TxDOT looked at opening both sides of U.S. 290, but decided it would be impractical because the highway has so many entry points.
In all, state officials say, about 400 miles of highway were switched more than a day before the hurricane landed. About 100 highway barriers were needed to block opposing highway entrance ramps to make sure there weren't head-on collisions. The Department of Public Safety had to send 1,300 troopers to southeast Texas, more than a third of its force. An army of local police also helped.
That's a HUGE undertaking. It's one thing to say, "why don't they just open the other side?" and another thing to actually accomplish it.
And finally, Mayor White's complaint that the state should have been prepared for gas shortages:
The jams on evacuation routes have caused some public officials to question or criticize state officials for not providing extra gasoline along the way. White said Saturday that it was "totally unacceptable" that gas wasn't stored across the state.
That is the Texas Department of Transportation's role, White said. The state's emergency plan tasks the agency with helping motorists whose cars are disabled during an evacuation, including making sure that fuel and emergency vehicle repairs are available.
But the agency simply doesn't have the capacity to handle such an undertaking, officials said, because it does not have fleets of tanker trunks and fuel tanks spread throughout the state. Expecting large tankers to be able to stop on roadways and pump fuel directly into vehicles isn't realistic, said Zane Webb, director of TxDOT's maintenance division.
I was disappointed to see Mayor White leveling that criticism. As we learned from news reports, the number of evacuees far exceeded anything city, county, and state evacuation plans had anticipated, and those plans will now have to be reworked.
But if the mayor wants to start blasting the state for fuel shortages, the state could come back and blast the mayor for not clearly telling higher-ground residents to stay put, especially when mandatory evacuation residents hadn't gotten out yet. (The preceding sentence is Anne's opinion only -- not a consensus blogHOUSTON opinion!)
And since human nature will never be predictable, none of that is useful. Have plans ready that address as many scenarios as possible -- that's the best government can do. The rest is up to individual citizens who must make their own decisions and be prepared.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/26/05 06:43 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (10)
Tow fees paid for cars abandoned in Houston
SAFEclear + FEMA = free tows for Hurricane Rita evacuees who abandoned their cars.
On Houston freeways only:
Evacuees forced to leave cars along freeways because they broke down or ran out of gas may face another nightmare — paying expensive tow and storage fees to get them back.
It all depends on location. If the car was left on a highway within Houston, the city will pay the bill.
Anywhere else, you're on your own.
Frank Michel, the city's communication director, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the city $124 for each car towed under its Safe Clear mandatory tow program.
''The tow operators have agreed to do away with the rest of the fees," Michel said.
Chris Streeter, owner of a trucking company, is among the unlucky ones.
She's looking at more than $700 to retrieve her 18-wheeler, which was towed by law enforcement from Interstate 45 in Spring, an unincorporated area, after its alternator went bad Thursday.
Streeter said her towing bill is $633.59 for the cab and $59.54 for the trailer. She also has to pay the impound lot $35 per day, she said.
''I was stunned when they told me," she said. ''It's just unreal. You're gonna have a lot of people upset by this."
Is this SAFEclear's last hurrah?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/26/05 05:56 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
25 September 2005
Capers v. Casserly: A story for the local sports media?
Last Sunday, two players prized highly enough by Houston Texans general manager Charley Casserly that he spent extra draft picks to get them found themselves benched by head coach Dom Capers as a result of their poor play. John McClain noted this in his coverage on Monday:
The defense was so inept that two starters who cost the Texans a combined five draft choices to acquire — outside linebacker Jason Babin and cornerback Phillip Buchanon — were benched.
Michael Murphy wrote the following:
While the Steelers were rolling on the field, finishing with 388 yards of total offense and averaging 7.2 yards per play, heads were rolling on the Texans sideline. Babin and cornerback Phillip Buchanon both found themselves benched and replaced by Shantee Orr and Demarcus Faggins, respectively.
Babin was punished after jumping offside with the Steelers facing a third-and-10 from their 32 with six minutes to play in the third quarter. Babin's boo-boo moved the ball up five yards, and Roethlisberger then hit Cedrick Wilson with a 40-yard pass to the Houston 23.
Three plays later the Steelers scored on Parker's TD run for a 27-7 lead.
"Obviously it upset me, but it sent a strong message to everybody — if you make mistakes, especially at critical times, then something's going to happen," Babin said. "I can't be upset. If I hadn't made the mistake, I wouldn't have gotten pulled. That's the way it goes."
Buchanon, who was yanked for simply playing poorly, shrugged off the benching and the loss.
That was it.
At the time, I wondered if the head coach wasn't trying to send the general manager a message, but no Chronicle columnist really followed up on those observations.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/25/05 05:41 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)
24 September 2005
The New York Times drops in on the West Alabama
At one point, Chron.com had posted the following as part of a Ken Hoffman column, but then it just inexplicably disappeared in that annoying manner that is all too familiar at Chron.com:
You know, I kind of like Houston this way. It was easy getting around. I had the place to myself. It was like sitting in a movie theater showing a Jennifer Lopez movie.
Hard to believe a hurricane was on its way. In fact, it was so pretty outside, I put the top down on my car and drove around Houston for a few hours.
I stopped by the venerable West Alabama Ice House, which was holding on to its "OPEN" sign for dear life.
"We have no idea when we'll have to close, but we know it's coming soon," a bartender said.
The beer joint may have been open, but Free Hot Dog Friday was suspended. That's worse than the end of the world.
That was a fine bit of writing. It's too bad that it just disappeared. *poof*
For the record, Pete Markantonis tells us that hot dog night was suspended because all of the grocery stores were closed, and he couldn't get buns for the hot dogs.
The Icehouse also got a little attention from national media, and I can even link to it since the New York Times didn't obliterate any mention of the place from its web operation:
Michael Marchand, an offshore oil-rig worker, sat at the outdoor bar at the West Alabama Ice House late Thursday afternoon, putting away a string of Budweiser longnecks. He looked incredulous when asked if he intended to flee.
"To go where?" Mr. Marchand said. "Have you been watching the highways on television?"
Still, he said, he will probably stick close to home when Hurricane Rita hits rather than wandering over to the Ice House, his habit in previous storms ("They always stay open"). This storm did not look like one to mess with, he said.
They DO always stay open, which is one of many reasons that they're named Best Icehouse in Houston on most such lists (except of course if we're talking about the Chronicle's sad little "best of" collection).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/05 11:00 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Mayor White takes aim at state for gas shortages
via KTRK-13:
Days after the evacuation that saw tortuous delays on Texas highways, Houston's mayor says the handling of gasoline supplies is "totally unacceptable."
Speaking to reporters, Mayor Bill White says that's a part of the state plan that needs improvement.
People trying to flee north from Houston sat in traffic all day or night, and some ran out of gas. Those who could make their way to gas stations often found the pumps empty.
Texas Governor Rick Perry appeared to be trying to avoid a repeat of the traffic nightmare as he urged those evacuated from the Gulf Coast to hold off returning. Perry says a plan is being devised to stagger their return. He said more time is needed to restock fuel supplies and retailers drained as people headed away from the danger zone.
I don't know the ins and outs of the evacuation plan's fuel strategy, but I still think three big things factored into the massive traffic mess we saw: Hurricane Katrina was fresh on everyone's minds, city and county officials were calling for voluntary evacuations (and as Beldar points out, the media didn't clearly emphasize WHICH areas were included in those voluntary evacuation zones, and city and county officials didn't clearly say that higher-ground residents should stay put), and late Wednesday Rita strengthened to a strong Category 5 aiming right for Galveston.
That's why an evacuation plan built to move no more than one million people instead had to handle almost three million people.
RELATED: Ken Hoffman on local TV news overkill.
MORE RELATED: Tom Kirkendall is pondering evacuation strategy:
[...]if Alicia and Hurricane Carla in 1961 taught us anything, then it's that most Houstonians survived the storms just fine by battening down the hatches and remaining in their homes. Moreover, the recovery from such a storm is facilitated in many ways by having property owners tending to their property immediately after the storm rather than attempting to find the back way home from afar.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I don't get the criticism of "the media" for not emphasizing which voluntary evacuation zones were voluntary. There was a mandatory evacuation map that I saw EVERY media outlet reference that clearly spelled out mandatory evacuation. If people are too stupid to figure out that areas outside that map are therefore "voluntary," then they are just too stupid to figure that out. Let's not go blaming "the media," which I thought did a pretty darn good job in this crisis (and I'll wager that I watched and listened to as many hours of it as anyone).
Two days out, when it was 12 am and I was watching every media outlet say we had a category 5 bearing down for a direct hit, *I* wanted to get the heck out of town. And honestly, I appreciated Michael Berry's candor in saying, "if you can get out, you should consider getting out." Folks sitting 80 miles inland can question my (and his) judgment all they want. And my answer to them will be to stick it up their tailpipes.
We got very lucky, but I don't think any inner loopster who made an individual decision to get out of town needs to answer to anybody in the Suburban Keyboard Corps of Cadets for that decision. Personally, I'm glad all of this new construction in the inner loop (like my home) wasn't tested by a direct hit of a really bad hurricane. And I'm also glad the Alicia-tested home in which I rode out this storm didn't have to take a direct hit.
It's hard for me to question anybody who planned for the very worst to happen. Maybe that's the backpacker in me. I assume the worst will happen, and count it as an outstanding trip to the woods if there are only minor snafus.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/24/05 06:42 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (4)
COH, Harris County and HISD taking care of those in need
Councilman Michael Berry was just on with KTRK-13's Miya Shay saying that many vehicles that had been abandoned on Houston freeways and streets, because they had run out of gas, were given five gallons of gas by MAP trucks, and a note was put on each car's windshield letting them know that the city of Houston/Harris County had provided a bit of gas. Also, many abandoned vehicles have been towed to the North Shepherd and I-45 Park and Ride. People looking for their cars are urged to call (713) 884-3131 (HPD) to find out where their car has been taken.
And in addition to HISD buses helping with Rita evacuation efforts, HISD also answered a request from Mayor White's office and opened 10 short-term, emergency shelters for people who were unable to evacuate or who had special needs:
HISD school principals, regional superintendents and facilities managers quickly set up emergency short-term shelters. Our employees made sure the evacuees had food and water and a place to sleep last night. State Rep. Rick Noriega, who managed the operation for the city, praised HISD for its "great, great work" in running the temporary shelters. The city worked well with HISD in coordinating the effort.
At 9 p.m. Friday, HISD was caring for 4,692 evacuees in 10 short-term emergency shelters, including 2,600 at Barnett Field House, 825 at Delmar and 626 at Sam Houston High School.
According to HISD's press office, by this afternoon about 450 evacuees remained in the HISD shelters with no way to return where they came from:
Although HISD did not transport any of these evacuees into the HISD buildings where they spent last night during the storm, HISD has volunteered to transport them back out again.
“Some of these people are from Galveston, Kemah, Beaumont, Port Arthur, and even New Orleans, and they really have no place to go right now. So we are working with the Red Cross and will transport them on our school buses to Red Cross shelters,” Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said.
Others came to the HISD facilities out of the medical center and other areas in Houston, and HISD will work to return them.
HISD was asked by the city to open emergency shelters for some of the people most in need, people who could not evacuate, or people with other special needs. HISD school principals, regional superintendents and facilities managers quickly set up emergency short-term shelters, making sure the evacuees had food and water and a place to sleep last night.
Yet more examples of the proactive leadership we have witnessed over the past several days.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/24/05 03:36 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (4)
Thankfully, not much to see up here
I braved the (not so fierce) wind and rain earlier, and here is documented proof that we are feeling very blessed this morning:
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/24/05 12:38 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
White/Eckels press conference (12:10 pm - 12:30 pm)
Here is a liveblog (from local television) of the press conference from Mayor White and Judge Eckels:
White: Please heed the President's request to stay where you are and not try to return to the area right now if you have left. It's critical that emergency providers be able to get to people who need their help.
"Judge and I are asking employers" not to require people to return to work for at least Monday and Tuesday.
School officials are conferring and will make announcement within an hour about closings. NO school district will be open on Monday. Officials are discussing dates and times of reopening.
Eckels: Reiterating -- Please don't try to come back. The city isn't ready yet. Wait until we get power back in the city.
White: No reason to return for fear of security of property. There have been some isolated incidents of misconduct, people arrested, but law enforcement at high level of alert. People's property is being watched after.
[note from Kevin: I did see a high level of police presence on my trip over to midtown, much higher than normal]
Rick Noriega: [Discussion of safe zones]
White: Emergency convoys en route. People please keep off those routes. I-10 and US 71 in particular. "DO NOT COME BACK UNTIL WORD IS GIVEN BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES." Just because some local authorities have said their cities are safe and secure does not mean you should return. Please wait until state authorities give the word that it's okay to return.
Paul Bettencourt: [preliminary assessment of damage]. Call 713 881 3100 to report damage for structures only (for damage assessment purposes).
White: Again, NOT the time to return unless you are essential personnel (medical, emergency).
Will be announcements through the day about fuel and METRO service. WAIT for announcements.
Q: Short of setting up roadblocks, how do you stop the flow in?
White: Confident people who hear will hold back. Have requested appropriate traffic control personnel from the state, but statewide resources are stretched thin with storm.
Q: [Unintelligible]
White: Has been touring bayous and watershed. Water is higher than it was this morning. Don't assume all flooding risk is over. We haven't seen Allison flooding so far, but there's still rain. Don't assume we've seen the worst.
Q: [Unintelligible]
White: [couldn't hear because KTRK stupidly cut away to show the President's jet taking off. STUPID cutaway! Over to KPRC] Something about refining.
Eckels: [More refinery talk].
Sheila Jackson Lee: [Butts her way in] People should stay in place.
[Kevin: How helpful, Queen. Seriously, why is this buffoon in the way of people who have been handling this matter?]
Q: [Unintelligible]
White: "Several breakins at several sites." HPD out in force and highly visible. Vigilant. We don't see the situation that we've seen in many cities in this situation.
Next press availability 5 pm.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/05 12:19 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Quick take: Southwest Houston to midtown and back
We just drove over from the Sharpstown area to check out the townhouse in midtown.
The townhouse was fine -- no flood or structural damage. Electric was off when we were there, but it has been off and on through the day (we know from calling and the answering machine picking up, or not). Frozen goods were still frozen well, so I don't think power has been out much.
Damage we could see from Southwest Freeway was minor -- some debris, and a few billboard signs blown off, but not much beyond that.
From Kirby to West Alabama and the Icehouse, there were a few downed limbs, but not much more damage. That area had electric. The Icehouse also had electric, and hadn't suffered any appreciable damage. Callie's brother sold most of his stock yesterday, and it's not clear that he'll be able to get resupplied and open today, although he does expect to have ice. How ironic that one of the few Icehouses in Houston that really WAS an icehouse back in the day may be selling ice again later today.
Electric around the southern edge of midtown was out, from Elgin beginning a little before main to roughly Jackson. But some parts of midtown did have power, as we could see from the traffic signals, so I wouldn't think it would take too long to get that part of town back online.
We're back in Sharpstown (we'll move back to midtown later), and discovered two businesses open -- a Mexican carniceria/fruteria around Beechnut/Club Creek doing BRISK business, and a liquor store on Beechnut near Braes Bayou that seemed to be doing slower business.
Incidentally, the bayous we checked out have little water in them, so KTRK has probably reassigned Deborah Wrigley to a more interesting beat.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/05 11:39 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Coming home
Up here in Spring, almost to The Woodlands, we have had wind and rain (duh!), but our power is still on. That means we are having good coffee this morning -- mmmmmm!
Since a good portion of the Houston area dodged the brunt of Rita, talk now will turn to how to get almost 3 million residents back home without the terrible gridlock we saw Wednesday and Thursday. I heard one news report (maybe KTRK-13) saying there was discussion of HISD delaying the opening of schools until after Tuesday so there is less rush for people to get back, and contraflow lanes being opened again for the return trip.
I dunno. I'm not sure there is anything that can be done to minimize the returning human crush. But I tend to be a pessimist.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/24/05 07:04 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (6)
Eyewall hits land
Rita's eyewall has hit land, away from Houston and near Cameron, LA.
In the Sharpstown area, we're seeing some decent wind gusts, but not much rain really so far. The rain will probably come later, but so far we've been spared much bad weather. Television coverage suggests Galveston is getting hit hard by wind.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/05 01:31 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
23 September 2005
Want a beer in Montrose? The West Alabama is serving
We hear the West Alabama Icehouse may be on KTRK-13 later.
Callie's brother is still serving up the brews at the place, and business is booming. This apparently has a chance of being televised "news."
I love the Icehouse, but that's not the place I'd pick to ride out a storm.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 08:55 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (7)
There goes the military convoy
KTRK-13 is showing (via their Traffic Jam Cam) a convoy of 18-wheelers cruising along the 610 South Loop at Fannin.
The anchors say it's a military convoy.
"It's good to see," says Ilona Carson.
Neither she nor Tom Koch seems to know what they might be transporting or where it's going, but the news is slow in Houston at the moment. Radar shows a pretty strong band bearing down on central Houston and beyond, though.
UPDATE (9:01 PM): KTRK's Gene Apodaca reports that the convoy is pulling into Reliant Park, where a command post will be set up. He's talking search and rescue equipment, firefighting equipment, and all sorts of other equipment.
Ilona Carson asks the question I'm thinking: Can they move this equipment easily to the east, where it looks like they'll be needed more? Apodaca says this is just prepositioning of equipment as close to the storm as possible, so they can respond rapidly.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 08:38 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
KPRC: Kemah boardwalk is "bowing"
KPRC-2 just threw it down to Kemah, and apparently the boardwalk is "bowing" just a bit.
Tilman Fertitta's entertainment complex is likely to take quite a hit, even if the storm heads east.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:46 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (7)
So close you could see his nose hairs
The jackal media just interviewed an elderly man on a gurney who survived that bus that caught fire earlier, resulting in the tragic deaths of a number of passengers.
I watched it on KHOU-11.
I thought it was really in poor taste to do that.
What say you, kind readers?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:38 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (5)
Isolated reports of looting
Via Michelle Malkin, here's John Little, at Blogs of War, with a report of looting:
Well I just found out why the media was in my parking garage. Looters struck last night and trashed 12 cars. We usually have very tight security but the gates were left open by management due to fears of power outages. I need to go check my car now.
Update:
My car is fine but the mood in the area is tense. I ran across two neighbors carrying hunting rifles who were actively searching for a guy they suspected of breaking into more cars. They agreed to let me photograph them from the neck down. Hopefully, HPD will send one or more officers to our neighborhood. I think there is risk of additional looting or worse.Update II:
Quite a few HPD cars in the area now. It's going to be an interesting night.Update III:
I'm hearing more looter calls on the HPD scanner frequencies. This doesn't seem to approach the level that we saw in New Orleans but I'm worried about this evening.Update IV 6:33pm CST:
Via the police scanner: Looting in progress at South Gessner and Belfort - A Wal-Mart Store.
Also, an HISD school was broken into last night and three juveniles were arrested for looting:
Houston school district police arrested three juveniles Thursday night who were accused of going room to room at Hamilton Middle School looking for electronics.
“They did this because they thought no one would be paying attention,” district spokesman Terry Abbott said. “We are amazed it was happening even before the storm.”
Thankfully, Texas isn't the District of Columbia.
UPDATE: KPRC-2 story on looting
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 07:38 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Back to the bayou
KTRK-13 just threw it back to Deborah Wrigley at Braes Bayou.
It's still mostly empty, just like it was last time we blogged on this.
That's hardly surprising, since it really hasn't started raining yet in this area.
The news is REALLY slow right now. And honestly, we're thankful for that.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:28 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Beautiful sunset
I'm looking out of a window facing west, and watching a beautiful sunset.
The cloud cover is above, but not that far west just yet.
From earlier forecasts, I expected it to be much worse by now. Houston looks to be spared from the worst-case scenario, but our friends to the east look to be in for a tough time of it tonight.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:08 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (4)
KPRC talks with Judge Eckels
KPRC-2 has Judge Eckels on, and he's answering questions.
Some of these question that people have called in with have been amazing.
Here's one:
I'm in West Houston, and just wondering when I can go back to Clear Lake?
Judge Eckels and Mayor White have been very patient answering questions like this. In contrast, they make me hit my hand on my forehead and wonder just how stupid people can be. That's one of many reasons that I have a little hobby blog and Robert Eckels is running county government. :)
The judge did just praise FEMA for their cooperation with Houston/Harris County authorities.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:01 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Looking dark in Galveston
KRIV-26 just threw it down to a camera in Galveston.
It's looking pretty black down there, resembling dusk. Since it's still pretty light up here in the Sharpstown area, it looks as if the really heavy cloud cover has hit the island.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 06:52 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
KTRK: Hey, lookee here at the empty bayou
KTRK-13's Deborah Wrigley is out on Braes Bayou reporting duty at the moment.
That may become interesting later, but right now there's not much to say. The bayou is at a trickle, the clouds are gray, there's some wind, and there are a few sprinkles.
Houston-area bayous are liable to be much more of a problem tomorrow.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 06:32 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Tim Heller sounds a little sad
KTRK-13 meteorologist Tim Heller seems finally to be conceding that Galveston/Houston probably aren't going to take a direct hit from Rita.
While he's been dutifully putting up the computer models (which started to move impact to the east two days ago), for the past few days he's also insisted on inserting a line that extrapolated Rita's "impact" from the current track and simply "straightlined" the storm right into Galveston/Houston.
It looks as if he's finally going to retire that dotted line. Good riddance.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 06:26 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
Crazy: Hanging at a seawall bar, watching the storm
KHOU-11 just showed at least several dozen people in Galveston at some bar near the seawall, hanging out, waiting for the storm to arrive.
I guess if you don't have the good sense to get off the island, you ought to be at a bar having a drink.
I wonder if the bar will still be there tomorrow?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 06:16 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
First rain in the Sharpstown area
We just got a few seconds of really hard rain out in the Sharpstown area.
Now it's stopped, and things have gotten very still.
We're right on the verge of this thing getting underway in a big way.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 05:45 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (5)
Houston Zoo = Noah's Ark
Here's how the Houston Zoo is keeping its residents safe:
The Houston Zoo has turned itself into a type of Noah's Ark.
Animals of all sorts banded together as Houston prepares for Hurricane Rita. Picnic benches, garbage cans and other potential flying objects were fastened and secured. A protective fence is in place around the carousel.
Zoo spokesman Brian Hill says animals have been given some unusual accommodations. Geese, ducks and chickens roomed together in one of the zoo men's rooms, which don't have windows.
Turkeys were weathering the hurricane in a women's rest room.
Maned wolves and ant-eaters were shacking up with the tenants of the Siberian tiger section.
I hope one of our local media outlets will do a more in-depth story after all this is over, because I'd love to know what arrangements were made for the rest of the Zoo's inhabitants.
UPDATE: KHOU-11's story has a couple of pictures.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 05:34 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
HISD assists with evacuations -- again
HISD buses were pressed into service again, this time helping out with Hurricane Rita evacuations:
HISD's school bus drivers volunteered on Thursday, September 22, in Houston to rescue stranded evacuees from Hurricane Rita.
Here are some of the details of the work:
* A convoy of HISD school buses evacuated 400 senior citizens from the Primrose Del Sol nursing home on Aldine-Bender, taking them to the Amtrak station so they can catch a train out of town.
* HISD buses helped evacuate wheelchair-bound veterans from the Union Station Veteran's Center at Preston and LeBranch.
* HISD buses picked up wheelchair-bound patients from Tranquility Personal Care Center on Poco, and Unlimited Care Center on Glen Pines, taking them to Sam Houston Raceway, where they are being organized in the grandstand area and then evacuated from Houston.
* HISD may soon send buses to the George R. Brown Convention Center because of reports that evacuees are gathering there and need transportation.
This came about due to a request from Mayor White's office:
HISD received an emergency call from the mayor's office near midnight Wednesday, September 21, asking for school buses to help in the evacuation. HISD transportation officials quickly contacted the district's school bus drivers, and 150 of them volunteered for the job.
RELATED: HISD buses help with New Orleans evacuation (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 04:37 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
I-45 evacuees sheltering in The Woodlands
Tom Kirkendall posts a plea for bedding for just-opened shelters in The Woodlands:
Because of the traffic associated with Hurricane Rita, our local high schools (McCullough, TWHS, College Park) have opened as shelters. They are in need of bedding. If you have bedding available, please drop it off directly at the schools.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 02:51 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
2.7 million evacuated
On KTRK-13, Tom Abrahams just said that 2.7 million residents moved inland. That's HALF the population of Galveston/Houston/Harris County.
Wow! That explains the gridlock.
UPDATE: KPRC-2 story
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 12:41 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
Local radio simulcasting (updated)
In addition to streaming their feeds online, local TV news broadcasts are available on the radio.
KHOU-11 lists its radio partners as KHJZ 95.7 FM, KIKK 650 AM, KILT 100.3 FM, KRBE 104.1 FM.
KRIV-26 is simulcasting on KSEV 700 AM.
(I'll update with KPRC-2's and KTRK-13's simulcasting partners when I find that info.)
And of course, KTRH 740 AM has been wall-to-wall with excellent Hurricane Rita coverage.
UPDATE: A kindly emailer tells me that KTRK-13 is simulcasting on KUHF 88.7 FM.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 08:40 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
A little pre-Rita levity
Don't miss Ken Hoffman this morning:
It's perilous times like these that make me realize what is truly most important in my life: my big-screen TV.
I'm going to be that knucklehead sitting on the roof with a gun on his lap, surrounded by his 28 cats, perhaps a goat, and his complete collection of Sports Illustrated magazines.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/23/05 07:55 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
Like clockwork (with updates!)
Guess what useless D.C. politician is posing for photos at the morning press conference of our can-do hurricane-management leaders Mayor White and Judge Eckels?
Yes, that would be Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
One wonders what took her so long, although perhaps she waited until the first day that national media was likely to pick up the press conferences of our local hurricane management team.
The contrast between our local can-do political leadership and the Queen making her usual mad dash for the camera couldn't be greater.
UPDATE: The Queen has returned for the 9:00 am press conference. As in the earlier press conference, the people who are actually doing useful work (the mayor and judge) didn't bother to introduce the grandstanding pol from D.C.
UPDATE 2: KTRK-13's Miya Shay just interviewed Jackson Lee. I wish the local media wouldn't encourage her. At this point, she needs to get OUT OF THE WAY of the Houston/Harris County team that's doing important work.
UPDATE 3 (Anne): KRIV-26 is interviewing her now (9:30 a.m.) and she is saying that she will be asking the state emergency director to get involved. She says she is assessing the situation and is consulting with FEMA to make sure the feds are involved. She is also checking on the status of shelters.
I wonder why Mayor White and Judge Eckels haven't thought of these things? Good to know SJL is on top of the situation. Houston/Harris County residents can breathe easier.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/05 07:17 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
22 September 2005
It's about leadership, and we got it (updated)
Hurricane preps are in full gear in the Linehan house. I am not watching too much of the news (and therefore not blogging) because it's so overwhelming. I have decided instead to clean the house, do laundry and dream up things for my husband to do. (Wolfgang Puck's is closed today.)
I also want to add how lucky we all are to have Mayor White and Judge Eckels in charge. Yeah, we have some chaos and problems, but a huge number of people are evacuating and under the circumstances, it's probably going as well as can be expected.
Thanks also to the many other officials, including Governor Perry, who are working tirelessly to handle an extremely difficult situation.
Take care, everyone.
UPDATE: Thanks to Michelle Malkin for the link. I wanted to explain why I think Harris County and Houston officials deserve praise for their efforts, even though massive gridlock is an obviously big problem right now, so I sent her the following clarification:
There are estimates that more than 1 million people are trying to evacuate. It appears that some people are evacuating who really don't need to be -- they are in areas where they could ride out the storm relatively safely, if they have taken precautions (none of Harris County is under a mandatory evacuation order; residents in flood-prone areas have been asked to voluntarily evacuate). But some Houston city officials have gone on air begging people to get out and then late last night the storm track took a turn for a dead on hit at Galveston/Houston. Plus it was a Cat 5 at that time. It scared the hell out of many people (me included!) and many people probably decided at that time to get out.
AND we had the oh-so-recent Katrina disaster on our minds. How much of Houston/Harris County resources are either not here or have been depleted due to Katrina relief efforts?
Yeah, state officials probably should have opened the contraflow lanes earlier and maybe Houston should not have called for voluntary evacuations til later. But I think all these things piled on together to make this a very difficult situation for Galveston/Houston, where 1 million + people are trying to get out on evacuation routes that were not built to handle that volume of cars. City, county and state officials are trying so hard to save lives -- in direct contrast to NO and LA officials -- and I feel like I have to give them credit for that.
I have no doubt that when this is all over, officials will assess what did and didn't work. But, again, they are TRYING to do the right things and trying to save lives.
UPDATE 2: Jonah Goldberg at NRO's The Corner posts a couple of emails from readers who are also not looking to blame Houston/Harris County officials.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/22/05 12:46 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (6)
21 September 2005
Berry: If you can get out, get out
Councilmember Michael Berry is currently on KPRC-2 with Frank Billingsley.
Berry's advice to Houstonians (not just those under an evacuation order) is a little ominous:
If you can get out, get out.
KPRC's round-the-clock coverage, by the way, has been very good.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/21/05 10:56 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (8)
Let no hurricane get in the way of soliciting
I just got a call on my home phone line from a solicitor with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The fellow asked me if I was still in the Houston area, and if I knew how important it was to support the Texas DPS.
My exact response was, "Dude, are you aware the Houston area is under hurricane evacuation?"
He was, but that didn't seem to slow down his rebuttal or ongoing efforts at solicitation.
It is in incredibly poor taste for the Texas DPS to be pestering Houstonians trying to prepare for a Hurricane, let alone Houstonians on the No Call list.
UPDATE (09-22-2005): I just got this email. Apparently, this telemarketing organization was engaged in fraud:
Hi Mr. Whited,
The Texas Department of Public Safety does not solicit financial contributions from private citizens. DPS is funded from your tax dollars.If you have been contacted by a telemarketing organization representing itself to be the Texas Department of Public Safety, you should know that the DPS receives no financial support from these organizations. Some groups include in their names the terms “Texas Rangers,” “State Troopers,” “Texas Highway Patrol” or “Department of Public Safety.” While some officers may be members of these associations on their own time, these organizations are not affiliated with the DPS. They are private associations raising money to fund their own programs, some of which may benefit officers and their families.
If you have been contacted by an organization that you believe is misrepresenting itself, you can contact the Texas Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division at (800) 621-0508.
For additional information about a particular group, you can contact your local Better Business Bureau, which has information on fundraising organizations and the percentage of donations that actually goes toward helping people or projects.
Tela Mange
Public Information Office
Texas Department of Public Safety
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/21/05 05:53 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (2)
Kirkendall: Don't underreact to Rita
Friend Tom Kirkendall posts some excellent advice today:
As all grizzled veterans of Hurricane Alicia in 1983 know (related Chronicle story is here), this is a serious situation for the Texas Gulf coast and it is time to prepare to batten down the hatches. If you are a relative newcomer to this area and have never been through an intense hurricane before, do not fall into the trap of thinking that the media and others are crying "wolf." This is a deadly serious storm that has the potential to be every bit as devastating to the Texas Gulf coast as Katrina was to the Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama Gulf coast. As destructive as Alicia was in 1983 (it's eye came in on Galveston's West Beach and tore through the middle of Houston on a track that essentially followed I-45), it was a minimal category 3 storm. In comparison, Rita is shaping up to be a much more powerful storm that is comparable to Hurricane Carla, which was a category 4 (winds of 133-155 mph) storm that caused incredible damage to Houston and the upper Texas Gulf coast on September 11, 1961. Carla had the same minimum barometric pressure as the great 1900 storm that killed over 6,000 people in Galveston.
I hope I have gotten your attention.
We're happy to do our part to help Tom get your attention.
Tom's post also contains links to web resources related to Rita, including the Chronicle's excellent SciGuy blog by Eric Berger. Laurence Simon also continues to link to local bloggers at the top of his blog. We'll try to remodel a bit here, and do something similar shortly (probably this evening).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/21/05 09:08 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (21)
20 September 2005
There they go again
Today, the Chronicle editorial board returned to a favorite topic, Hubbert Peak alarmism, with an editorial entitled "Energy crunch: It's coming, the experts say, and much sooner than you think":
Last week two energy experts addressed the World Affairs Council of Houston. Matt Simmons, a Houston investment banker, and J. Robinson West, founder of a Washington-based consultants group, warned that soon global oil and gas production will be in irreversible decline. The reason an exact date cannot be known is that the data on nationally held fields and reserves, such as those in Saudi Arabia, are kept secret.
Those are two "experts," yet the Chronicle chooses to portray their alarmism as a consensus view.
It's not a consensus view. As I've pointed out previously, a more celebrated authority (Daniel Yergin) has come to very different conclusions than the Hubbert Peak alarmists. And as a result of the IHS Energy acquisition of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Yergin does have access to the world's foremost oil and gas E&P database, so one might regard his perspective more highly than that of two "experts" who admit they don't have access to data on Saudi Arabia.
The Chronicle editorialists may be enamored with the Hubbert Peak alarmists -- just as the editorialists have previously been enamored with nonexistent treaties and a false history of the Middle East -- but their alarmism is hardly a consensus view. It shouldn't be presented as such.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/20/05 11:04 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (16)
Evacuees find Metro's bus service slow, confusing and inconvenient
Check out the beginning of this Bill Murphy story in the Chronicle:
In New Orleans, Earl Kellup lived in Uptown and never had to wait too long to catch a bus.
After about three weeks in Houston, he said he has learned that buses don't run all that frequently on some routes and that he may have to walk a ways to get to bus lines.
"It ain't like in New Orleans. You could get on a bus in 20 minutes," he said.
Mr. Kellup should live downtown so he could use the 7.5 miles of light rail.
More than 100 senior citizens driven from their homes by Katrina have been set up in apartments at the Primrose Casa Bella senior complex on Airline.
A bus runs along Airline, but evacuees are still trying to figure out where it goes.
[snip]
Kellup, 27, who worked at Wal-Mart in New Orleans, was placed in an apartment in the Longboat Key complex in southeast Houston. He said he can walk to a bus stop, but it's a bit of a hike.
How much better would these new Houstonians have been served if Metro hadn't gone on a wild bus route-cutting spree over the past year?
And then we get another example of why Metro counts boardings and not paid ridership:
Metro has provided evacuees at no cost more than 10,000 seven-day bus passes, said the agency's spokesman Ken Connaughton. Another 10,000 passes are available.
Evacuees who ride the light-rail train haven't been charged, he said.
If the buses are inconvenient and slow, people aren't going to want to ride them, especially when the free passes expire.
RELATED: Hello? Anyone home at Metro? (bH), Rad Sallee exposes how Metro ill-serves those who depend on it (bH), Metro's new budget available for viewing; public hearing Sept. 21 (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/20/05 11:44 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
19 September 2005
Envision Houston Region workshops underway
In his Move It column today, Rad Sallee reports on the Envision Houston Region workshop that took place at the University of Houston over the weekend.
Local anti-zoning activist Barry Klein is quoted in the story:
Barry Klein, president of the Houston Property Rights Association, said he is both "hopeful and apprehensive" about such exercises.
"I expect to see recommendations for some land-use codes to be relaxed, which is good from the point of view of a property-rights advocate," Klein said. "But I also worry that we will see suggestions for new controls on property owners to try and push growth next to rail stations.
"That, of course, brings up the prospect for zoning, which our group successfully led the fight to oppose," he noted.
More information on the workshops is available on the Envision Houston Region website.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/19/05 11:47 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Texans dump offensive coordinator Palmer
The Chronicle's John McClain reports that the Houston Texans have fired offensive coordinator Chris Palmer, who has held the position since the birth of the team.
Replacing Palmer will be offensive line coach Joe Pendry, according to McClain:
Pendry, a long-time NFL coach who was previously offensive coordinator at Carolina and Buffalo, will try to develop some consistency in an offense that has been unproductive against the Bills and Steelers, the two best defensive teams in the NFL last season.
Interestingly, Pendry was fired by Capers after the 1997 season at Carolina. Although, it was never confirmed, there was speculation that Panthers owner Jerry Richardson made Capers fire Pendry, who was under fire because his offense was too conservative and unimaginative.
The offense was horrid in the first two games of the season, and it was easy to make Palmer the scapegoat and fire him, but the team suffers from a lack of overall talent (which is Charley Casserly's responsibility) and an offensive line that has been terrible since the team has existed.
Promoting the man responsible for the offensive line the last two seasons and a man once fired for being unimaginative on offense to offensive coordinator is unlikely to result in a team turnaround, but it was the easy move for a team that fans were booing noticeably on Sunday.
McClain wr